I’m sorry you don’t like the new look of the admin interface. We are always improving the look and style of WordPress but it is unlikely it will head back in the direction of b2.
Thread Starter
Anonymous
I do find this answer quite bad. Actually, i guess the whole web is about informations and look… The look and feel isn’t something to take for useless. It often determines if a software will be used or not. B2 for sure is much more attractive than this black and white interface. Dunno if you think it’s more professionnal, or if having an ugly interface can increase your credibility. I hope you dont.
Anyway, i do understand why you say you dont wanna head back in the direction of b2, this would feel like a step back for you, but be sure that about the look and feel topic b2 is much more advanced.
Maybe i should help in redesigning the whole project instead of dissing it, it would be much more creative and respectable attitude. I may do it, but for the moment i just cant determine if WordPress is just a branch of b2 that evolves along in the “ugly look&feel” direction or if it’s a real evolution meaning b2 project is definitely stopped (and wordpress 0.71 == b2 0.71). If wordpress is the true evolution and b2 is stopped, this sadly means we’ll have twice more work managing blogs: we’ll now have to redesign even the admin interface instead of just caring about the blog;)
Anyway, seems friends of mine installed this as cooperative diary…. i’ll have to live with it and use your funeral-looking admin page, it’ll drive me mad for sure 😉
You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
I’m not sure why someone would choose a tool based simply on how ‘pretty’ the admin interface is. I personally find WP’s minimalist design functional, intuitive, and elegant.
That being said, I would suggest that in the ‘Options’ menu, ‘Base Settings’, ‘General Blog Settings’, and ‘Other Options’ be grouped together at the top of the list, left to right, in that order, as a general useability issue.
Otherwise, as a brand-new user, I was able to quickly learn to navigate my way through the admin interface without reading any of the docs, which is something that can’t be said for many other blog/CMS apps.
Thread Starter
Anonymous
Be sure that b2 is as easy to browse and admin as wordpress.
Anyway, my point on the topic was that i dont see the use of tricking with CSS and advanced html features if it’s to make ugly grey interfaces where nothing catches the attention… Anyway, i guess it’s a matter of taste. If ppl are happy with 50 years old interfaces that are as attractive as a linux commandline terminal, it’s fine… Maybe should we unite and create a WordPress branch with nice looking interface…
You don’t need a new branch, just a new style sheet. That’s the beauty of CSS, you can quickly and easily change the appearance by just adding changing the stylesheet.
I may hack around a bit and create an alternative stylesheet or two, if I have some free time. I have no idea what the b2 interface looks like. If someone can post an example of it I might take some of its design into account.
ps – I like the interface design, and the product as a whole, even if the admin screens are a dull grey. Keep up the good work!
I could definitely see well-done alternative stylesheets being made available officially on the site or in the distribution.
I don’t like the way WP looks either. On my laptop the fonts were way to big. I took it upon myself to edit the style sheets and change the look. Such as the annoying 2px padding around the drop down list. I found some “plan” things hard to deal with. Like the fact that the buttons that “do” things are not a different color from general text fields. Also I edited the links colors as they were hard to see.. I also set the text of my “blog this!” button to a different color as I kept hitting the “preview” instead.
I think WP could use a little more TLC when it comes to it’s look. I don’t mean heavy slow graphics. But black and white is a little bit boring and it doesn’t set the fields that need to be noticed apart.
Right now, we’re concentrating on features, not style. Granted, we’re making usability improvements along the way, but changing the overall look of the default install is not a top priority at the moment.
That said, we certainly welcome any alternate style sheets that anyone would like to come up with. CSS is <b>not</b> hard to learn. If you were able to learn HTML, then you can certainly learn CSS. If you don’t have time to learn CSS right now, then please be patient, one of our long-term goals is to eventually include some alternate stylesheets, whether created by the development team or contributed by users.
So for now, if you don’t like the default look of the admin interface, poke around in wp-admin/b2.css. You think the fonts are too big? Search for “font-size”, and change it. Don’t like the color scheme? Search for “color” and tint whichever elements you want to. Don’t like the serif fonts? Search for “font-family”.
Thread Starter
Anonymous
Sure it’s better to concentrate on features. May you just not forget that the look is something very important as it’s what often brings popularity and larger range of users. Ugly softwares never lasted long or at least never gained lots of users. And about CSS, do not forget it’s the best way to have issues with different browser… I work designing pages using CSS that have to be compatible with IE and netscape 4.x and the number of incompatibilities, missing features or unworking ones is huge… The rule is “what is possible in HTML is possible in CSS, features that CSS can do on the paper and HTML cant wont work fine with netscape” ;)))
So use CSS2 as layout manager is a coders dream of differenciation between content and look. But it’s just a dream since no Browser fully support the standard or at least most dont.
I dislike the admin interface style too, but I still use WordPress. Just change the stylesheet yourself, it won’t hurt. I promise. 😛
Thread Starter
Anonymous
really, who cares about netscape 4 compatibility any more? only 1% of the net is still using it and they must be used to everything looking like hell.
Thread Starter
Anonymous
I’ve changed the fonts back to Verdana (like b2 used) in my install. Feel free to grab a copy of my CSS if you want to.
http://www.alexking.org/blog/wp-admin/wp-admin.css
I left the original style in there (commented out) so you can see how minor the changes were.
How about different style sheets available with WP and you pick your own color? Like some of the bulletin boards? Everyone seems to have their own little “style” going on.
Nice layout, alex. Thanks. 🙂
