Mark Uraine 6:57 pm on May 19, 2016
Tags: design ( 20 ), plugin directory ( 44 )

Plugin Directory Prototypes

When we created the design for the ‘Get WordPress’ page, it was meant to set a new design standard for WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ sites. As a result, here are here are some new designs for the home page and search results page of the 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 Directory.

Keep in mind that these are still preliminary and the content is not accurate.

Prototypes

You can play around with the prototypes here:

Homepage: http://codepen.io/mapk/full/jqxqbo/
Search Results: http://codepen.io/mapk/full/KzGQKv/

Screenshots

Homepage

Search Results

Notes

Homepage
1. Again, individual plugin information is not accurate.
2. The terminology for “pro” and “light” are explorations for design purposes. (Look for a taxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies. post on this blog in the near future.)
3. The three sections at the bottom will have links to their respective subpages.
Search Results
1. Typing a keyword in the search field will replace the content area with search results.
2. Pagination still needs some work.

We continue to iterate quickly and a second post on the design of the plugin detail page is forthcoming.

If you have any feedback on the design, please comment below. We’d love to know what you think! 🙂

#design, #plugin-directory

Pippin Williamson 7:00 pm on May 19, 2016

I really like these.
Ulrich 7:07 pm on May 19, 2016

This are really nice. I don’t think we need the slider.
- janw.oostendorp 11:23 am on May 20, 2016
  
  I agree. It depends a bit on the content that is in the slider.
  - Verious B. Smith III 1:29 am on July 29, 2016
    
    Random 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?
Jon Brown 7:12 pm on May 19, 2016

I really don’t like these. At first look I don’t and I’m not just playing devil’s advocate here, let me explain.

First, I’m assuming the homepage design for each 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 carries over to the search results, yes?

The lack of any kind of border around each plugin on the homepage makes it really hard for me to find the data I care about when visually scanning results. I find the current “card” style layout a lot easier to scan visually.

I’ve never liked the idea of a “featured” categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging., I’d be curious if the bulk of users find it help though. Still, don’t like the idea at all of putting that in a slider. Ironically if there _is_ a slider shown on plugin per slide, I’d be onboard with THAT content not having a card/frame/border since it’s not butted up against other plugins the way the grid does.

I did however like the quick link menu to features/popular/favorites/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.. Is that going away?
- Jon Brown 7:32 pm on May 19, 2016
  
  Ok, so now I’m not sure about my assumption on the search results page. If it’s actually cards on off color background like this: https://cloudup.com/c6pazw4BMxR that seems a batter design language then the borderless design shown on the homepage mockup above.
  
  If not… much more white space is needed between things IMHO.
  - Mark Uraine 5:47 pm on May 23, 2016
    
    Just to clarify, the design on the homepage will definitely carry over to the search results page.
- Tom J Nowell 7:40 am on May 20, 2016
  
  +1 sliders and carousels are great at solving political problems and internal squabbles, and terrible for everything else
  
  We’d be better off with something like the top section of the verge with a handful of large tiles or blocks rather than a slider
- Mark Uraine 5:49 pm on May 23, 2016
  
  The ‘quick’ links exist now in context rather than in a sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme..
Zach Tirrell 8:03 pm on May 19, 2016
Certainly the goal here appears to be simplification, which is appreciated, but I wonder if too much has been stripped away. The current site presents the following additional information:
- author (this may only be useful for insiders)
- last updated date
- approximate active installs
- compatible up to version
Personally, I find the “approximate active installs” to be really helpful in picking the right 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 out of search results.
- Samuel Sidler 10:40 pm on May 19, 2016
  
  In thinking through IA for users, I can’t think of how the author, last updated date, or compatible version are useful.
  
  Author, as you said, is only really useful for insiders. The latter two, meanwhile, are already taken into account in the search results. If 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 doesn’t have a recent compatible version, it will move down the list. If it’s too old, it won’t get shown at all (which is the case today).
  
  Active installs is more interesting, but we account for it weighting search results as-is. I actually find it refreshing to not show the active installs as it allows for less-popular plugins to get more downloads. Users will be less likely to click the popular plugins (outside of familiar names) and more likely to find the plugin they actually need.
  
  Does that make sense?
  - Jon Brown 12:49 am on May 20, 2016
    
    Insiders use the directory too and Author is certainly important to me. Given 7 plugins for something if I recognize one of the authors from another 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 I trust, it’s a very important data point. Plus I also often forget the name of a plugin I like but remember “Oh that 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. ordering plugin by Jake”.
    
    Compatible is a different story. Reporting of compatibility is so poor for most plugins that it’s meaningless.
    
    Download count was meaningless, but I find active installs a useful metric. I’d certainly weight ratings (in spite of their issues) and search term relevance much higher than the install number, but I like seeing it and in spite of also wishing it was less important in search result weighting. I’m still blown away when I accidentally stumble upon a plugin with < 1,000 installs that does what I need way better than those with 100,000's of installs. That's always been a great frustration point of the directory, discoverability of anything new.
    
    Updated date only becomes important when active installs is low… I could care less if a plugin with 100,000s installs hasn't been updated in 18 months. If a plugin only has 100 installs _and_ hasn't been updated in 18 months I'd be much more concerned.
    - Samuel Sidler 2:44 am on May 20, 2016
      
      Plus I also often forget the name of 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 I like but remember “Oh that 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. ordering plugin by Jake”.
      
      Aren’t you describing a situation where you search for an author and “avatar” and see the author’s “avatar” plugins first? Search should support this use case, absolutely.
      
      I’m still blown away when I accidentally stumble upon a plugin with < 1,000 installs that does what I need way better than those with 100,000's of installs.
      
      This is exactly the situation I think it’s important to create! And one reason I don’t think we should visibly prioritize active installs. 🙂 This information will still be available, just not in the search results where they’re less interesting and useful. To download, users will still have to visit the plugin detail page (where the download button is) and hopefully do more research at that time as well.
      - Jon Brown 12:13 am on May 21, 2016
        
        Author Search – Actually the user story is more like this:
        
        1. I need that 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./Page Ordering 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 I used before… can’t remember the name of it, but it was by someone whose name I recall
        
        2. Search for “Avatar”
        
        3. Visually scan results and notice that there is a popular one written by Author X which jogs my memory…
        
        Sometimes, yes, I recall the author name up front, but more often I don’t it’s memory that needs the visual indicator in the search results to jog.
        
        Search Results – I’m hopeful the new search result (Elasticsearch) will be more on target, but again I still would rather have much _more_ info directly on the search result page without clicking through. Behavior for me tends to go one of two ways:
        
        1. Review search results, pick one, click through and install it. Once I’ve clicked through I don’t really read much/anything on that single page. Decision already made, based on active installs, ratings, author name. On the search results page currently the most _meaningless_ bit of info is the description excerptExcerpt An excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that plugin’s metabox.. That’s WAY to short to be helpful.
        
