The publish button is fairly far away from the save draft button. I think that, UI wise, that’s as good as it gets. Most people want to publish right away, though so … eh, this would be plugin territory.
Edit your drafts as a contributor (perhaps in one browser),
and post completed drafts with a higher-level user/session.
Sure enough, I did it again. Ipstenu, I respect your comment. Now, I don’t know where you got the statistic that ‘…most people want to publish right away…’ as it contradicts everything my journalist friends have said. It is much better to proof your writing in a different environment. Your comment is bang on for twitter, however.
What I have proposed fits in the realm of the popular ‘are you sure’ message we see in the software world. I do see it as an option in the settings. So, I’m still pushing for it.
From a usability point of view, the ‘publish’ button is not presented as an equal to draft, which it should. This is where the problem exists because upon quick and unreading viewing, the publish button stands out and screams attention. If it were equal in weight, then it encourages reading.
Feedback from a few usability experts are what we need to end this discussion.
I’ve toyed around with making the visibility ‘private’ and that works well for me. Now, if only I can make that a default, then I’m satisfied.
marcbubel I get where you’re coming from and I understand why it’s frustrating. Oh and my ‘stats’ are purely anecdotal, since it’s pretty much impossible to poll every blogger and get a solid answer 😉 (And now that I know you’re a journalist, I totally understand your POV, so that changes my phrasings.)
Speaking ONLY from a UI/designer standpoint, I feel I’m correct in saying that you will diminish overall usability if you move the icons even more, or change the colors. The layout of the post page lends some credence to my speculation that most people want to publish right away, but I have no data to back it up save that I don’t see a lot of people arguing for change on that screen on these forums. WordPress has done UI studies for usability (very recently with the 2.x builds, actually) and I recall this coming up, so I’m comfortable in suggesting that they have researched this and used that information to come to an informed decision.
Anyway, that’s neither here nor there to help your problem!
The best link I have for you is this: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-cms-post-control/
I don’t know if it still works, but this may be what you need.
