Design chat summary 12th May

Thanks to @zetaraffix for taking amazing notes again, (Slack log).

Attendees: @hugobaeta, @zetaraffix, @designsimply, @mindsize, @ocean90, @voldemortensen, @karmatosed, @mapk, @swissspidy, @celloexpressions, @aubreypwd, @chrissmith.

Agenda

    • Shades of Gray – the neverending story update.
      @hugobaeta has been having a hard time getting the actual list of colors used: cssstats.com needs .css urls to make a list, but wp-admin (at least the one running on make sites) uses a compiled .php, so it can be done manually for every single one. Looking for better ways, @voldemortensen offered to run a grep on trunk and did so before the end of the meeting.There are a few duplicate colors because of comments and stuff, but he narrowed it down from 1082 lines to 314. You can find it here.
    • Shiny updates deep dive. We dug into several issues with this as @mapk guided and summarized issues while asking for more opinions. The following is from that.

      Issue 1.

      There’s a disconnect between installing a 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 from the directory, and then knowing where to go to activate it. Right now, with Shiny Updates, the user installs and the button changes over to “installed”… but there’s not indicator to ‘activate’ it. So we’re exploring ways in which we can have them activate it right from the directory, or something.On the the Plugins > Add screen, Shiny Updates kinda keeps the experience inline with the action, since we no longer have a second screen after you click “Install”, the screen that has a “Activate plugin” link on it, and we’re just doing all the installation directly on the same page, we need a new solution, as ‘activation’ will most likely require a page reload.

      The question now becomes ‘when’ this appears if there are multiple installs inline, we can’t reload the page. But rather than trying to figure out the tech difficulties… I think, our discussion here, it should be around experience.Issue seems to be related to multiple installs.

      Also, the issue seems to also include “why” the process is at the moment so clumsy: why we only install and then activate now? (not to introduce a new flow that will cause domino issues we’re not aware of).

      According to @ocean90, we can’t install and activate at the same time because some plugins are doing redirections on activation and other stuff. Another reason is that new menus won’t be visible until a refresh.

      A possible solution (latest proposal) will be to change whatever was a “install” button, into an “activate” link. @mapk asks for more eyes to be better sure. In particular to see if users manifest issues of morphing button fear.

      @mapk proposes to as initial solution around that to have the ‘installed’ button fade out, and in it’s place show a blue primary button which might offer the visual difference needed to help that issue.

      Here’s the link to the tracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. ticket:
      https://github.com/obenland/shiny-updates/issues/64

      Issue 2
      https://github.com/obenland/shiny-updates/issues/5#issuecomment-218593910

      Trying to figure out what to do with the bunch of buttons that appear at the top of the WordPress Updates page. So far, we’re thinking of dropping the ‘download’ stuff. The ‘update’ button would be inline with the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. software row in the new table. But the ‘re-install’ button needs a home. It seems like an edge case… so I’m proposing we move it to the bottom of that page.Below the updates.

      One suggestion is for it to be a link, not a button (so it’s obviously less relevant) but it’s being that ‘re-install’ is performing an action seems to legitimize it being a button, as in general links are for changing views.

    • #33007: Add a dashboard widgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. that encourages users to translate WordPress. Looking for a general feedback/opinion on that, so please add your thoughts to the trac.
      Interesting to know how the preferred language is established.
    • User testing handbook page: we now have one thanks to @designsimply. She lead us through this and the following is in her words. A little background:
      • my goal was to make it short but still prescriptive enough to really encourage people to get started (think low barriers to entry)
      • it focuses mainly on a hallway usability testing style because I think that will get the max return for the least effort for this group
      • purposely didn’t mention paid tools like UserTesting.com because the context is open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. & volunteer I’m thinking of adding another, more detailed page at @karmatosed‘s suggestion. This page compliments the main User Testing page and is intended to give more detail and tips once someone has made it past the hurdle of getting started with testing. You can find it here.
  • Open discussion: we had only a minute so nothing else came up.

Next week @hugobaeta will be leading the meeting. Thanks all who came and don’t forget we have this meeting every week, same time and same 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/. channel.

#weekly-design-chat