Massive changes to the WP interface
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@fionamcquarrie, the mobile app is separate and may take some time to catch up. I’m sorry for the trouble!
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@davidalockwood and @davidderrick, thank you for your feedback about the spacing on large screens, scrolling, and twin tracks.
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Helpful as you are, designsimply, I hope you are not here just to neutralise or “deal with” opposition. There’s a touch of 1984 here. But thanks.
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It’s all fine, so long as WP is not abandoning interfaces designed for large screens. That’s what this is about.
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I’m honestly working to collect your feedback and report it back to the developers in an unbiased way. It will be up to them to decide how much they would like to change at that point. There are already planned updates based on some of the feedback. Not every suggestion will get implemented, but I’m sure the stats design will continue to evolve and get better with your feedback.
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@kerin2014 thank you for not closing this thread. It is immensely useful for members (customers!) to see that there is not universal praise for the direction that WP is moving.
I have attempted to express my issues with both the specific implementation of new UX and general statements about my concerns for the impact of those changes on current customers. @designsimply is undoubtably instructed (as are other moderators) to ignore criticism that is not about specific details of a particular feature. Nonetheless I think a conversation about the direction of these changes and what the end result may be.
Why are there two dashboards? We are seeing a strong move away from the site-specific dashboard to the WP.com dashboard. You can see this on the new [My Sites] Stats page: there is a left-hand menu which corresponds to the blog-specific one. Right now the links go to our Blog Admin but that is clearly a temporary situation. To quote @designsimply:
Instead of a full stop switch and getting rid of the old WP Admin pages, those are all still present and available—so you should be able to use those and get to the old way of doing things using the left menu items in the older style dashboard if you want to just use that route. I can see how having a separate new dashboard can be confusing though. I advocated for keeping good connections between both so you can get from one to the other as the new features get built up.
https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/what-the-fk-is-with-the-little-bell?replies=34#post-2164964and:
We pride ourselves on pushing the limits and experimenting to find the best new way forward. We’re not sitting still or maintaining older tools forever. We want to update.
https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/customer-services?replies=3#post-2164190The reference to “old” tools and the “old way” are clear indications that the “Classic Dashboard” is doomed.
Some of us here are actually professionals who derive some or a large part of our income on WP, whether it be as bloggers, developers, businesspeople, etc. If the direction of WP.com is towards a mobile-first, simplified workflow for mini-blogging, I’m afraid I’m out. I use WP.org and WP.com because of the power and flexibility of the platform. WP has become the world’s most popular CMS for one reason: it’s better than the alternatives. If WP.com is trying to be more like the competition, they could lose their edge AND their market, simple as that. Twitterers will keep Twittering, Tumblrs will keep Tumbling. What is the value that WP.com can contribute in this space that is compelling enough to get people to switch?
IF these UX changes were providing an equivalent alternative to the existing platform I would have no problem with the changes: I am not opposed to change in principle. However, it is clear that the new UX is lacking in function, usability, and accessibility. Witness the New Editor: it appeared some time early in August. The backlash was rather robust. On August 15th this thread appeared, with the Staff & Happiness Engineers patting themselves on the back for bringing back functions that had been stripped out of the New Editor. It took until September to bring back word count, and October brought the return of a spell checker. Hooray! It only took four months to get spell checker back!
To the response that WP.com is “iterating” its design: that is a valid design process internally and with beta testers. We are not beta testers, we are paying customers.
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There is good and bad software and software design. Apple is famous for getting it right first time. Most others are in the middle. WP is becoming famous – among its users, it has no wider profile – for getting it wrong. That’s sort of it. We’ll get there. This isn’t the end of the world.
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We are not beta testers, we are paying customers.
Exactly. That is why I chose to stop blogging regularly on my two upgraded domains hosted here. I have had over 8 years of being treated like a guinea pig and I can tolerate no more of it. As of the new year I will no longer volunteer to have unannounced, unexpected and often unwelcome changes that negatively impact my blogging experience by creating more clicks to do what I could do previously with ease passed of as “improvements” when in fact they aren’t. The way development is happening here is an insult to our intelligence and no amount of swarm can gloss that over and make it appear shiny and nice. I will no longer choose to be placed in the unenviable position of being an unwilling guinea pig who is unwittingly co-opted into making suggestions aimed at improving original features and functions that worked well for me before they were changed, under the threat of having those original features and functions snatched away for me.
