Barely have I adapted most of my sites and those of my clients to version 2.5 or later (up to 2.6.3 with the latest security fix) and just having finished a 40-page tutorial for a website CMS (Content Management System) built on the latest version of WordPress, the developers are already at an advanced stage of version 2.7 of WordpPress, with – lo and behold – yet another new interface!
Now, upgrades are fine with me, but why the entire new layout? Especially since it’s an old-fashioned left column navigation, I mean: come on!
Thing is, yes, with the current layout it still takes a few clicks to get to what you really want to do, but hey, is that so bad? I mean we already have chosen WordPress, so fat chance that we’re all of a sudden going to switch to another system like Joomla or something!
Why not improve the current layout with a few updates and leave it at that. Now plugin developers have to spend more time to re-develop their plugins to make them suitable yet again for the new version. Apart from the fact that most plugin developers do their labor out of love (and therefore free of charge), they can use their time a lot better by developing other plugins, having a life of their own, doing some sports, spend time with their loved ones or what not!
It took me quite a while to switch from WordPress 2.2 to 2.5/6, I guess it will take me a lot longer to make the switch to 2.7, no matter how much more user friendly it is. Fact is that I would have to rewrite an entire tutorial and I have actually gotten to like this version of WordPress…
I would like to know other people’s opinion and therefore comments are very welcome to this post!
Hi Piet. We posted a report from the usability testing on WordPress 2.5 that was conducted over the summer, that outlines why the admin interface is being changed in 2.7. http://wordpress.org/development/2008/10/usability-testing-report-25-and-crazyhorse/
@Jane – Thanks for your comment Jane, interesting article and results and I indeed have to agree to more than a few points in the presentation. So I will be looking forward to the new release, although I’m not sure how fast I will change my clients over 2.7…