With its new version 2.5, WordPress introduced a renewed admin interface, with a completely new style sheet, new menu organization, new placement of form fields, new sidebar widget management, and so forth.
They state an improved usability of the administration interface. It’s not really true.
Let me focus on the new widget management and on the particular task of moving a widget from one sidebar to another. I compare the old way and the new way side by side.
Old way: simply drag and drop the widget from one sidebar to the other one, then save new settings.
New way:
- select the sidebar you want to remove the widget
- wait for the page refresh
- remove the widget
- save the settings
- wait for the page refresh
- select the sidebar you want to add the widget removed from the other sidebar
- wait for the page refresh
- add the widget
- reconfigure the widget as in the sidebar you removed it
- save the settings
Well, I do not have to add more words. This is far to be a usability improvement, isn’t it?
See you on the next episode of the “On the usability of WordPress Admin”.