        2. Review search results, option click 5 of them and then go about reading the description page, jumping between browser tabs and trying to make a decision… comparing description with screenshots.
        
        Having longer form descriptions on the search results that were actually meaningful, would be a huge help IMHO. If not, eliminating the excerpt in favor of active installs and author name would make sense to me…
      - Joy 2:57 pm on May 22, 2016
        
        To download, users will still have to visit the 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 detail page (where the download button is) and hopefully do more research at that time as well.
        
        You bring up a good point — is this page the same page that users see in the admin, in a lightbox? or are these being designed at the same time? — because from within the Add New Plugin admin panel, you can install without going to the plugin detail page.
  - jeffmcneill 2:37 am on May 20, 2016
    
    When trying to find a particular 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 (that I know exists or existed) or looking for candidate plugins for a particular use, I use all of these criteria: author, last updated, active installs. Last updated and compatible up to are approximately the same, and last updated is more helpful to me.
    
    I agree that active installs is problematic, just as is the star rating. For example, plugins go bad, either through not being updated, or bad updates, and a previous history of downloads and stars does not necessarily help with assessing the current version.
- webaware 1:50 am on May 20, 2016
  
  Agree that author, last updated, and approximate active installs are useful information. I use all three in selecting plugins. Compatible up to version is next to meaningless.
- Jme 9:14 pm on May 20, 2016
  
  Agree 100%. I look to the author, last updated, compatible and active installs EVERY TIME, I search the repo. This is important information that needs to be there.
  - Jme 9:16 pm on May 20, 2016
    
    Just to add – I don’t think I should have to click the 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’s link to find that information that is very useful. I can scan the information that is important to me (and certainly many others) quickly the way it is now.
Awaken Solutions Inc. 12:20 am on May 20, 2016

I like the sharp clean look, thank you!

I would like to be able to see active installs (your point is well taken Samuel, but I personally still like to see it).

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 author(s) is sometimes useful to differentiate plugins with common names (e.g. Maintenance Mode) and to quickly see their profile. But I am not as attached to it as active installs.

Keep up the good work.
- Awaken Solutions Inc. 1:59 am on May 20, 2016
  
  Perhaps you could have a toggle for Simple/Advanced view. Simple could be the default view, allowing you to achieve the minimalist design you’re striving for, while Advanced view could show an extra div for each 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 with the extra info (and the choice could be remembered so that users who prefer this always see it).
  - Samuel Sidler 4:18 am on May 20, 2016
    
    Just like WordPress core, we strive to design for the majority and build features for the 80%. An “advanced” view doesn’t meet that requirement, in my eyes.
    - FolioVision 2:46 am on May 23, 2016
      
      Great idea, Awaken.
      
      Samuel, 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 search is a work tool for most of us. If you want to cripple default, put an advanced view in for those of us at work and not “playing around with a cool blogging tool”. If WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ won’t do reasonable search, I can tell you that the plugin directory will be partially replaced by third party tools (which seems extremely wasteful of everyone’s time when we have a working tool which just needs slightly better search and the design elements brought up to date).
      
      As Mark Root-Wiley notes carefully below WordPress professionals really need this information:
      
      1. last updated
      2. active installs
      
      Personally I very much like to see author name as I know whose work to see and whose work I like to avoid (for either bad code or poor commercial ethics). Authors and brands should get some credit. Author unlike the two above is not make or break.
      
      Where you are right, we could care less about compatibility notices (they are wrong 90% of the time even if Foliovision’s are usually up to date now in what is really a makework project for those of us with more than two or three plugins).
      
      Alec
Joy 1:34 am on May 20, 2016

I don’t see any improvement over the current 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 Directory page. In fact, the current one needs more data points, not fewer. I always want to see the current version number in the list instead of having to click through to the plugin page to see the version.
I agree that the “Compatible up to” field is worthless.

I personally do not like the thumbnails ever since they were added. It makes the list harder to read. If they must be there, move them to the right so that the title is leftmost and easier to find.

One update that is needed is how the search works. Right now, I can type the full name of an old plugin and it does not come up in the search. But lots of unrelated plugins are shown. Just because a plugin is old or has not been updated lately does not mean is not well-written and useful.

I can’t tell if the mockup page is showing where the slider goes and then below is what is in the slider, or if those sections would always be visible. Either way, it is a waste of bandwidth to always show a list of featured, trending, or popular plugins. A slider is overhead for very little use it would get. (See http://wpthemetutorial.com/2014/06/19/online-store-need-slider/ )
The three little paragraphs at the bottom makes it seem that the page is changing focus. Is it the Plugin Directory or just Plugins? (meaning there is more on the developer side to point to)

I also can’t tell if there is a WordPress 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. or menu above the blue Plugins header. If not, there’s a problem.

For the search results, I like how the current page says “Showing 1-30 of 1,000+ plugins” instead of the proposed “Search results for: xxx”. It would be nice if we could choose how many to see, and sort them different ways, or even highlight the words that matched.
- Joy 1:55 am on May 20, 2016
  
  I forgot to mention that 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 Directory should show all the plugins. If the search is weighted against older plugins, how can you ever see them? I think assumptions are made about how the directory is used. Yes, the majority of searches is by site owners needing some functionality. But there are also students learning how to code things in WordPress, plugin authors researching ideas (coverage and competition), and others just poking around to see what has been done.
  
  I think more taxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies. should be used to present the default view of the plugins, and the search should match more closely what is searched for. The tag page ( https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/ ) might not be best but it does give an interesting overall view of the total. If you are adding more taxonomy, please use it so that someone can drill down and see everything that is there.
- Mark Uraine 6:05 pm on May 23, 2016
  
  The section that says “slider” is where the slider would exist. Tom had some great feedback regarding an alternative to the slider above.
  While this is the 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 Directory, it will provide access to other Plugin related content similarly to how it works now.
  Yes, there exists a WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ 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. and footer outside of the content of the mockups.
  I agree, showing more info about how many search results exist is important. We’ll include that as well.
jeffmcneill 2:45 am on May 20, 2016
I would also like to add to the voices that ask for more data, not less. A basic sorting/filtering ability would help a lot. Every time I run into a dead end, I have to search again. Some suggestions:
- Have categories and have plugins put into categories (machine and human sorting). Things like “mailing list plugins,” “contact form plugins,” would help a lot. Of course plugins can be in multiple categories, but the hit-or-miss with tags just doesn’t do it. Being able to search within categories would help a lot.
- Have lists rather than cards as a display option. A list with 100 items would be way more useful to scan than cards, when people are looking for one particular piece of info (such as author or title). Being able to sort on the main columns such as last updated, author, active installs, 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 name. Also, in many cases I am looking for older plugins, the initial commit date would be extremely useful.
- In sum, more information in the interface, a higher level of data-to-ink ratio, and more ability to interact with that data. Display in cards and such is nice, but as currently presented there is less, not more. And in some cases, less is less.
- Mark Uraine 6:07 pm on May 23, 2016
  
  We’re definitely adding categories. https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2016/05/20/taxonomies-in-the-plugin-directory/
  
  List views are an interesting options as well. We’ve been messing around with those.
Maeve Lander 2:49 am on May 20, 2016

I really like these design aesthetic wise. The overall look and feel is clean, spacious and very user friendly.

