Media Grid Update

Media Grid started as a standalone plugin by Shaun Andrews, which was a reimagining of the UIUI User interface as an alternative to the traditional post list view in the Media Library. The argument was that images are the ubiquitous media type in most users’ libraries, so we should provide an interface to browse media visually.

I joined the project in late April, attempting to integrate existing Media modal code. This work was merged into the standalone pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party, and into trunktrunk A directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision.(see #24716) in early June. In the process, I created documentation for the Media code, which is the most comprehensive resource for untangling the Backbone wires in media.

Questions were raised about what problem the grid was solving, so in order to get a more hands-on understanding of user engagement with the Media Library, Jerry Bates performed user interviews. These confirmed our assumption that images are the pervasive media type, but also surfaced the fact that users identify media in different ways – some by the thumbnail, some by what post a media item is uploaded to, some by title.

After a good amount of UXUX User experience/UI chatter in weekly meetings, we decided we could serve users better by making a few changes to the original implementation merged into trunk. We’ve landed on mock-ups for a quick pivot, which I’m working on implementing . I’ll be dropping diffs for y’all JavascriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. Jedis to peruse on #24716, feedback welcome and appreciated. I hope to have merge-ables by Monday morning, and then to progress to user testing.

#4-0, #media