Simplifying the Admin Bar & Global Navigation Menu

The admin bar and global navigation menuNavigation Menu A theme feature introduced with Version 3.0. WordPress includes an easy to use mechanism for giving various control options to get users to click from one place to another on a site. will be updated shortly to simplify the navigation as discussed on this post and in these issues: #252 Simplifying the wp-admin bar, #251 Reconfigure the site navigation.

Admin Bar

For the admin bar, if you’re logged out, you’ll see links to log in & register on every page. When you’re logged in, the admin bar has been simplified. The WordPress logo and About menu has been removed, along with the site name, comments, and some other top-level items. If you can write posts on a site, you’ll still see the “+ New” dropdown, and a new dropdown for “Edit”. If you’re a member on multiple sites, the My Sites dropdown has moved to the dropdown under your name.

These changes only apply to the front end of the site, the admin bar remains unchanged when you’re in the site admin.

Here’s an example on Make/CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. The “New” dropdown remains the same, and the Customize link is also the same. My name & 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. appear on the right.

When on a single post/page, that would usually have the top level “Edit Page” link, now it’s collapsed with Customize into “Edit.” If the site has any special plugins like “Copy to a new draft” or the locale switcher on Learn, that will stay in the admin bar.

If I need to see my sites list, it’s over in the right dropdown under my name, each of these links take you to that site’s dashboard.

Navigation Menu

The navigation menu menu will also be updated. This is an iteration in an ongoing process to better organize the content across the 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/ network and combines several ideas that were shared. This current iteration is based on the site structure as it is now and a few guidelines:

• This approach groups pages by visitor intent. Example: “I’m here to build out my site” or “I’m here to participate in the project”.
• To keep things slim, this approach directs visitors to top-level pages or areas where they can dig deeper rather than trying to deep-link visitors to everything. Example: There is a single link to “Learn” rather than “Tutorials” and/or “Lesson Plans”.
• Top-level items are organized based on the frequency of visits. “About” might be most used by new visitors, but “News” will be used repeatedly by visitors every day.
• Child items were generally sorted by broadest appeal (Ie. most visits) to least.
• Link names should be accessible and recognizable to everyone. “Contribute” may be readily recognizable to existing community members, but alternatives like “Community” are more easily understood by everyone.
• Parent items link to logical existing pages and also describe child items.

Note: Table 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. represents parent menu items with each column containing the respective children.

News	Download & Extend	Learn	Community	About
	Themes	Support	WordCamp	Showcase
	Patterns	Forums	Meetups	Gutenberg
	Plugins	WordPress.tv	Photo Directory	Enterprise
	Openverse	Developers	Job Board
	Mobile		Five for the Future
	Hosting

We will revisit and explore other proposed structural and design changes in future iterations. Any issues should be reported to the wporg-mu-plugins repo.