Constructive critism:

On 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 listing tiles I feel the following fields are essential:
+ author
+ last updated
+ approximate active installs

The homepage slider seems unnessary and not in line with current design trends

On Search Results page I think it needs a search button or icon. Enter key works for those in the know but WordPress 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. needs to cater to all levels.

I would like to see some more advanced filters for search. Perhaps start with an ‘order by’ dropdown?
- Samuel Sidler 3:56 am on May 20, 2016
  
  On 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 listing tiles I feel the following fields are essential:
  
  What makes you feel these are necessary? What information is conveyed that’s important when determining the quality of a plugin?
  
  On Search Results page I think it needs a search button or icon. Enter key works for those in the know but WordPress 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. needs to cater to all levels.
  
  Noted. 🙂
  
  I would like to see some more advanced filters for search. Perhaps start with an ‘order by’ dropdown?
  
  Personally, I’m not a fan of filters. It’s more useful if you can search for specific things and the search knows what you’re looking for.
  
  One thing that’s great about us redoing the plugin directory – and it being 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. – is we can keep iterating and anyone can help add features, if it’s determined they’re right for the 80/20 case. 🙂
  - Adam W. Warner 1:53 pm on May 20, 2016
    
    Reading through and wanted to offer my reply why I think the following are necessary.
    
    + author
    + last updated
    + approximate active installs
    
    These all play into the trust factor for me.
    
    Author – If I’ve seen the same Author several times when searching for or using plugins in the admin, when I see that same Author listed on something new I’m considering, I would be more likely to give it a go.
    
    Last Updated – is it actively developed? = trust
    
    Active Installs = follow the masses = trust
  - Maeve Lander 6:56 am on May 22, 2016
    What makes you feel these are necessary? What information is conveyed that’s important when determining the quality of 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?
    
    *Author – helps me recognise a trustworthy author (maybe I’m familiar with their work, or their community contributions, or reputation etc) and helps me recall / differentiate plugins with similar names at a glance.
    
    Last Updated – gives me a clue if the plugin is under active development
    
    Approx Active Installs – gives me a clue as to how popular / well used the plugin is.
    
    I accept that none of these things are definitive proof of a good quality plugin… but taken together all these small signs ARE meaningful when searching and filtering the plugin directory.
    
    Personally, I’m not a fan of filters. It’s more useful if you can search for specific things and the search knows what you’re looking for.
    
    I think the new taxonomies you’re proposing in another thread serve the same aim as filters – a way for users to cross-reference search keyword with other criteria.
    
    I’m a definite +1 for the taxonomies but I do also still think that users should have the control to list by last updated date, active installs, rating etc
- Paal Joachim Romdahl 8:40 pm on May 22, 2016
  
  +1
jeffmcneill 2:58 am on May 20, 2016

I’ve got to say that the Light and Pro (and normal) are unclear. Pro usually means paid in the world of plugins, so I think it may be misleading. Saying Contact Form 7 is light also is not quite clear, as there is no Pro version (or is there?).

Also, I vote against the slider. Sliders don’t work https://www.google.co.th/search?q=sliders+dont+work
- Samuel Sidler 3:15 am on May 20, 2016
  
  Please see notes 1 and 2 under “Homepage.”
Thomas Townsend 4:33 am on May 20, 2016

I do like the clean design aesthetics – but I also would rather have more information, not less. Don’t delete any of the current data that’s being provided. Make it indexable and searchable by keywords,categories install numbers and rating. Those are all important to users and developers alike.
Milap 5:52 am on May 20, 2016

Wow, neat and clean interface. Loved it.
Golam Samdani 6:26 am on May 20, 2016

Nice.. Liked it …
Robin W 7:38 am on May 20, 2016

Like the general design. I Have to add votes for 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 author, last updated, and active installs- if I like a plugin by an author, I am far more likely to choose another by them, and their thought processes will be like mine. Users of my 7 plugins have said that they look for me as an author when choosing further plugins. Last updated tells me that this plugin is active, and whilst it may be that WP sorts plugins by some populatiry criteria I didn’t know this – you don’t publish the search sort order criteria so how am I siupposed to know why the results appear as they do???? 🙂 I also don’t know for a group of plugin results whether the first is 10,000 active installs and the second 3 active installs, or the first 10,000 and the second 9,999. I would also say that ‘featured’ has always put me off – it smacks of some sort of paid advertising which whilst I know it isn’t, I suspect many ‘ordinary’ users think is a paid area.
Rene Hermenau 8:31 am on May 20, 2016

@mapk From a developer perspective there are too many points missing: Author, Active Installs, Compatible, and Last Update are very important fields to find best suitable plugins.

We need these fields as long as we have no advanced search functionality that allows us to 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. the search results for these properties. So these ones should not be removed!

No one wants to click on a search result only to see on the plugins page that the 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 was updated 1 year ago or does not support the current WP version.

The WordPress plugin search is not popular for the power of showing very relevant search results so the 30 results per page should be kept.

I like the prominent search field but can not see a reason for a slider. That thing is from the last decade:)

Anyway, good to see the continuous progress, i better like to see progress than standstill so i welcome a new design at all. Thanks for sharing the mockups and letting us participate on the development.
- Mark Uraine 6:23 pm on May 23, 2016
  
  Thanks! Your voice is being echoed through many of the replies. I will note that the search functionality is being upgraded to resolve this.
NateWr 9:19 am on May 20, 2016

Great work on the aesthetic. I think you’re moving in a great direction.

I share a number of the concerns that have been voiced here around clarity and usefulness of the data that is presented (or not presented). But having been through a these kinds of redesigns myself, I know there’s a lot that goes into the decision-making process and it’s not always easy to see that from the outside.

Has there been any document generated that outlines the goals of the redesign, or contains personas specifying target audiences and needs? I’d be really interested to see who and what this redesign is targeting, as I feel like most of my concerns stem from there rather than the particularities of what you’ve presented (which looks great).

