Meeting Summary, 7/3

What we talked about today:

  • Briefly touched on @lessbloat‘s post about an advisory group. We should discuss that more right there in the comments of that post, especially if you are linking to resources. Basic consensus is that it’s a great idea.
  • The things we’ve observed and learned from the three user tests that have been done so far. @lessbloat is also going to run some tests focusing on the CMS-type tasks. We discussed low hanging fruit as well as bigger things we can approach, whether for 3.5 or 3.6. More details on those will come in follow up two separate discussion posts. We need to be disciplined about being data-informed rather than data-driven (especially in these small sample numbers), the prioritization of tasks, and being realistic about effort levels and commitments.
  • Pre-flight checklists for things that should always have eyes on them before a release, or rather, before a cycle nears betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process.. This includes things like the about page and welcome panel as well as process lists for things like patch review/testing. Ideally we’d formalize a few of these. As @jane said, checklists save lives, really!
  • A very quick discussion about the process of 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. in WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., from design-y side things like graphics and mockups to turning them into TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. tickets and code/plugins/patches. We need to get back to the way things were/supposed to be and dig up an old post on the process. Briefly, this means that design iterations can happen right here on Make UI rather than Trac, as Trac can be intimidating for some folks and often does devolve into linear discussions about details and code. As a team repTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts., I (@helenyhou) will be happy to summarize for #wordpress-dev chats or on Trac as crucial points are hit. For those who aren’t as comfortable with code and/or SVNSVN Apache Subversion (often abbreviated SVN, after its command name svn) is a software versioning and revision control system. Software developers use Subversion to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation. Its goal is to be a mostly compatible successor to the widely used Concurrent Versions System (CVS). WordPress core and the wordpress.org released code are all centrally managed through SVN. https://subversion.apache.org/., we should buddy up in pairs or small teams and work together to get working code and then turn that into a patch. For example, a design and front-end type can work with a dev proficient with SVN to get their idea turned into a nice clean patch, or a design-type can work with a dev who’s still learning about contributing along with a seasoned contributor. Again, I’ll facilitate folks getting set up to work together as needed, but since we’re all very friendly, there’s a good chance it’ll happen naturally. There are also going to be clearer paths for discussion and review.

I would like to note here that we encourage plugins for proposals that involve UI changes because not all people (or realistically, the minority of people) know how to apply a patch or have an environment in which to do so. 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, whether or not it’s actually in the .org repo, is a better way to get non-coding types to have a go at testing. I think this is sometimes not well communicated or understood and can come across as a brush-off, so I thought I would write it out here again.

Things to do:

  • Discussion posts here on Make UI – coming shortly. These are going to function sort of as writing prompts.
  • Yet another survey post about contributors so we can have a reference point for teaming up.
  • We should write up some documents like “Getting Started with Contributing to the UI Group”, guidelines for things like QA/testing, RTL, and accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility), and some of those checklists mentioned above. Remember that we strongly encourage iteration 🙂

#meeting-summary, #summary

Meeting summary, May 8

We made quite a bit of progress on creating unified CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. Coding Standards, which continue to be documented on this Codex user page. We are currently seeking comment format suggestions, especially for section headers and flag methods for ease of searching/navigating. Please leave suggestions as an edit of the Codex page in the Comments section, and sign your proposal (just so we avoid accidentally editing somebody else’s work). We are teasingly calling it a homework assignment 🙂

We’ll also need to remember to update the table of contents for wp-admin.dev.css at some point.

Finally, don’t forget to take the UI Contributor Survey that @jane posted. She makes a very good point about what the various areas of 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. are and that newcomers are often put off if the focus of the moment is outside their comfort zone.

#meeting-summary, #summary

Meeting summary, May 1

CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. Coding Standards

The real goal for today was defined as collecting examples of other CSS style/standard guides (perhaps especially in regards to property ordering) and identifying what exactly needs to be standardized. Thoughts are currently being collected on this Codex user page. We should work on it throughout the week and then at next week’s chat discuss any dividing points and find a path to agreement. Standards will help us with future maintenance and creating/reviewing patches, so while a clean up may not necessarily be undertaken just to meet standards (much like PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. https://www.php.net/manual/en/preface.php. code bits are not patched just to space out some parens), we can adhere to them as we do other CSS tasks.

CSS Clean Up

This sort of work really has to happen 3.5-early(-early) after the stylesheets settle but before they start moving again. A good approach may be to assign sections of the giant admin sheet or other smaller sheets to individuals/teams to comb through and clean up based on yet-to-be-determined guidelines. There is likely quite a bit of unused CSS in the stylesheets, but care will need to be taken to absolutely ensure that something isn’t being used before removal. azaozz also suggested that we also strive to have all basic HTMLHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites. elements “work out of the box” in the admin by declaring general styles for tag selectors. If this is done, we should also make sure we look through the rest of the CSS and remove declarations wherever we can. wp-admin.dev.css is a monstrous 8000+ lines – let’s try to get it leaner wherever we can.

Proposed Color Merge

I proposed something that’s been briefly discussed here and there, which is the merge of colors-fresh (gray) into the main wp-admin stylesheet. There are some very valid concerns here regarding actual maintainability that need to be thought through. It seems that the real first step here is to get colors-fresh and colors-classic (blue) synced up again. Ideally, making changes in the two would happen on the same numbered line, which doesn’t currently seem to always be happening. A possible merge should either not significantly bloat wp-admin.dev.css or actually make it smaller, thanks to shorthand properties. Whether or not this happens, though, one of our goals for 3.5 should be to work with the accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) group to create a high contrast theme for the admin.

