Top Secret – New WordPress Admin UI Design

Finally, the WordPress Admin UI is getting a makeover! If you’re like me you’ve been waiting for the core code ninjas to give some attention to the WordPress Admin interface. Well, here it is, the core team has been hard at work on a modern new interface and so far, I’m loving it

Here’s a screenshot, no super heros were injured acquiring this:

Available as a plugin code named MP6:

According to Matt Mullenweg this is not intended for the general public, just for savvy WordPress enthusiasts eager to preview or contribute to a re-imagination of our collective home, wp-admin.

Here’s what’s new:

From the base of what was in trunk 3.6 last week, here’s what’s new:

• A visual treatment for the toolbar and menubar that visually unifies the two and reduces clutter.
• Flatter visual styling, with square corners, for tables and grouping elements like .postbox.
• Increased saturation of the traditional WP blue (old vs new comparison: http://cl.ly/image/1X2G3X1Y0y2g ).
• A splash of color to denote the current menu item. (gasp)
• Removed the burnt orange hover state in favor of a lighter blue.
• Single-color icons are now served via an icon font, making them load instantly and look crisp at any zoom factor. (The speed is noticeable on slower connections, like Gogo.) We can also use these for mobile apps.
• Consistent typography for all operating systems by including the Open Sans web font. (Cognizant of complications embedded this could entail.)
• Added padding between links in the menu for easier touch navigation, important as the majority of internet interaction will happen on touch devices within a few years.
• Lightened the page background using white backgrounds for grouping elements and a gray background for the body.
• Removed the large header icons for a cleaner look at the top of the page. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

According to WordPress.org, existence of this plugin will be officially denied, but discussion will happen at http://make.wordpress.org/ui/ if you’d like to participate.

Have you tried it out? What do you think?