MP6 feedback: just to start a new thread people can leave comments on, drop one here if you have any MP6 bugs or feedback you’d like to share.

#mp6

Another Friday, another iteration of the plugin that makes even the fauxgo look good and you shouldn’t use. Calling 0.5 “Aureolin” aka #FDEE00, which doesn’t stand for anything just like MP6.

Notifications

Alerts and notifications need more love, but we’ve made a first pass at them. They could be significantly improved if we introduced more classes in addition to .updated. For example; a .successful class added to the notification shown when a post is published or WordPress is updated. When 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 update is unsuccessful, we should use the existing .error class. We could also use .updates when showing that updates are available, or .info when an alert is used to provide don’t-miss information. I’m sure there are more; let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Other miscellaneous notes:

• Stop squinting: WordPress is almost ten years old and needs bigger fonts. We’ve increased the base font size to 14 pixels with nothing smaller than 12 pixels as a rule. We think this has done a lot for legibility, though some areas may still need adjustments.
• Help tabs now match the new active/inactive styles used elsewhere. Props to Joen for this.
• Switched to dashicons for view switches and post format icons.
• Rewrote the Open Sans font rule so it doesn’t interfere with specifically declared fonts used elsewhere (i.e. monospace elements).
• Login simplified.
• Many more small adjustments; see the full revision log for details. (It’s amazing how fast things can move when everyone has commit.)

An experiment within an experiment

As we melt away the layers of aesthetic cruft accumulated over many years, we start to notice more “first world problems” — things that didn’t seem like that big of a deal before because there were more fundamental problems but as we fix those the higher-order problems are more grating.

There’s scope creep, and there’s scope taming — taking the wild beast of scope and conquering it so thoroughly with the coordinated effort of a diverse, unified, and motivated team that Friction and Resistance melt away before you. I was initially skeptical we could tackle the following in MP6, but as our open approach has attracted new people and also more effectively leveraged contributors who might not have as much time I’m proud to announce:

• We’re responsive. We’d originally thought that this was outside the scope for MP6, but a strong initial effort by Andy Peatling convinced us it could be done. We’re adding support page by page so no need for individual bug reports just yet, if you have questions or suggestions please leave them in the comments here.
• There’s a fixed-position menu bar. It only floats if the viewport is taller than the admin menu, and it’s disabled on all smartphones and tablets (except iPads). Users should disable the Floating Admin Menu plugin, if installed. Props to Till Krüss for bringing his plugin into MP6 to enable this functionality.

These are done as sub-plugins within MP6 directories we can easily disable if they get in the way of our coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. goal of creating a new unified aesthetic ready to be in core.

Always forward…

The team will be meeting in #wordpress-ui at April 1st, 2013 1pm CDT to go over this week’s edition and discuss your ideas for the next one. We’ll follow it up with our next release a week from today on April 5.

This week included contributions by Joen Asmussen, Mel Choyce, Ben Dunkle, Isaac Keyet, Till Krüss, Andy Peatling, Samuel Wood (otto), and MT. Many thanks as well to all of you who have commented here and participated in the weekly chat; your feedback has helped shape our work.

#mp6

As a continuation of the work begun in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. for 3.6, I’d like to present you with the first iteration of the MP6 plugin. (Contents may have shifted or settled in shipping.) As it says on the tin, this is not intended for the general public, just for savvy WordPress enthusiasts eager to preview or contribute to a re-imagination of our collective home, wp-admin.

From the base of what was in trunk 3.6 last week, here’s what’s new:

• A visual treatment for the toolbar and menubar that visually unifies the two and reduces clutter.
• Flatter visual styling, with square corners, for tables and grouping elements like .postbox.
• Increased saturation of the traditional WP blue (old vs new comparison: http://cl.ly/image/1X2G3X1Y0y2g ).
• A splash of color to denote the current menu item. (gasp)
• Removed the burnt orange hover state in favor of a lighter blue.
• Single-color icons are now served via an icon font, making them load instantly and look crisp at any zoom factor. (The speed is noticeable on slower connections, like Gogo.) We can also use these for mobile apps.
• Consistent typography for all operating systems by including the Open Sans web font. (Cognizant of complications embedding this could entail.)
• Added padding between links in the menu for easier touch navigation, important as the majority of internet interaction will happen on touch devices within a few years.
• Lightened the page background using white backgrounds for grouping elements and a gray background for the body.
• Removed the large headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes. icons for a cleaner look at the top of the page. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupery

This week included contributions from MT, Joen, Ben, and Otto.

It’s worth noting that we don’t anticipate to support an alternative admin style (blue) like the current admin does, but the simpler visual language and icon font makes it infinitely more flexible for people to customize the color scheme of their admin.

There will be office hours on Monday with MT to discuss next week’s iteration, and then version 0.3 will come out March 15th. Come by with ideas, ruminations, rants, soliloquies, haiku, hex codes, complaints, beard grooming tips, and bike sheds. We plan to continue doing weekly iterations, to try at least one new thing per week, until it’s ready for core. The only constant is change. 🙂

#mp6