WordPress.com revamps its dashboard

Ben Moss.
June 19, 2013
WordPress.com revamps its dashboard.

thumbnailSomewhere around 18% of the web is powered by WordPress. The humble blogging platform has grown into a web-titan of monster proportions.

Substantially fewer sites are hosting on WordPress.com — Automattic’s free, hosted solution for WordPress blogs — but it’s still a very dominant player.

Whilst the codebase behind WordPress.com is updated everyday, with bug fixes, performance enhancements and feature tweaks, the appearance of the dashboard has, until now, remained largely unchanged for some time.

The redesign of WordPress.com’s dashboard that was announced in April and previewed this week is a superb revision. There are a number of significant changes, and all of them are an improvement on the old version.

The biggest change is that the new WordPress.com dashboard is flat-design; not an extremist flat-design — there are a few drop shadows and pseudo-drop shadows here and there — the new dashboard is an evolved version of flat-design, a grown up version.

featured

The change in color scheme from the dull all over grey of the previous version is the most notable change, and it works really well to create a greater sense of hierarchy. I particularly like the orange notifications that leap out at you.

The new design isn’t yet responsive, but that will be added in the coming months to allow blog owners easier access on the go. (If you’d like to trial the responsive dashboard you can enable it by ticking “Enable experimental responsive design” in your personal settings.)

wp_003

As well as completely redrawn icons, the new dashboard has a change of typeface: Open Sans, designed by Steve Matteson, is available free via Google Fonts if you like the way it looks.

wp_002

The new dashboard design is a fantastic revision, the increased contrast, improved hierarchy and cleaner type make the site more usable, all while retaining a familiarity for users of WordPress.com. I only hope a similar update is pushed to WordPress.org users as soon as possible.

What do you think of the new WordPress.com dashboard? Was the grey on black type a mistake? Let us know in the comments.

Ben Moss

Ben Moss has designed and coded work for award-winning startups, and global names including IBM, UBS, and the FBI. When he’s not in front of a screen he’s probably out trail-running.

Read Next

3 Essential Design Trends, December 2023

While we love the holidays, too much of a seasonal theme can get overwhelming. Thankfully, these design trends strike a…

10 Easy Ways to Make Money as a Web Designer

When you’re a web designer, the logical way to make money is designing websites; you can apply for a job at an agency,…

The 10 Most Hated Fonts of All Time

Remember when Comic Sans wasn’t the butt of the jokes? Long for the days when we actually enjoyed using the Impact…

15 Best New Fonts, November 2023

2023 is almost over, and the new fonts are still coming thick and fast. This month, we’ve found some awesome variable…

Old School Web Techniques Best Forgotten

When the web first entered the public consciousness back in the 90s, it was primarily text-based with minimal design…

20 Best New Websites, November 2023

As the nights draw in for the Northern hemisphere, what better way to brighten your day than by soaking up some design…

30 Amazing Chrome Extensions for Designers and Developers

Searching for a tool to make cross-platform design a breeze? Desperate for an extension that helps you figure out the…

Exciting New Tools for Designers, November 2023

We’ve got a mix of handy image helpers, useful design assets, and clever productivity tools, amongst other treats. Some…

The Dangers of Doomscrolling for Designers and How to Break Free

As a creative professional, navigating the digital realm is second nature to you. It’s normal to follow an endless…

From Image Adjustments to AI: Photoshop Through the Years

Remember when Merriam-Webster added Photoshop to the dictionary back in 2008? Want to learn how AI is changing design…

3 Essential Design Trends, November 2023

In the season of giving thanks, we often think of comfort and tradition. These are common themes with each of our three…

30 Obsolete Technologies that will Perplex Post-2000s Kids

Remember the screech of dial-up internet? Hold fond memories of arcade machines? In this list, we’re condensing down 30…