One specific point I would raise, though, is that the plugins without badges look like they’re lacking something. This may be the wrong message to send if what is really meant is “this is totally free and without any extra payment requirements or dependencies”.
- Mark Uraine 6:45 pm on May 23, 2016
  
  I hear ya. That’s why I’ve been very open about the progress of this redesign from the get-go.
  Here: https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2016/03/01/thinking-about-the-plugin-directory-ia/
  And here: https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2016/04/02/plugin-directory-design-direction/
  
  I’m extremely excited to get all feedback from every point of view. There have been meetups with other designers, along with a lot of 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/. conversations around these points. Thanks for your feedback and mockups too!
  - NateWr 9:13 am on May 24, 2016
    
    Thanks Mark, those posts are helpful, as was the project overview which someone pointed me to:
    
    https://make.wordpress.org/meta/plugin-directory-version-3/
    
    I appreciate this is still early days. I think the big area of contention will be the search results view, because that will have a pretty huge impact on a lot of us. At some point, I’d love to see a response to some of the concerns raised hear that clearly communicates the thinking going into the content decisions. I know that you and Samuel have done bits of this throughout the comments here (thanks for the responses!) but a post with a consolidated articulation of how these concerns have been considered within the team would be much appreciated.
NateWr 10:03 am on May 20, 2016
A couple of ideas on the aesthestic side of things.

I find filled/un-filled stars to be difficult to parse when they’re all a bright color on a light background. At a glance it all looks like 5-star ratings, even if it’s a 2-star rating, because the orange on white lines are not very crisp on un-filled stars.

The following CodePen mocks up a couple of ideas for dealing with that.

http://codepen.io/anon/pen/xVoWQW
- ACF uses light grey for un-filled stars, so that there’s one more point of distinction between filled and un-filled stars.
- Really Simple CATPCHA offers an alternate approach that uses bars instead of stars. It also proposes a way to get active installs in there in a bit more of an at-a-glance presentation.
On a separate note, I felt the badges (light/pro) had a really heavy visual weight. The CodePen above shows a possible alternate presentation that’s a bit lighter (Really Simple CAPTCHA).
- Samuel Sidler 4:19 pm on May 20, 2016
  
  Thanks for the mockup!
  
  ACF uses light grey for un-filled stars, so that there’s one more point of distinction between filled and un-filled stars.
  
  I don’t think this is necessarily a bad idea, but it’s inconsistent with how coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. does it… Which doesn’t mean it can’t change! But we have to consider both contexts in the medium term. It certainly doesn’t look bad. 🙂
  
  Really Simple CATPCHA offers an alternate approach that uses bars instead of stars. It also proposes a way to get active installs in there in a bit more of an at-a-glance presentation.
  
  It’s an interesting approach. It reminds me of a progress bar, fwiw, which isn’t really the information we’re trying to convey.
  
  For example, 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 authors aren’t necessarily trying to have millions of users (think of multisiteMultisite Multisite is a WordPress feature which allows users to create a network of sites on a single WordPress installation. Available since WordPress version 3.0, Multisite is a continuation of WPMU or WordPress Multiuser project. WordPress MultiUser project was discontinued and its features were included into WordPress core.https://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network.-only plugins), and conveying the active installs like that almost makes it seem bad that they haven’t reached that level. The active install metric also doesn’t speak at all to the quality of a plugin.
  
  On ratings, I think the above is also true, though arguably less so. Once a plugin author gets a 1-star review, they can never get fill that bar, which would kind of suck.
  
  On a separate note, I felt the badges (light/pro) had a really heavy visual weight. The CodePen above shows a possible alternate presentation that’s a bit lighter (Really Simple CAPTCHA.
  
  Interesting concept and I think it’s worth exploring in another iteration. I’m glad you noticed that those terms aren’t final and played around with your own. 🙂 Look for a post on taxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies. here on make/metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. in the not-too-distant future.
  - NateWr 4:40 pm on May 23, 2016
    
    > it’s inconsistent with how coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. does it
    
    Ah of course. The directory should mimic core wherever possible.
    It reminds me of a progress bar, fwiw,
    
    It does! Good thinking. Here’s a mockup showing an alternate presentation which reduces the visual echoes of a progress bar by removing the grey background bar.
    
    http://codepen.io/anon/pen/YqmYdK
    For example, 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 authors aren’t necessarily trying to have millions of users (think of multisiteMultisite Multisite is a WordPress feature which allows users to create a network of sites on a single WordPress installation. Available since WordPress version 3.0, Multisite is a continuation of WPMU or WordPress Multiuser project. WordPress MultiUser project was discontinued and its features were included into WordPress core.https://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network.-only plugins), and conveying the active installs like that almost makes it seem bad that they haven’t reached that level.
    
    My assumption is that in a large number of cases people are going to be comparing like for like plugins. On the upper end they’re going to be looking for one of a set of well-established plugin types (eCommerce, SEO, security, contact forms, etc). On the lower end they’re going to be looking for more of a niche plugin (reviews, bookings, mailchimp integrations, etc).
    
    In each case, an active installs bar acts as a useful _relative_ metric. All search results could be in the 5-20k range and it would still provide a useful at-a-glance indication of a plugin’s popularity. This assumes the bar used the active install stages (100+, 1k+ 10k+) as meaningful segments, rather than just using 10k = 1% width.
    The active install metric also doesn’t speak at all to the quality of a plugin.
    
    This is why a clear document outlining the goals and assumptions behind the redesign would be really useful. I think a lot of the feedback so far would take issue with this statement, but it’s hard when such assertions are buried in one-off comments like this rather than made explicitly in a document alongside other goals and assertions regarding user behaviour, preferences and information.
    
    I believe active installs deserve a place alongside ratings as the _most useful_ metrics we have and the most difficult metrics to game. I’ve outlined the problems that I think star ratings have as an at-a-glance metric (they cluster near the top so the user is often looking at a dozen plugins with 4-4.5 ratings).
    
    You’re right that active installs grant a certain power of incumbency. And we can dispute whether this incumbency is deserved on a plugin-by-plugin basis. But this incumbency is often hard won over many years. It may not be perfect, but it’s the closest thing we have to long-term validation of a plugin’s continuing usefulness and maintenance record.
    
    It speaks of a plugin’s presence, which is a really meaningful metric in a sea of fire-and-forget offerings in the directory.
    
