September 16, 2009 • 5:39 pm
I’ll be here all week, folks.
Portland WordPress users: I’ll be in town tonight through next Tuesday morning to attend WordCamp, and would like to do some usability testing with you lovely people while I’m around. I have time slots all day tomorrow (Thursday), a few on Friday, a couple before/during/after WordCamp (though those will mostly be very short), and a couple on Tuesday morning. If you’d like to participate and can spare 20-40 mintues to help improve the next version of WordPress, send me an email (you can use the contact form on this site) or send me a message on Twitter (@janeforshort).
Filed under: Usability, WordCamp, WordPress , portland
September 10, 2009 • 4:16 pm
I’ll be doing some usability testing of WordPress and the WordPress iPhone app (new beta version!) while I’m in Portland for WordCamp (9/16-22). I’ve got five beta tester slots being held for participants (we can only have a total of 100 beta testers). If you use WordPress on your iPhone and would like to try the new beta version (and will be attending WordCamp), let me know.
**Update: Due to high demand, I’ll be raffling off the slots. Send me an email, or @janeforshort on twitter by 9pm tonight pacific time to let me know you’re interested, and I’ll pick 4 beta testers at random (one slot was already promised when I realized there would be more demand than supply). If you don’t get picked, you can still help with testing… I’ll have my iPhone at the WordCamp, and will let people try the beta app that way as well.
Filed under: Usability, WordCamp, WordPress , iphone
When you search plugins from within the admin, it brings in the repo search results. I think that the plugin name should pop up the tabbed info from the repo page for the plugin, instead of linking to the repo page in a new window or the plugin site. I also think that the Install link should be on the left, not the far right, under the plugin name, so it’s in the same place as action links on other Plugins section screens, and that there should be a View Plugin Site link there, like there is on the other screens, too.
Filed under: Usability, WordPress , plugins, UI
I have just noticed a UI gaffe for which I take full responsibility. In the plugins section of the admin tool, when you go to add new plugins, there is a utility for searching the plugin repository (awesome!) with a button labeled “Search Plugins” to submit the search request.
But! There’s also, in the section for managing plugins, that dorky search box that appears here and there in the admin and allows you to search whatever section you’re in at the time. It, too, has a button labeled “Search Plugins” to submit the search request (not awesome!). Bad UX girl!
In 2.9, I solemnly swear to do something about this. Also the overall clumsiness of the plugins section labeling and navigation. The dorky search box I might not touch, since there’s a GSoC project around extending search that seems cool, and I’ll want to see how that turns out before making changes to the existing search. Ultimately, I’d like to get rid of the section-by-section search box that takes up all that precious h2 real estate and get a blog-wide search going that we can stick in the nav area to search everything at once with the ability to filter results (so you could search posts, comments, tags, etc all at once but choose to see only a subset of results if you only want to see plugins, for example).
Filed under: Usability, WordPress
