Massive changes to the WP interface
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@zaunfink, tell me more about this clicking problem :) what Firefox version are you using exactly? I will test too. I tried it just now with these steps:
1. Go to https://wordpress.com/
2. Click the bell icon on the right side of the blue toolbar
* Result: dropdown box appears and comments loadAre my testing steps the same as your steps? I’m using a Mac for my testing so far. Are you using a Mac or a PC?
I used the new dashboard version to update a text some time ago and it fucked up all the formatting and the posting date.
The editor has had tons of updates based on user feedback, and there are also more updates in the works. Maybe wait a bit and give it another try after more of the kinks have been worked out. Or I could go over specifics with you if you’d like, but would you mind please opening a separate thread if you want to look at detailed stuff about one specific issue?
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optimizing for a better mobile design should be faster, which is good for desktop users too, but desktop design shouldn’t suffer either. It’s a bit of a tradeoff that we’ll keep iterating on.
Not meant to offend you, as I know your job is to tell us how great the changes are… but what you say makes no sense, to be honest.
optimizing for a better mobile design should be faster, which is good for desktop users too,
It can’t be faster than faster. The old design was superior and fast enough for me as a desktop user. No reason to force a mobile design on us. The real reason why you probably downgrade the things is that you want to make it accessable for non-tech-savvy people to maximize profit. You want to get people in the boad that otherwise never would touch a blog. Good luck with it. Another reason for the streamlining is probably that you want to have an easier to manage code structure. It about you, not about us.
but desktop design shouldn’t suffer either.
But it does and I say this as an experienced user who participated in several software alphas and betas over the last decades. The usability suffers a lot from the latest changes and I mean all the changes we saw this year. The end of 2014 was the worst time I experienced on wordpress.com. Constant senseless changes that always came with bugs. It was interupting my greatest hobby… blogging.
It’s a bit of a tradeoff that we’ll keep iterating
I believe you. But at the end you just touch a system that worked very well for all of us. And you know… never touch a running system.
However, at the end I doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t trust you guys anymore. You are heading in the wrong direction and you heard it a lot over the last months in the forums. But it especially doesn’t matter because you won’t listen to complains anyway. You will tell us how great the changes are, and later you will close the topic to prevent other people telling you their opinion here. Remember the beep beep boop thread? You couldn’t handle the critique. This is what happened constantly in the past months.
Over the last years I always suggested wordpress.com to people and I wrote about it a lot too. Recently I can only write negative about you on my blog. You basically transformed a “fanboy” to a “hater”. Congrats.
And by the way… sorry for the hard critique but that’s what happens when you start to care less about your backbone.. your longtime bloggers.
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Constant senseless changes that always came with bugs. It was interupting my greatest hobby… blogging.
I’m so sorry that happened to you! You’re right that it’s part of my job to be positive, but I also see myself as someone who cares about our user experience and who is doing their best to collect constructive feedback.
Would sticking to the WP Admin pages help you? You can get to almost all of the old interfaces for posting there (use the left side menu) and that won’t change.
But it especially doesn’t matter because you won’t listen to complains anyway.
It matters. I’m listenting. Not every feedback will get a change as a result, but tons of changes happen based on user feedback here.
Remember the beep beep boop thread? You couldn’t handle the critique.
All I can say about that is that we can try to get better. Hopefully already have made a start.
I appreciate your feedback and your position. It’s something I’ll try to communicate as we collect user feedback along the way after these latest changes.
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designsimply
1 but desktop design shouldn’t suffer either.
But that is exactly what has happened over the past year – Beep Beep Boop, New post, Image editor and now statistics. Everything you do impacts negatively on the desk top user.
2 All I can say about that is that we can try to get better. Hopefully already have made a start.
Sorry but no you haven’t. Your ‘improvements’ have rolled the clock back not forward.
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I too am disappointed in the surprise changes in WordPress. The upper right corner used to have a drop down menu to which I could easily go go any of my four blog pages. Now, I have to go to reader and go through several annoying steps to access my other blogs. thanks for nothing.
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Would sticking to the WP Admin pages help you? You can get to almost all of the old interfaces for posting there (use the left side menu) and that won’t change.
Under compulsion, yes, That’s what I did, I sadly had to adjust myself to the changes of the last half year. I sadly have to look where to click and where not to click. But even the whole structure of drop down menus and the top bar has been changed too. It’s even there simply not the same anymore. Elements have been moved, renamed, resized, reshaped and so on.
I can just say what I and many others said in the beep beep boop editor thread. Give us a server-side setting (not cookies) to let us revert all changes back to classic permanently. This is a compromise that never have been accepted by wordpress, even if often demanded by users. Instead we need to adjust where to click, to open the right pages. I came here for this particular product that offered a usability that was superior to any other CMS…. but now it’s not the same product anymore.