    (I don’t know if I’ve used the right in-line markup techniques so apologies if the quotes don’t come out as quotes.)
Nathan Johnson 3:55 pm on May 20, 2016

Please don’t use a slider. They don’t work.
Jon Brown 4:24 pm on May 20, 2016

Thinking about the search results page mockup which shows 10 results. I think this should show fewer and larger cards, maybe 5 results where the top result is full width, or 6 at most even they stay equal sized. I think the goal on this page should be giving the searcher all the information they need to make a choice right there without needing to click through each for more detailed info. Further, we should avoid giving them more results then they want or need. Frankly If the best/most relevant result is in the 9th slot, the search algo has failed (hoping the project to improve that succeds)
- Jon Brown 12:34 am on May 21, 2016
  
  1+4 2 column mockup: http://codepen.io/jb510/pen/MyMxLJ
- Joy 5:30 am on May 21, 2016
  
  With 40,000 plugins, it would be a rare search that only 5 are good results.
  Using the current search, I often search and find lots of matches on page 2 or 3 or 5. And usually, I end up installing several before finding the one for my client’s situation. Or I download several to look at the code.
Greg Ichneumon Brown 9:22 pm on May 20, 2016
A couple of ideas on the search page:
- How about instant search results? Search as the user types. The backend should be able to support it. That also gets rid of the need for a search button.
- Rather than paging through search results, let’s just do infinite scroll. Good way to enable smaller/newer plugins that won’t rank very high to be found. That would also necessitate an easy way to get back to the top of the search box if the user hasn’t found what they want.
- I assume that the “see all” links for Popular, Trending, 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. will all just go to a search results page? Does that imply that those other pages are sorted differently than the main search page? Can you search within that page?
We probably can’t allow paging all the way to the end of the search results. Tends to cause performance problems. The only things that ever do this are bots anyways. Usually good to limit to 200 results.

An additional idea beyond the Popular, Trending (I’m not sure the current data I’ve seen can do this ranking, btw), and Beta categories is to have a list of popular 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 authors. This would be a ranking of plugin authors based on the sum of their installed counts across all their plugins. If you are browsing this seems like a good way to surface quality plugins from people who have already built and maintain high quality plugins.
- Mark Uraine 7:00 pm on May 23, 2016
  
  The ‘instant search’ is definitely something we’re exploring as well. I’m not entirely sure this will be ready for the MVPMinimum Viable Product "A minimum viable product (MVP) is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future product development." - WikiPedia launch, but it is in our sites.
  
  Infinite scroll is a possibility as well.
  
  Yes, ideally you should be able to search within targeted/filtered pages like “trending”.
apsolut 9:33 pm on May 20, 2016
I love bootstrap but masterhead as new WP standars isnt going to work in long term…

Slider = If we are talking about usable thing only slider thing that can work is Card etc like google play and others…

Also why less informations and is there any document (brainstorm,thunderthings) on paper what you want, what is new look and objectives for this new bootstrap thing?

Important: Author, Rating, Version, Last change…

New eCommerce categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging.?

Search results?
- In boxes is there more informations or bigger image
- Mark Uraine 7:03 pm on May 23, 2016
  
  Just to clarify, we’re not using Bootstrap.
  
  Search results page will be displayed the same way the plugins are displayed on the homepage.
  - Joy 2:40 pm on May 24, 2016
    
    I think the assumption that the Plugins landing page shows any plugins is the biggest problem with the redesign. The landing page should show the overview in the form of the new taxonomies, maybe even with counts for each section. You should be able to choose a section to browse or search. The landing page should look totally different than the search results.
    I think it should be approached as if it were a really big store, who wants to show off *all* of its inventory (not just a few).
    - Joy 8:24 pm on May 26, 2016
      
      Here is a mockup of what I think the Plugins Directory should look like, using the tentative list of categories suggested in the TaxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies. post.
      http://codepen.io/anon/pen/PzYWwQ
      As I said in the other post, I think it would make more sense if it showed the part of WordPress being extended, starting with Front-End and Back-End. But that is for the other discussion.
      The Plugins landing page should give an overview of the total and make it easy to drill down.
  - apsolut 8:37 am on May 26, 2016
    
    Didn’t say that you are using BT, but I would be crazy to say it don’t look like it (just another big hero BT thing).
    I expected more, deep thinking of Usability, long term improvements for all users, what if this, what if that….
    - Mark Uraine 4:09 pm on May 26, 2016
      
      That’s great to expect that because that’s the whole point of this post actually. We’re trying to gather EVERYONE’s opinions and thoughts. Do you have some alternative solutions you’d like to share like some of the others?
Ross Wintle 10:00 pm on May 20, 2016

Regarding the author, active installs, and last updated data, the question “What information is conveyed that’s important when determining the quality of 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?” has been asked.

The answer here is “trust”. Plugins are a very weak point of security for WordPress and trusting a plugin is key.

If a plugin is low quality, few people will use it (the inverse is not necessarily true). So active installs is a good measure of trustworthiness.

If I know the community well, I know certain people who care a lot about code quality and security. So if I’m an “insider” then yes, author is a good measure of trustworthiness too.

If I want a plugin to be bug-fixed, secure, compatible with the latest version of coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., and sustainable going forward then yes, last-updates is a good measure of trustworthiness too.

I use these data points all the time. Though, actually, what’s more likely is I’ll use a plugin based on a trusted recommendation rather than what I see in the directory.

I applaud the goal of trying to elimate the self-reinforcing active-installs measure and surface new and less-well-used plugins. But less-well-used could equate to poor quality, insecure, and out-of-date. So while I don’t think removing the data is helpful, I equally don’t know what a good solution to meeting this goal is.
- Joy 5:41 am on May 21, 2016
  
  These data points don’t show if you can trust 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, although I agree that trust is very important.
  Recent updates can mean poor coding (lots of small fixes) or no change (just update to change the compatible version number).
  Low number of installs can mean that the plugin is new or does something nobody wants.
  It helps me to see the version number itself. If it is very low, I will hesitate to install it on a client site. A lot of times, I have to read the change log to see how often the plugin is updated and if the fixes are major or minor.
- Samuel Sidler 12:20 pm on May 21, 2016
  
  If 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 is low quality, few people will use it (the inverse is not necessarily true). So active installs is a good measure of trustworthiness.
  
  If the inverse is not necessarily true – and I agree that it’s not – then how is showing active installs a good measure of trustworthiness?
  
  If I know the community well, I know certain people who care a lot about code quality and security. So if I’m an “insider” then yes, author is a good measure of trustworthiness too.
  
  Those are two big “if” statements that can’t possibly be true for the majority of users. Let’s consider some numbers.
  
  How many WordPress users are there? We know there’s millions of sites (26.4% of the internet!) but we have no way of getting an exact number of individual WordPress users. Let’s guess and say there’s a million people in the world that use a WordPress installation and are able to install plugins (so, discounting WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/, “author” roles, etc).
  
  How many people know the community well, aka, are an “insider”? Well, we can guess a bit better by saying that a large majority of insiders attended a WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. or MeetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area.. We have WordCamp ticket stats from 2015, and meetup stats from 2014. Without even accounting for duplicates – some people attend both meetups and WordCamps, some people attend multiple meetups and/or multiple WordCamps – we’re only at ~40,000.
  
  The plugin directory wasn’t created for 40,000 insiders, it was created for the million WordPress users who manage sites. I think that’s important to consider when considering designs. (See also, the WordPress core philosophy of “design for the majority” and the “80% principe.”)
  
