Want to get involved? See the handbook and optionally drop into #design to chat. Most active design work happens in the block editor project, consider dropping into Needs design or Needs design feedback.
There’s a WordPress Component Library in Figma. Duplicate to edit, direct access is reserved for the design team.
It’s not uncommon for both existing and potential contributors to feel like they don’t know what to work on. Let’s try listing a few UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing./UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it. items that have come up on wishlists in this post, both as a temporal call for interested parties and to reference later. If you’re interested or have another frequently-requested item in mind, sound off in the comments or join us in the #design channel in the Make WordPress SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..
When changing UX, it’s important to be running user tests and surveys. These can be done lo-fi, such as with index cards or a questionnaire, or as high fidelity as using a functioning 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 a user testing service. It’s also important to assume that it will take multiple iterations to get there and to avoid becoming too attached to a single approach.
When running user tests for post formats during the 3.6 release cycle, one of the most striking observations was that a majority of users had a hard time locating the Publish button at all. Because it’s typically in the top right, it’s possible it’s not on the screen, and is very disconnected from the general content workflow of writing and then publishing. The most common idea is to put the buttons in the bottom bar of the editor, since it pins and makes sense within a writing flow. There are, as always, other considerations to make, such as post types without an editor or various post statuses (another problem in the current box – you can’t actually have a private draft, because it’s the same field in the database). This project would likely involve multiple approaches, storyboards, mock ups, and lots of user testing through all stages.
A lot of strides have been and are being made in the Comment APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. behind the scenes, but we still have a generally dated comment moderation experience, from the list to the edit screen to the moderation screen shown when following a link from notification emails. This is a good project for a team to brainstorm on before attacking: What does a good comment management experience need? How do we accomplish that within WordPress?
There are also some smaller tasks that could be tackled, such as UI improvements. For instance, right now comments are presented with an interface that is very similar to post editing and without much context. What if comments looked and felt like comments while editing (showing an avatarAvatar An avatar is an image or illustration that specifically refers to a character that represents an online user. It’s usually a square box that appears next to the user’s name., a better general layout, etc.)? What kind of contextual information would be helpful to show?
The admin adapts fairly well to small screens. There are some places where what’s critical or important on a given screen is overwhelmed by other items. Some particular offenders are the theme/plugin/media filters, filtering and navigation on content lists, and the additional buttons that often appear next to the “Add Media” button above the editor. The content in those areas stacks up and pushes down the primary content below, sometimes completely off the initial screen. We want UI to direct user focus to what they want or need to be doing, and these particular visual components are major offenders against that.
Tickets: #32558 for the filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. bar, #29989 for the media and related buttons.
