I’m sure there’s a lot of discussion in the Beta forum about this already, but since that’s closed to the general public I’m posting here. What do you think about the new, jQuery-enhanced UI?
I have to admit I am really (really) frustrated at the general experience and polish of the control panel. Every page of the control panel renders, then re-renders for at least a few seconds as the corners are made round, fields are hidden, images are replaced. Some of the elements on the default theme are hard to read or are over-designed. The main menu buttons at the top of the CP (“content,” “design,” etc.) are especially jarring and hard to focus on, what with the oval gradients that fade into the background and hot-pink accents. Overall, the crisp and efficient visuals of 1.6.8 have been replaced with a candy interface that’s pretty to admire in areas but a pain to work with in others.
The Corporate theme helps a lot with visuals but the rendering speed of the javascript is still frustrating and makes for a very clunky experience.
Glad I got that out of my system. Am I the only one?
I’m sure there’s a lot of discussion in the Beta forum about this already, but since that’s closed to the general public I’m posting here. What do you think about the new, jQuery-enhanced UI?
It takes some getting used to. Compare EE’s CP with Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, and friends. There’s a lot more going on in EE’s CP. And, it’s a drastic change from what we’re familiar with in EE 1.6.8.x, so it takes awhile to figure out what’s what, and where it is, what it does, etc.
I have to admit I am really (really) frustrated at the general experience and polish of the control panel. Every page of the control panel renders, then re-renders for at least a few seconds as the corners are made round, fields are hidden, images are replaced.
I’m not experiencing any of those problems (been on beta for awhile). What browser are you using? What system (Mac, PC?). Some of that sounds like caching issues.
Some of the elements on the default theme are hard to read or are over-designed. The main menu buttons at the top of the CP (“content,” “design,” etc.) are especially jarring and hard to focus on, what with the oval gradients that fade into the background and hot-pink accents.
I’m no fan of the ‘hot pink’ either, and you’re right about those button/tabs melding into the background. That’s probably an easy touch up. I’ve not encountered too many issues elsewhere (some links are broken).
Overall, the crisp and efficient visuals of 1.6.8 have been replaced with a candy interface that’s pretty to admire in areas but a pain to work with in others.
EE’s 1.6.8 CP got plenty of criticism in the past few years for being stark, spartan, and poorly laid out (EE grew quite a bit since early 2004, so the complexity was reflected in the CP, too).
That said, I’ve been a big fan of the 1.6.8 CP, probably because I knew where everything was and could get there quickly. Not so in EE 2.0. That’s a familiarity issue, not necessarily a design issue.
The Corporate theme helps a lot with visuals but the rendering speed of the javascript is still frustrating and makes for a very clunky experience.
I prefer the Corporate theme, too. Crisp, clean, lean, and no eye candy. But I’m not getting any Javascript or CSS slow downs. It’s as snappy or nearly so as the 1.6.8 CP version (running on MAMP 1.8.3 using Firefox and Safari). Try a few different browsers (always a good idea).
Glad I got that out of my system. Am I the only one?
Nope. There are niggling and sundry issues here and there. Anything loved and familiar that’s replaced by something that is not (yet) can cause a negative reaction. EE 2.0’s biggest problem (from my humble and experienced perspective) has more to do with anticipation than the platform, features, or changes. The expectations were growing and high. The beta period will help iron out some of the hiccups, burps, and gotcha’s—and, get us familiar with what EE 2.0 was really designed to do (the future).
I’m so excited about the 2.0 release it’s like Christmas morning at age 8. Only I think I gotta wait through a lot of the Beta shakeouts and conversion of 3rd party apps (which I’m told will be snappy). Christmas is probably off in late January sometime…..
I’d like to see a sticky forum topic on 2.0 where questions can be answered. Why are Trackbacks deprecated, for instance? (not going to miss them terribly, but I’m interested in the reasoning from a design standpoint)
I’m also a little let down by the loading time of images in the UI.
When I click on one of the buttons at the top of the page I have to wait at least 3 seconds for the background of the dropdown menu to show. The same goes for the rounded corners. I haven’t tried any of the other CP themes yet so switching might fix it. I love the new EE though.
I’m not experiencing any of those problems (been on beta for awhile). What browser are you using? What system (Mac, PC?). Some of that sounds like caching issues. … But I’m not getting any Javascript or CSS slow downs. It’s as snappy or nearly so as the 1.6.8 CP version (running on MAMP 1.8.3 using Firefox and Safari).