  If I want a plugin to be bug-fixed, secure, compatible with the latest version of coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., and sustainable going forward then yes, last-updates is a good measure of trustworthiness too.
  
  But… why does that make it worth displaying? If a plugin is recently updated, that’s a useful metric. But what is “recent” in that context? The specific date doesn’t seem important, rather that it was within a range. Shouldn’t search account for this when displaying results so users don’t have to think about it? Currently we hide plugins from search if they haven’t been updated within the last 2 years. One way we could improve that is by slowly lowering a plugin’s ranking in the search result the older it gets, until, ultimately, it disappears after some set time limit (again, currently that’s 2 years, but could be any 1 or 5 years or any other interval). Doing that would make it much less important to display.
  - Joy 3:22 pm on May 22, 2016
    
    If the inverse is not necessarily true – and I agree that it’s not – then how is showing active installs a good measure of trustworthiness?
    
    I think the active installs number indicates that 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 is fulfilling its stated objective for a certain number of its users. The number of downloads would be way larger. Maybe a more useful number is a ratio of downloads to active installs, but then a plugin with a lot of updates has more downloads, and more updates does not equate to better plugin. I have a site that I use at least two plugins that are not the most recent version, because the recent versions broke my site. Problems were reported and not addressed, so I use the older versions.
    
    If a plugin is recently updated, that’s a useful metric.
    
    Really, it’s not as useful as everyone here seems to think.
    
    Shouldn’t search account for this when displaying results so users don’t have to think about it?
    
    NO! it shouldn’t. That assumes you know what 80% of your users want, and you just described how you can’t even know how many people that is. A directory of information should provide a way to display that information in an unbiased way and let the humans decide how they want to use it. If that means reducing the number of plugins stored, then that is better than misrepresenting what is there, some of which can’t be found anyway(with the current search). This is the basic premise of why the Google search algorithm is better than the ones that came before it. The first ones let factors like money and influence determine what was shown first on the search.
edanzer 10:00 pm on May 20, 2016

Overall I like the design. I’m not sure I like it a LOT more than the current design, but I like it.

That said, I strongly agree with the thrust of the feedback here that the interface strips out too much data about individual plugins. While you may weigh certain things in the search results, the bigger question is whether users themselves want to use that same data to make their own decisions.

In many cases they do. I know I specifically give weight to active installs and author and last updated date every time I look for 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 in a space where I don’t already have a favorite.

In a sense, you’re trying to make choices for me/for others, and suggesting I don’t need to see certain data because it’s in the algorithm. But honestly, I often find the results that come from the plugin search algorithm very poor. The choices I end up wanting are often buried further down. And those choices are often dictated by things like author, active installs, and last updated date.

You asked further up what it is specifically that people are trying to get from those data points. The answer, I think, is that it’s all about trust and comparisons. All of us triangulate trust by combining and comparing ratings, reviews, size/active installs, author, last updated date, etc.

And this is the crux of the problem: There’s basically zero way to gage trust and compare plugins in the new interface. Well, not zero – you have reviews. But that’s an extremely partial indicator. A plugin with 300 installs that hasn’t been updated in 18 months but has two 5 start reviews left a year ago (probably by the plugin authors) would look great in this interface, but I’d never trust/choose that plugin if I could see and compare more data across plugins.

With this interface, my selection of plugins would be come very cumbersome. The only way to do even a basic comparison would be to open up an individual plugin page and find the data; and then open up another plugin, find the data; and then another and another; and then flip back and forth between plugin pages to compare.

For me the whole point of providing that data in the search results has been to make it more efficient to compare plugins. Indeed, like many others, I’d want to see more data available for scanning in the results, not less.

My sense is you are giving a lot of weight to design and discoverability of new plugins, which are both great, but letting that overrule the way most users actually want to select their plugins.
- edanzer 10:11 pm on May 20, 2016
  
  One other thought – if one of the goals is discoverability of new plugins, I’d think a great way to do that would be to add a ‘trending’ component to 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 statistics. Then show that stat in search results, and use it in the algorithm.
  
  There are a lot of ways to calculate trending or growth statistics. Imagine two plugins with trending/growth statistics like this:
  
  Plugin A: This plugin’s active install base has grown by 835% in the last 6 months.
  
  Plugin B: This plugin’s active install base has declined by 20% in the last 6 months.
  
  It’s worth noting that a % based stat like the above is strongly predisposed to favor new plugins since adding 10,000 users is a big deal if you’re starting at 10,000, and must less big deal if you are starting at 300,000.
  
  In short: I think the way to encourage growth of great new plugins is to find stats that capture their new greatness and add those stats to the search result pages so they influence plugin selection (vs just removing all data so no one can tell, which makes plugin selection almost random).
- Mark Uraine 7:20 pm on May 23, 2016
  
  But honestly, I often find the results that come from the 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 search algorithm very poor.
  
  This is being resolved with the new Plugin Directory.
Mark Root-Wiley 10:14 pm on May 20, 2016

GOALS?

There’s some nice stuff going on here with these designs. As a few others have mentioned, I feel like I’m having a hard time evaluating these designs because I’m not really sure what the goal is (beyond “new”). Some constructive feedback.

SLIDER

This feels particularly acute with the slider. I am 100% against sliders (https://mrwweb.com/do-not-use-slideshow-for-nonprofit-websites/) in nearly every instance and am especially suspicious when there’s no purpose stated for its inclusion. Sliders don’t work and weigh down pages, so I’d just strip it.

In place of the slider, what about a dismissable “Welcome to WordPress, Here’s What Plugins Are” panel, similar to the Dashboard’s “About” panel on new installs. That could even lead visitors through some of the popular and trending 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 pages while also imbuing some good best practices while they’re at it.

LISTING PAGE COMPARISON USABILITY

If the goal is to make it easier to scan and find plugins, then I think some usability research should be done first. I’d start with these two Nielsen-Norman articles about how users use search/listing/comparison pages on desktop and mobile:
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/list-entries/
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/image-vs-list-mobile-navigation/

From those, I’m not sure that the “card” approach best facilitates plugin comparison which I assume is the primary goal of these pages.

ADDITIONAL METAMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress.

If I had to order the new missing meta in order of what I’d bring back first:

1. last updated
2. active installs
——————————— big drop off in usefulness
3. author
4. compatible up to version

I rely on author a lot, but realize that I’m firmly in the 20% of the 80/20 rule @samuelsidler rightly points to. What if the meta wasn’t displayed but users could sort by installs and last updated?

“BADGES”
As others have mentioned, I feel like the weight of these is too much. As at least one other pointed out, this would seem to benefit stripped-down plugins with paid options over full-featured entirely free plugins.