The problem I see is that there were so many changes that it is now hard to nail it down. I don’t know where to start, there are too many design and usability issues. Everything feels disconnected anyhow. It’s not intuitive anymore. It started with the integration of the new editor, later with the changes on the top bar, now the additional UI changes. It’s hard to work with it because so many links and buttons where renamed, removed, moved and changes. You are right, I can only stick to the wp-admin page link and need to click on classic editor everytime I deleted cookies, to get back to the workspace I used for years.
I appreciate your feedback and your position. It’s something I’ll try to communicate as we collect user feedback along the way after these latest changes.
This is finally good to know that you collect user feedback, because this is the only reason I wrote here. I only wanted to give my vote that I prefered the old product over the new one. It’s really good to know that this kind of feedback is collected too. I don’t want to do anything else, no testing of the new design, no analyzing or documenting… I just pledge for a setting in the option that will override the full 2014 design with the 2013 design of wordpress (including everyting, editor, UI, top panel, structure and so on). That’s my feedback. It was the design that made me enjoy wordpress. I just vote for the design that brought me here. Thank you for listeing.
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I agree with diaryofdennis. There have been too many changes. WP was so manageable and appealing when I first chose it over other options two years ago. Now, I get anxious about what will be changed next. None of the change seemed to make things any easier but instead more complicated. I am even having trouble finding where to sign out easily when I use the reader. I have to go to my My Sites and then my blog. Before I could just click on an icon at the top of my reader to sign out. I use a computer at work on my lunch to check my WP and it just gets complicated to sign out properly for security reasons.
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I hope that desktop users will always retain access to the old admin, post, and statistics pages.
I share all of the concerns expressed above. The new statistics layout might be optimized for a phone or tablet screen, but I can access all of the data from my site using the old statistics on my 27″ monitor in one fell swoop.
We’ve seen a number of features vanish entirely, such as the ability to drag captioned images easily through posts, and Typekit linking through custom design (which is no longer even an option for new users). I may not like some of these decisions, but I can understand that financial considerations are at play.
Nonetheless, the sudden shift toward mobile-style interfaces and decontenting obviously concerns many of us. The backlash isn’t due to an unwillingness to change; rather, it’s the product of a growing sense that a core group is being neglected in favor of mobile-inspired interfaces aimed at novice users.
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“The backlash isn’t due to an unwillingness to change; rather, it’s the product of a growing sense that a core group is being neglected in favor of mobile-inspired interfaces aimed at novice users.” –fjordaniv
This. Oh, THIS.
We core groupers are your foundation but we’re starting to feel like the horse in Animal Farm that got sent to the slaughterhouse after the pigs got all that they wanted from him.
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@designsimply
There are now a number of threads appearing that are pertinent to this subject.I’m sure it would be most helpful to all, including yourself, if the contributions, and those yet to come, had a focal point.
That is, why not create sticky post for the subject so that we can all get together as a community and share our views.
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The upper right corner used to have a drop down menu to which I could easily go go any of my four blog pages. Now, I have to go to reader and go through several annoying steps to access my other blogs.
@extexanwannabe, that drop down menu should still be there on the dark gray toolbar. I think perhaps you are clicking instead of hovering on that? Could you try hovering to see the dropdown menu with the blog pages and let me know if that still doesn’t work for you? I will also try to find out more about how it’s supposed to behave when you click.
Good specific feedback. Thank you.
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The problem I see is that there were so many changes that it is now hard to nail it down.
I empathize with this feedback point.
Everything feels disconnected anyhow. It’s not intuitive anymore. It started with the integration of the new editor, later with the changes on the top bar, now the additional UI changes.
I think the disconnect will be present for a time but then everything will really start to come together once more features are tied in properly. We are indeed in a sort of update phase where things feel disconnected, but I’m sure that will come together better the more it gets worked on. And it is really getting worked on! There are more changes coming soon (to the WordPress.com dashboard, not the WP Admin pages).
This is finally good to know that you collect user feedback, because this is the only reason I wrote here. I only wanted to give my vote that I prefered the old product over the new one. It’s really good to know that this kind of feedback is collected too. I don’t want to do anything else, no testing of the new design, no analyzing or documenting… I just pledge for a setting in the option that will override the full 2014 design with the 2013 design of wordpress (including everyting, editor, UI, top panel, structure and so on). That’s my feedback. It was the design that made me enjoy wordpress. I just vote for the design that brought me here. Thank you for listeing.
Thanks so much for saying this! I don’t think I can get you that setting, but I will suggest it and see what happens (just in case).
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Now, I get anxious about what will be changed next. None of the change seemed to make things any easier but instead more complicated. I am even having trouble finding where to sign out easily when I use the reader. I have to go to my My Sites and then my blog. Before I could just click on an icon at the top of my reader to sign out. I use a computer at work on my lunch to check my WP and it just gets complicated to sign out properly for security reasons.