Are you running a local install? That would explain why your experience is snappy. The slowdown here isn’t caching — it’s because jQuery waits for the DOM to render before applying its changes. In essence you wait for the page to download, then you wait again as jQuery goes to work. On a smaller website or a page with less jQuery-powered rounded corners the effect is a lot less noticeable. But there are a lot of elements replaced in the new EE CP.
Are you running a local install? That would explain why your experience is snappy.
Yes. It’s snappy.
However, I just installed EE 2.0 PB on a remote dev server (about 5,000 miles from my browser) and can’t tell much of a difference in menu performance or CP page formation. There is a brief pause in the menu the first time a page loads. Subsequent reloads are fine. I’m using Safari and Firefox.
Also tried out the Mobile CP Theme using an iPhone logging in to the remote dev server. Very cool.
UPDATE: Using EE 2.0 PB on the remote server, I can see performance of menus and effects varies greatly between browsers. Safari is fast and smooth with hardly a ripple or delay. Google Chrome shows a few delays in jQuery effects here and there. Delays are more pronounced in Firefox and SeaMonkey and even worse in Opera.
Well Gramps, then you are in a unique group. Others ARE getting this rendering delay, which likely points to either poor optimization or the need rethink the UI approach.
For testing measures, I pushed this build both to our Rackspace Cloud server and another here in town, both are getting these delays in FF 3.5, Safari 4.x, Chrome, and IE 8. Same results both on my work box and now at home.
Again, I’m still surprised there isn’t a theme that works great as CSS2 with little to no rounded corners, and also uses CSS3 for rounded corners.
Again, I’m still surprised there isn’t a theme that works great as CSS2 with little to no rounded corners, and also uses CSS3 for rounded corners.
Same here; or at least have the rounded corners built using progressive enhancement for browsers with CSS vs jQuery.
The other thing I’m thinking is elements that are hidden (that is, elements that are displayed first and eventually hidden via jQuery) should be hidden initially via CSS then displayed w/ javascript interaction. It would make the CP so much snappier. The major benefit of having elements hidden via javascript is progressive enhancement, but since JS is required for the CP to be accessible it’s not applicable.
The Corporate theme helps a lot with visuals but the rendering speed of the javascript is still frustrating and makes for a very clunky experience.
Glad I got that out of my system. Am I the only one?
I really don’t like the visuals of the interface, I love that 1.6.8 is so clean. From watching the EECI videos I realize that most of the IA and interface was designed by the developers not designers. That’s what I am guessing, it explains a lot.
EDIT: Thankful for all the hard work they have put into it, just wish the UI was better designed.
Every page of the control panel renders, then re-renders for at least a few seconds as the corners are made round, fields are hidden, images are replaced.
Here in a local environment evereything is smooth. At the moment I’m not able to test remote on a production box via DSL.
But I’m not ok with the “click feature” of main navigation items, I would expect a :hover action. And the notification bar overlaps the menu, so it is not accessible for some seconds (Thread for the issues).
rmedek - 03 December 2009 03:50 AM
Some of the elements on the default theme are hard to read or are over-designed.
Yeah, for instance the contrasts of some elements are deadly for usability: example.
But I’m not ok with the “click feature” of main navigation items, I would expect a :hover action.
Oddly enough I am thrilled that there’s no :hover action. The first thing I do on a 1.6.x install is to change the Publish button behavior to “click.”
I’m of the very firm mindset that hovering should reveal capability for an action and clicking should result in the action. In my opinion, :hover effects have gone overboard and unintentional actions from stray hovering are at best annoying and at worst impede accessibility.
(can you tell this has been an issue w/ me for some time? :)
I really don’t like the visuals of the interface, I love that 1.6.8 is so clean. From watching the EECI videos I realize that most of the IA and interface was designed by the developers not designers. That’s what I am guessing, it explains a lot.
I was thinking the same thing — it has the feel of developers taking a designer’s mock-up and making it a UI. To be honest, I’m a little disappointed…I feel EE gracefully handles so many issues when developing a site, I wish the UI reflected that for the client.