HOME PAGE
I would *never* guess you could click on those three boxes at the bottom of the page. How about some color and underlining!?
- Joy 3:54 pm on May 22, 2016
  
  Those articles have a lot of good information. One made me wonder if it’s possible to have a toggle at the top to switch between list view and grid view.
- Mark Uraine 7:33 pm on May 23, 2016
  
  Research is definitely key here. The articles you’ve pointed to have been read by several of us involved in this redesign. Here’s another one as well:
  http://baymard.com/blog/product-listing-information
  
  I’m glad to see others are pointing to research along side their personal views.
  
  A lot of the initial questions were asked here: https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2016/03/01/thinking-about-the-plugin-directory-ia/
  
  Initial goals were posted here: https://make.wordpress.org/meta/plugin-directory-version-3/
  
  Regarding the homepage… the three boxes are not ‘clickable’ per say, but there will undoubtedly be an evident link to encourage that action. As mentioned the design isn’t complete, but rather it is very preliminary… that’s why there’s this post and encouragement for feedback before we move into final design stages.
Syed Balkhi 7:56 am on May 21, 2016

First, Thank you Sam and Mark for leading this initiative. Absolutely love the new style.

Tons of great feedback here already and I wanted to drop my 2 cents.

I feel that two items are missing from the results that in my opinion are extremely valuable for beginner users.

1. Author Name – If there’s a SendGrid 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 by SendGrid Inc., then I want to use that instead of third-party plugin. Now I understand that sometimes these “official” companies may not keep their plugin up to date (i.e Facebook) or third-party developers who do a much better job than official plugin (i.e Danny Van Kooten MC4WP) — but nonetheless, this is an important use case.

Second, it helps users learn more about the author – I thought that’s why we added those badges to the profile pages to highlight authors that contribute, speak at WordCamps, giveback to the community, etc.

Lastly intermediate / DIY / power users, prefer picking plugins from trusted / familiar authors. Perhaps I already have a plugin that Pippin built so now his name will be familiar when I look up another tool.

2. Active Installs – as a user, I would rather start with something that has more active installs and then work my way down (if the popular one isn’t good enough). But it’s better than aimlessly going through dozens of plugins. I absolutely don’t buy the rich get richer argument here because if the popular plugin isn’t good enough – people will switch. W3TC is a good example of that right now. Yoast SEO is another (when AIOSEO was dominant). Ninja Forms is another good example – despite CF7 being around.

Maybe this information was removed because the border-less layout didn’t allow for additional information like that to be displayed while still looking pretty?? In that case, I’d much rather pick a card style layout with borders that has the important info rather than not. Usability > Pretty.

As for the slider, I don’t think it’s needed when you already have popular / trending / 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. plugins. Instead I’d suggest adding another section called New plugins.

Lastly on the badges, I suggest Free / Freemium / Service (leaving this as a comment on the other post).
- Mark Uraine 7:39 pm on May 23, 2016
  
  1. Author Name – If there’s a SendGrid 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 by SendGrid Inc., then I want to use that instead of third-party plugin.
  
  Excellent argument that definitely pertains to the 80%. Thanks!
  
  Maybe this information was removed because the border-less layout didn’t allow for additional information like that to be displayed while still looking pretty??
  
  Definitely not the reason information was removed. Information is easy to add back, but a lot more difficult to remove once it’s there. I want to make sure that the information we display is valuable, and not there just because it’s always been there. This involves posts like this where we start minimally with the bare essentials and make sure there’s some really strong reasons before adding more.
  
  Thanks for the feedback!
Juan Hernando 9:37 am on May 21, 2016

Hi! I really like the direction the new design is getting 🙂

About the slider, I’m not sure about what info will go there and why it should be in a slider (best places to hide something in the Internet, second page of Google results and inside a slider). If it’s going to be just info about the plugins section, I’ll just show it at once, if it’s going to be some featured plugins or so, I’ll just make a distinction in its section. For example, make the most popular one or the two most with a different background in its ‘card’, just to show more importance.

About the info missing that’s been talked a lot in the comments, I agree that we (that 20%) tend to use that info a lot. I understand that it’s good to clean everything and make the 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 section easier for the 80%, so we don’t need to make posts about ‘How to choose the correct plugin depending on X factors’, because we have a search/listing good enough so they get the best results atop of the page.

But maybe we can have a little icon (bar/chart icon) next to the star rating, and when we go on hover, it shows a tooltip with the info about number of installs, last update, or even the author. So, it doesn’t mess the cleaner interface, but it’s for the 100% of the people (more or less).
Anonymous User 7:08 pm on May 21, 2016

Just a few quick notes:

It doesn’t make very good use of the screen real estate

I agree with another comment, to ensure the author name (lead author) is shown (or at least search by).

Add a section for “New and updated plugins”, as that may give 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 a better chance of becoming a “rising star” (discovery). Of course have counter measures for those who’ll abuse that by auto-publishing every day or so,

Make better use of tags / taxonomies on the home page — this is where switching to the taxonomies described by Samuel would work excellent. The current system hides potentially very good plugins (and may also be leading to quite a few similar plugins being developed).
David Anderson 9:29 am on May 23, 2016

I agree with those who’d like to see the “number of active installs” metric immediately visible. This tells me how many sites are relying on 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 – which helps to indicate whether I might want to rely on it too. Of course, it’s not an infallible indicator of that – but, that isn’t really relevant, because *nothing* infallibly indicates that. But it is one of the most useful signals in this area, and hence I find it useful to have it as one of the most prominent indicators.
illusiodesign 10:35 am on May 23, 2016

We generally only install plugins that have been updated within three to five months. Please include the “last updated date” as its highly usable information.

“Pro” and “light” doesn’t seem very helpful so consider replacing with the updated date.
KevinLycett 2:00 pm on May 23, 2016

last updated date
approximate active installs
compatible up to version
These are all *extremely* useful in quickly finding 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. There are so many plugins and it takes so long to check out every one on offer that these are essential tools to help 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. out the noise. They save me a *lot* of time.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz 2:29 pm on May 23, 2016

I agree with many of the points here. I will add that I feel strongly that the star ratings and review count shouldn’t be included when no other data is there. Because reviews are not always honest, and people are more likely to leave bad reviews than good reviews. So it does more harm than good in most cases. Active count would be much better when only showing 1 data point.
NateWr 5:06 pm on May 23, 2016

I’d like to make one more case for reconsidering the approach to the 80/20 rule here.

I am a big fan of the 80/20 rule in design and strongly believe in getting irrelevant or confusing data out of the way. But I’m a little nervous about how it’s being applied here, as well as the lack of information we have about who the 80% are.

When placing under-used information out of the way, the goal is usually to reduce cognitive load and therefore increase focus on the information that remains. In this case, by stripping away so many details, we’ve left the user with only marketing material (title, description and 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 icon) and a star rating. Is that the right material for a user to find and select a plugin?