This specific feedback about the log out link is really good feedback! Knowing it’s a security concern and how you use a computer at work at lunch are good specifics and help make an argument for updating that. Let me see what else I can find out about this issue.
If you want, it would be great if you made a separate thread just about this, posted the same note, and asked to see how many other people are affected in the same way. If you don’t want to make a new thread, that’s fine too.
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I can access my old stats page but it takes a few clicks to get there. It is no longer at the top of my reader. I have to go into the blog first. Confusing to have two different stats pages….the original one being the most visually appealing.
The WordPress log in form I use takes me directly to the dashboard. Reader for me is merely a peripheral option which, until I began regularly contributing the forum topics and trying to answer various questions that came up, was a place I very seldom visited.
The two stats pages I always use are:
1. https://YourOriginalWebsiteName.wordpress.com/wp-admin/index.php?page=stats
2. https://wordpress.com/my-stats/.However, I did finally find the one referred to in some of the comments on this thread, in the My Sites page. It is because I seldom encounter a persuasive reason to visit the Reader or the My Sites page that I would have never considered looking for a stats page there.
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I hope that desktop users will always retain access to the old admin, post, and statistics pages.
Yes. This is the plan. But there’s a possibility of an additional desktop tool, which sounds really cool if it goes through as a future planned update. There are lots of ideas around here for cool new features!
I share all of the concerns expressed above. The new statistics layout might be optimized for a phone or tablet screen, but I can access all of the data from my site using the old statistics on my 27″ monitor in one fell swoop.
Let’s step back here so I can clarify one thing. The stats design is for desktop, but it has added responsive design to make it also work on mobile. It is not a mobile only design. It sounds like you dislike the new design, and the mobile part is not relevant to you.
We’ve seen a number of features vanish entirely, such as the ability to drag captioned images easily through posts
That was never a supported feature to my knowledge, but it might have worked in some past browser versions—I’ve heard of people mentioning it before and I found that it completely depended on the browser in my past experience. I would love to have the ability to drag to re-position images as a new feature built in to the editor some day! Great suggestion.
Typekit linking through custom design (which is no longer even an option for new users)
That option didn’t get a lot of use in studies we did on the stats for it, and it was also more complicated to support, so we went for a different interface for adding fonts to try to make changing fonts simpler. I’m sorry if you loved that feature and now it’s gone! That’s one that we did remove.
Nonetheless, the sudden shift toward mobile-style interfaces and decontenting obviously concerns many of us. The backlash isn’t due to an unwillingness to change; rather, it’s the product of a growing sense that a core group is being neglected in favor of mobile-inspired interfaces aimed at novice users.
I will do my best to see what I can do to help make this sentiment known and see what we can do about it. If you don’t like changes, my best advice for you right now would be to start on your blog, use the WP Admin link, and stick to the left side menu to make changes. I’m sorry if it’s not ideal for every person. The new tools really are going to pull together better in the next little while, and if you give them a chance you might find some pretty awesome things in them. If you don’t want to, that is fine too.
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We core groupers are your foundation but we’re starting to feel like the horse in Animal Farm that got sent to the slaughterhouse after the pigs got all that they wanted from him.
Oh my! I’ve been leaning vegetarian lately myself…
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I’m sure it would be most helpful to all, including yourself, if the contributions, and those yet to come, had a focal point.
That is, why not create sticky post for the subject so that we can all get together as a community and share our views.
Thank you for your suggestion. I find that longer threads a lot harder to follow, especially after they get to be more than a few pages long, so I would like to leave it as is for now and see how it goes to follow along this way for a while. I might even close some threads if I feel the issues are resolved or if they need to be put on hold while we sort out some of the issues in them.
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“There are more changes coming soon (to the WordPress.com dashboard”
Thanks for the warning.
A while back when I saw the bee-bop-bop-bee thing, I simply flipped how preposterous it was (what are we, two year olds?)…but I was thankful for the link that provided classic dashboard. Maybe perpetually splitting the style between mobile and classic will work, though if it keeps gearing towards mobile, then I’ll have to figure something out for my blogging needs.
The latest eye sore is that white gob on the black bar on top, with the pencil in it…ouch, that thing is hideous.
With the use of classic dashboard, I can still use WordPress, all the while noticing how trendy and fresh the system is gearing toward the mobile hipster crowd. It almost seems as though a civil war is erupting. What these changes remind me of is Tumblr, and if there’s one thing I can’t stand…it’s Tumblr.
This warning provided about the dashboard…yikes…I just hope WordPress doesn’t get to the point where it utterly sucks, because it’s actually a pretty good place to blog right now.
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@extexanwannabe, I researched that issue about the drop down menu in the gray toolbar, and I found out that it hasn’t changed recently. You should be able to hover over your Gravatar in the gray toolbar when you are on your blog, and it should work the same as it did before the WordPress.com updates that just happened.
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