WordPress 2.5 user experience review: Admin welcome screen

With the release of WordPress 2.5 and the heavy duty modifications made to the admin section, I wanted to write a few pieces about the nature of the user experience after the changes. This being my first entry, I am going to talk a bit about the new welcome screen of the admin section. An initial glance shows a complete overhaul of the UI, which might scare some WP veterans, but to new folks would appear very stylish and “web 2.0″. I am a big fan of the “Right Now” bulletin posted up top. It provides quick metrics about your site and is a solid reporting tool. Scrolling down the screen shows different RSS feeds and information sections. The nice part about this is that each box can be edited to display whatever information you would like. This gives the user more control of their admin section. However, one thing I don’t like is the amount of scrolling involved with this all. Granted the important metrics are posted on top, but a lot of visible information is left off the initial screen, which leaves the user to scroll hefty amounts to see everything contained on the page. I also think the “Right now” box could and should be built into a reporting supertool providing key metrics and information about much of the site. A tabbed menu could provide access to recent comments, incoming links, site visitor statistics and more. I think wp-stats should be included in the core build also. Visitor statistics are of prime importance and WP should come fully equipped to report on such vital information. It could report on a variety of things such as the most popular posts and content to provide users with key information regarding their site.

The navigation menus are scaled down greatly from previous versions of WP. The information is all still there, but much more cut and dry. With that, I am going to end my first review and invite you to comeback during the week to catch the second entry, which revolves around the new navigation structure of wp-admin

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