I was thinking the same thing — it has the feel of developers taking a designer’s mock-up and making it a UI. To be honest, I’m a little disappointed…I feel EE gracefully handles so many issues when developing a site, I wish the UI reflected that for the client.
If you watch Derek Allard EECI video about the file manager system you can see how it got to where it did. How about wireframing the CP UI before it gets built?
The thing that really gets me is in Veerle’s presentation where she was briefed to create a “more professional” interface “less blog-like” but I really think the opposite has happened. 1.6.8 looks professional, 2.0 looks more blog-like?? (this is my opinion)
As one who has used every CP in the book over the years, the old 1.6.8 CP was fine, though spartan and seemingly a bit convoluted to new users. Since I know where everything is in the CP (mostly), it was familiar and therefore easy. The new CP is not, but it’s also not a problem to navigate despite a few interface hiccups (that’s why they call it ‘beta’).
WordPress? Please. WP’s CP is very pleasant and quickly becomes comfortable but has nowhere near the complex functionality of EE 2.0’s CP.
I’d beg to differ on this…the complexity of EE’s control panel is more a matter of organization than interaction. I’ve worked in the current WP interface and it’s nothing short of impressive.
If anything, I’d argue that the WP interface is more complex since it attempts to display most available information upfront. But it remains cleanly designed, with snappy interaction, and consistent visuals.
I like the organization better on this new CP, but the interface just isn’t cutting it for me.
On a related note, I can make sense of most of the templating for the control panel, but I can’t see how to edit the javascript used (other than brand new files, I guess?)…
I’d beg to differ on this…the complexity of EE’s control panel is more a matter of organization than interaction. I’ve worked in the current WP interface and it’s nothing short of impressive.
What’s to differ? I like the WP CP. It’s very good, highly usable, a vast improvement over previous versions, and a place where EE could go for inspiration.
However…
If anything, I’d argue that the WP interface is more complex since it attempts to display most available information upfront.
Sorry, that’s just not the case. WP has a fraction of the editable, configurable options running in EE 2.0. Putting all that functionality in an organized, usable interface is no mean feat. WP doesn’t have to worry about the sheer number of user configurable functions nearly so much.
But it remains cleanly designed, with snappy interaction, and consistent visuals.
Very much so. Nicely done. But, again, it doesn’t have to do as much, either. WP’s functions (and by association, the CP) are more of a small, structured, rigid subset of what EE 2.0 already does.
I like the organization better on this new CP, but the interface just isn’t cutting it for me.
Isn’t organization a part of the interface (or, is the other way around)? I don’t have a major issue with EE 1.6.8x CP, either. Through the years it has became somewhat unwieldy, of course. That’s a natural evolution of increased functionality. EE. EE 2.0 seeks to spread out those features through the interface with more logical organization, and largely succeeds (we have to beware that initial impressions are born of previous experience in EE).
What I would like to see from more experienced developers and UI experts, beyond the typical “I don’t like…,” is “This isn’t good because…” and, “This would be better if done this way…” Folks at EE could also chime in (they’re probably a little busy now) with the process they took to redesign the CP’s organization.
gramps, what’s being discussed here is the style and snappiness of the interface, not the information architecture of the control panel.
The CP has been very well organized as obviously a lot of thought went into this. Though I agree that there’s something lacking when it comes to being a snappy interface, and that a lot of effects could have been left out for the sake of simplicity and speed. That is not to say that Veerle has not done a great job, without doubt she is one of the best in the field. Fact of the matter is, jquery has been used abundantly in order to improve user experience, though, over-use it and it will backfire.
With that having said, the solution isn’t very hard or anything. Simply create your own interface, call it “lite edition” and stick with it. EE is flexible like that.
gramps, what’s being discussed here is the style and snappiness of the interface, not the information architecture of the control panel.
The CP has been very well organized as obviously a lot of thought went into this. Though I agree that there’s something lacking when it comes to being a snappy interface, and that a lot of effects could have been left out for the sake of simplicity and speed. That is not to say that Veerle has not done a great job, without doubt she is one of the best in the field. Fact of the matter is, jquery has been used abundantly in order to improve user experience, though, over-use it and it will backfire.
With that having said, the solution isn’t very hard or anything. Simply create your own interface, call it “lite edition” and stick with it. EE is flexible like that.
I was with you until that last part. Creating your own interface is a downright pain-in-the-ass. I know because I’m doing it now.
