WordPress 2.5 Sneak Peek – A customizable dashboard, multi-file upload, built-in galleries, one-click plugin upgrades, tag management, built-in Gravatars, full text feeds, and faster load times sound interesting? Then WordPress 2.5 might be the release for you. It’s been in the oven for a while, and we’re finally ready to open the doors a bit to give you a taste. For [...]

After reading the above post I downloaded the Release Candidate of WordPress 2.5, installed on my local machine and test it. I wanted to see how the interface looks and what is new in WP 2.5. I must admit that I wasn’t very surprised. I was expecting more changes in the good way.

There are some good stuff and bad stuff that I will post about.

Good stuff:

• I like that they are using jQuery, as main js framework, with lightbox and jQuery User Interface
• Adding the media tools are excellent, with very nice tooltips.
• The “Save and continue” button is gone, the “Save” button it’s doing both jobs (reducing elements it’s good in general)
• That they moved the category from left side, to follow a hierarchical structure, a usual way to follow/post the informations.
• I like the way how you can use widgets and customize them. I think it’s more easy and fun.

Bad stuff (need improvements):

• I don’t like the way that they grouped the menus. At my first impression, I thought that are 4 menus groups, one in each corner of the header, all with different font size. And the “Visit site” button could be moved near “Dashboard” link.
• The “Publish” button could be bigger, it’s one of the most important action on the page and it should assign more importance.
• That they don’t use the media tools tooltip for other content, actions etc.
• Edit post content is not full width, (max-width is set for 980px); It looks pretty strange on the a wide screen. If they use the full width header, why content not.
• I don’t like how you can add new category, the previous was much better and fun.
• I notice also that the plugins screen hasn’t a easy way to tell if a plugin is activated or deactivated.

As a conclusion, I think the new interface is a great improvement, but there are many things that leave me the impresion that need more polish. I am sure the WordPress team will review the interface and make the final release a great experience. It’s good that they release it, so people can feedback their work.

What do you think about the new interface?

1. WordPress 2.5 Interface Review | How to make a website on March 20th, 2008 at 9:12 pm

   [...] Nick wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWordPress 2.5 Sneak Peek – A customizable dashboard, multi-file upload, built-in galleries, one-click plugin upgrades, tag management, built-in Gravatars, full text feeds, and faster load times sound interesting? … [...]
2. Nate Westheimer on March 28th, 2008 at 12:44 am

   I think the new interface is quite an improvement and I also agree that it’s good to release design concepts and get feedback. I’m looking forward to updating my blog!
3. Upgrading to Wordpress 2.5 | Candes Projects | Cristian Neagu - Web designer, developer on April 2nd, 2008 at 10:33 pm

   [...] I made a WordPress 2.5 Interface Review I decided to upgrade my blog and to test “on live” the new improvements & features. [...]