#meeting-summary, #summary

Resurrecting these This chat normally takes place on…

Resurrecting these! This chat normally takes place on Tuesdays, but was postponed due to some storm difficulties.

Reminder: Freeze is in two weeks. Responsive admin is our highest priority right now.

Responsive Admin – #18198

  • Discussed some webkit bugs when styling the admin. @saracannon is looking onto resolving.
  • Newcomers hhsandi and sabreuse will be looking into styling list tables. Welcome!
  • @azaozz recommended a focus an tablet optimisation for 3.3. Still keeping an eye on mobile, but some editor issues may prevent full optimisation for 3.3.
  • Discussed the problem of TinyMCE compatibility.
    • Since iOSiOS The operating system used on iPhones and iPads. doesn’t support contentEditable, almost no WYSIWYGWhat You See Is What You Get What You See Is What You Get. Most commonly used in relation to editors, where changes made in edit mode reflect exactly as they will translate to the published page. editors will work. iOS5 may be released before 3.3 and is slated to support contentEditable.
    • Will need to style tMCE buttons to be optimized for touch. Anyone on iOS5 welcome to help test :]

Menu Flyouts – #18382

  • Currently in trunk. Yay @koopersmith. Any 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. improvements/suggestions welcome.
[New User] Experience

 

View the IRC Logs for this chat. 

 

#meeting-summary, #summary

Jane was without internet today and John…

Jane was without internet today and John was traveling, so there was no official meeting. Here are some things to think about for next weeks meeting:

  • We should have 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 for the full screen/distraction-free editor to test in the next few days. Will post an update when its available. Test the plugin this week to make sure the 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. is comfortable and we’ll discuss possible improvements at next week’s meeting
  • Looking for a volunteer to inventory the position/location of all the search boxes on WordPress.org so we can start a discussion on standardizing them

PS. There are still open challenges from Trac and some issues logged in previous posts. If anyone wants to revive or take a whack at these, please do.

#summary, #wordpress-org

Summary for March 1st 2011 UI Chat

Limbo chat! Getting ready for 3.2 and figuring out what’s what and who has interest in working on specific projects for 3.2.

  • andewryno – looking at outputting semantic markup through WP settings 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. – working directly with Nacin on this
  • Chexee / saracannon – focusing on visual design tasks (TBC)
  • JohnONolan – will continue his CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. crusade, mostly
  • TECannon – accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) design / docs
  • jsternberg (new member) – interested in some design / CSS tasks

Short review of Chexee’s “Press This” bookmarklet button – concensus leaning heavily towards the left (lighter) buttons and generally towards the top of the list to match browsers and avoid confusion with rounded action-buttons. Some concerns raised over 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. behind the literal meaning of the words “Press This” on a button. Suggestion was also raised for cursor hove state to be a 4-way grabber instead of a pointer to better indicate intended use.

Aiming to have a 3.2 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. roadmap for next week’s meeting.

#summary

Summary for November 23rd 2010 UI Chat

Good meeting today

  • We now have a completed wp-admin.psd (props TECannon, Chexee)
    • Screenshot: http://cl.ly/3MsY
    • Downloadable file: http://cl.ly/3NA9
  • Upcoming 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. tasks will heavily surround Google Code-In
  • All other tasks directed at 3.2 as 3.1 goes into betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process.

#summary

Summary for November 16th 2010 UI Chat

Very light meeting, pretty much everyone was away today – so just a quick check in on progress all round. I spent the evening running through 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. tickets with Nacin.

In the mean time – I want to guage interest for UI contributors who want to learn to use tracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. and do UI patches. If there are a couple of people interested then I’d be happy to do a 1 hour session for designers on how to do all that sort off stuff from the ground up – which could be good for between now and when the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. contributor handbook is published.

Comment below if you think that would be helpful to you.

#summary

Summary for November 9th 2010 UI Chat

Good meeting, a few notes:

  • We’re ignoring daylight savings, meetings will now be 1 hour later so they stay at the same time each week.
  • TECannon and Chexee collaborating to finish the last bits of the 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. group PSDs
  • JohnONolan and Saracannon collaborating to continue CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. refractor efforts
  • Started to discuss a few potential ui group projects for 3.2

#summary

Summary for October 12th 2010 UI Chat

Good meeting today, lots covered:

  • More elements added to 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. elements PSD (props Chexee) http://cl.ly/fc8538e1ac2e4e55f423 – more elements to come:
    • Notifications
    • Icons (Contact Ben Dunkle)
    • Spinners
  • TECannon progressing with other UI PSD (general structure)
  • Blue admin skin progress (props saracannon) http://cl.ly/8e5d3f892fabd8695bcerevisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision. to follow:
    • Deep blue borders + arrow icon for active menu state
    • Mockup w/ dark grey text + arrow icon for active menu state
    • Revised screen options tabs + fav menu
  • Update from JohnONolan (that’s me) on CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. refactor progress (preview: http://cl.ly/2n1C)
    • Only restructure for 3.1 – no code changes
    • Probably only wp-admin.dev.css for 3.1 – this is a big job, so needs a phased approach
  • Tabs, few issues with current approach and proposed alternative discussed – mockups welcome for next week
  • General WP UI plans discussed for future releases

#summary