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EDIT: for me = from me
Please note that what I posted above was not posted in anger. I am grieving the loss of the love I once had for WordPress.com and what I posted comes from a place of deep sorrow.
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@adrienneadams, thank you for your feedback.
You are right that there some focus on a newer dashboard at WordPress.com. The classic dashboard is not going away though.
IF these UX changes were providing an equivalent alternative to the existing platform I would have no problem with the changes
They are not there yet—they will continue to evolve. Feedback from users like you helps a lot! But changes, like you observed, won’t be immediate. Keep in mind that the latest changes have only been publicly available for a few days and there are more changes to come that will help the WordPress.com dashboard become a more equivalent alternative. It will take time to get there. All of the old tools are still available for you in the classic dashboard.
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@timethief, I’m really sorry to hear you’re in a place of deep sorrow. In case it helps you to say it, this is a transition that will take time but while it’s happening the old tools will still be there and there are no plans to remove the old dashboard. I’m sorry about you feeling bad.
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You skipped over this one.
Was any of this work done by persons not directly employed by WP ? -
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You have also failed to offer an explanation as to why so many sloppy errors have been made in the upgrade?
Evolution is fine but my advice is test thoroughly and be sure that it works before launching it!
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My suggestion for improvement. Wind back the upgrade and restore the old functions.
Work hard on the upgrade, test it thoroughly and be sure it works and then implement it when you are confident that it works and it will represent an improved customer experience.
Don’t rush.
It is always better to get things right first time than to have to repair damage.
That is positive advice. -
@designsimply, thank you for responding. You are extremely patient and respectful.
They [UX changes] are not there yet—they will continue to evolve. Feedback from users like you helps a lot! But changes, like you observed, won’t be immediate. Keep in mind that the latest changes have only been publicly available for a few days and there are more changes to come that will help the WordPress.com dashboard become a more equivalent alternative. It will take time to get there.
I think that there is an essential problem here that is not being acknowledged by the WP.com UX team. What is going on with the New Editor, New Stats, etc. is that it is not an evolutionary process. What is happening is that a well-designed, refined, tested, and familiar interface (Classic Dashboard) is being replaced with a totally new UX.
Yesterday I went back to the blog and collected posts of two years of iterative changes to the [Classic] Dashboard. Look for yourself: From September 2011 to November 2013 the basic UX never changed, it was refined and much improved.
But fast forward to August 2014’s New Editor: one day we log in, press “New Post,” and are whisked away from our blog dashboard to the WP.com dashboard, with a silly “Beep Beep Boop” animation, and are presented with a completely new and unfamiliar user interface, with no way to return to our Blog Admin.
That is not “iterative,” that is not “evolving.” That is a slap in the face.
Over the years I have gotten used to having WP.com UI changes and new features rolled out unannounced. Mostly they are positive and truly iterative versions of a familiar landscape, and they do not interrupt my workflow to any appreciable degree. Many of the changes have been excellent.
But this new strategy is different. This new strategy is invasive and obnoxious.
So when you say “be patient, we’re working to improve things,” I have to say that I will not be patient, because I think I am being mistreated and you (WP.com) have lost my trust.
Losing the trust of your long-time customers is a recipe for disaster. I and many others have indeed been Evangelists for the WordPress brand, but that is not something that can be taken for granted. This new strategy of real-time public beta testing of a radical new UX is a bad strategy and it will cost in the long run.
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I’m weighing in because I don’t just dislike the changes – I honestly hate them, and I no longer blog using WordPress as a result except via Hootsuite. I especially hate the Beep Beep Boop Boop editor – it’s not funny and is an insult to our intelligence. I run a self-hosted WordPress blog too – using the Classic dashboard – and it rocks. But wordpress.com is just plain irritating. Give users a checkbox for version or style and quit ramming change for the sake of change down our throats. And yes, I am biting my tongue. Because I love wordpress. And Matt. And you.
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