There are two parts to answering the question of what’s right for the 80%. The first is what will the user be able to understand and use? What matters to them and which pieces of data do they value?

The second is more subtle but also more powerful: what are we telling the user is important? The new design of the plugin directory will signal to novice users what information they should value. If we’re showing a star rating as the only social metric, and giving it a very prominent visual presentation, then we’re training the 80% to believe it’s the most important metric for judging a plugin.

This is where the 80/20 distinction needs a little bit more nuance when using it to make design decisions. There’s a strong component of stewardship here and the plugin directory redesign is an opportunity to redesign how we communicate priorities.

In this sense, only the top 5% of experienced users may care about a metric. But that shouldn’t immediately disqualify it from presentation. The question that should be asked isn’t “what does the 80% do” but “what do we want to encourage the 80% to do”.
- Joy 2:49 pm on May 24, 2016
  
  +80
nosilver4u 9:06 pm on May 23, 2016

Seems I’m a bit in the minority, but I’m 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 author, and I rarely ever look at who the author of a plugin is, much less make decisions based on that. The one exception would be as Syed Balkhi indicated: sometimes you’re looking for the official plugin released by a particular company, and the author field can be helpful there, but otherwise I almost never use it.
Active installs and last updated definitely ARE fields that I check every time before I install a plugin, as well as the average rating.
I’ve seen a couple places (including some comments at WP Tavern) where there seems to be an emphasis on trying to promote new plugins. We used to have a “newest plugins” listing, perhaps the search results could indicate “new” plugins, or have some sort of sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. featuring new plugins that wouldn’t otherwise make it into the results weighted for ratings, active installs, etc.
Graham Armfield 11:15 am on May 25, 2016

I know these are just designs at the moment, but at some point someone is going to code these for real, So I just wanted to mention 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) word, and provide some comments from that angle:

1) Like many commenters above I dislike sliders (carousels), but if you intend to use one, they can be tricky to get right from an accessibility perspective. There is a fairly new guide to doing them right here: https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/carousels/

2) Headings: Good to have a hierarchical heading structure for the page. Ideally H1 Plugins – H2 Popular Plugins – H3 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 #1 – H3 Plugin #2 – H2 Trending Plugins – H3 Plugin #1 – etc

3) Alternate text for the images that go with plugins.

4) The star rating needs to be accessible to those using screen readers – use alternate text on an image or maybe some screen reader text to say “3 stars out of 5”.

5) Review count – grey on white – colour contrast is insufficient.

6) Review count – need to use screen reader text to give context for the number – eg [screen-reader-text]Review count [/screen-reader-text]348

7) Media breakpoints – consider setting in ems rather than pixels – helps those who need text to be very big.

8) Search box – having just a placeholder is not enough, needs to have a explicitly linked label, although that may be rendered as screen reader text.

9) Search box – Need some kind of button to trigger the search, otherwise triggering search can be tricky with some AT.

10) Please don’t do infinite scrolling – can cause accessibility and usability headaches: http://www.ssbbartgroup.com/blog/infinite-scrolling-impact-on-assistive-technologies-series-1/
mkassowitz 3:07 pm on May 25, 2016

I consider the removal of statistical information to be counter productive to how I evaluate plugins. WP version compatibility, timeliness of updates, popularity as shown by the number of installs are actually quite important. I would burn down a lot of additional time by having to dig deeper than the search listing to see these factors. The description of 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 is validated, or not, by the presence of these other pieces of information.
shackep 7:26 pm on May 28, 2016

At our local WordPress meetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. I run a ‘evaluating plugins’ session about three times a year. We go through how Author, Last Updated,
Requires WordPress Version,Compatible up to and Active Installs can be key in evaluating wp.org 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 options. Being able to see this information makes it easy to ignore plugins that haven’t been updated in 8 years and plugins that have low ratings. Having this information available without needing to click on a plugin makes evaluating plugins harder.

Having reviews be the primary indicator of quality is also problematic as users can give a single star because a feature they want isn’t in the plugin. Having reviews being so central can lead to more people gaming their reviews by blatant self promotion and requests for friends to review the plugin, even if they have never used it.

As a local community organizer, my goal is to help casual users to level up and become ‘insiders’. Teaching people how to get the most out of WordPress and make decisions that will save them frustration is a key part of that.

As NateWr said:

The question that should be asked isn’t “what does the 80% do” but “what do we want to encourage the 80% to do”.

Active installs is something that helps users know if others have found the plugin too frustrating to use. If you combine active installs with reviews you get a quick litmus test to see if people’s expectations are being bet.
arielsfr 9:05 pm on June 12, 2016

If there’s one thing that’s obvious from the above discussion, it’s that we all have different needs and views. Give the user control. All it takes is an unobtrusive ‘sort by’ within Search.
Varun Sridharan 2:14 pm on June 15, 2016

Hi,
I really like this.. the 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 homepage with a featured slider and also the plugin listing.. 🙂

any changes on single plugin page too ?
and i hope you will add sliders for the plugin listing like 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. Plugins in homepage 🙂
Nick Diego 11:03 pm on June 28, 2016

I understand that I am late to this discussion, but I personally feel that reviews should not be the only metric presented on the plugins homepage and on search pages. My recommendation is both reviews and active installs. As shakeup mentioned above: “If you combine active installs with reviews you get a quick litmus test to see if people’s expectations are being met.” Reviews on their own is not enough.

Consider the following case, you have two plugins that do visually the same thing, say adding column classes. One has 4.5 rating and the other has a 5 star. For argument sake they both have 20 ratings. However the 4.5 star 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 has 10,000 active users and the 5 star one has 500 but the author is very active in the community and solicited reviews. I do not believe this is an absurd example, but then again I came up with it.

Anyway, a new WordPress user, or any WordPress user for that matter, could be very misled by only relying on star ratings in this case. It is well known across the web that star ratings are subjective and not perfect illustrations of the quality of the product they represent. In the case of WordPress plugins we have a bunch of other metrics that can help users judge a plugin.

Why not use them?

Simplification is not always such a great thing…
dingo-d 7:51 am on June 29, 2016

I’d definitely remove slider. Sliders are annoying, and offer little useful information. If you want to put some kind of separator, use static image if you must (or nothing at all).

Also, even though this has to do more with the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. as seen in this ticket, I think that plugins need filtering. Users should be able to 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. plugins based on several different keys.

If this is not implemented, redesign is just like putting a new coat of paint on an old and broken house – it might look nice, but is not good to live in.

IMO redesign should cover not only visual fixes, but code as well.

Just my 2 cents…
samjco 7:27 pm on July 14, 2016

On the homepage… because I know there are more plugins per categories (e.g: Trending), what if each section was a slider of 4’s – not automative but user controlled?

Welcome to the MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. Team!

Contact

Prototypes

Screenshots

Notes

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