Therefore, I’m in the process of introducing cheaper renewals for DevPress.com memberships. I haven’t decided the exact price yet, but it should be around $20.00 — half of the current price to sign up the first time around.

Why charge for updates?

• It takes time to keep high quality products updated.
• 1000 updates (downloads) are nothing, but 300,000 downloads will start to hurt.
• It literally costs time and money to push out updates.
• Renewing your membership doesn’t mean getting just updates. You get new products too.

When can we expect cheaper renewals?
Sometime this year.

What happens to early adopters that signed up with $30 subscriptions?
If your subscription already renewed then cancel the subscription to prevent next year automatic renewal and contact me so I can refund the difference. After your current membership expires, you can renew manually.

What about the REALLY early adopters with lifetime and $5 subscriptions?
Thank you for the early support. This will not affect you.

Tourmaline is the third theme to be released within the last two weeks on DevPress (patting myself on the back). Inspired by and very much based on AlistairLane.com.

Tourmaline is a four-column theme made for personal photo-blogging. It features a cool gray-scale home page showing colored photos only when you hover on top of each photo.

It’s also the first theme to be made entirely in the browser by me, skipping Photoshop, Fireworks, or what have you. I’m a visual learner, meaning I work and learn better than I have something to look at. Designing in the browser is a very abstract task so I’m trying to get used to it by tackling a simple layout first and using AlistairLane as my base. I hope you like it and more themes are coming soon!

Now that WordPress copied Tumblr’s way of publishing with the addition of post format UI in the upcoming 3.6 release, we can all breathe a sigh of relief and kick originality out the freakin’ door. I’m not saying this is the beginning of a trend. It’s more like the last straw for innovative thinkers in the WordPress market.

Since the beginning of the WordPress economy back in… 2008-ish, WordPress and its community have been absorbing the best ideas from each other, other CMS, markets, and what have you into their own projects and into WordPress core. If your plugin is any good, it’ll show up in core and you can kiss your business goodbye. If your theme design is any good, a bigger theme company will copy and sell it to their own customers. It’s the nature of GPL.

By itself, the post format UI isn’t a big deal but considering the copy-cat trend since 2008, it’s the most shameless. Shame on me as I’m a WordPress developer myself. Sorry for picking on WordPress core but it’s the most influential entity to use as an example without consequence. Had I picked on another company, the comment thread for this rant would turn into a war due to sensitive hypocrites.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with this trend and neither did Steve Jobs when he cherry picked ideas for Apple. I’m just saying innovation by 2013 is a hobbyist game in the WordPress world. Innovation is done by people with no stake in the WordPress market and that’s the real shame.

Our arms are wide open to innovation. We always need new stuff to sell. However, we don’t nurture innovative thinkers. A good idea published/sold on Monday will show up in another company’s products the next Monday. Of course, big companies sometimes innovate too and nothing stops you from forking them back, but the problem is ubiquity.

Here’s what this rant really comes down to. In 2013, the rich gets richer. To win on the back of new ideas, strike fast and don’t stop until you become one of the bigger companies. Then, you know what to do. Absorb other people’s ideas into your company and repeat the cycle!

With many authors already focused on catering to blogs with multiple post formats (videos, images, quotes, etc.), I felt the need to create a classic two-column blog theme focused on long articles and came up with Insouciance. You can check it out here and members can download it here.

It’s been a while since the last theme release here on DevPress.com. I was busy with DP Dashboard. I’m happy to announce the release of Beaver — a single-column WordPress theme focused on blogging. You can view the demo here. Members can login to download it now.

Building this theme made theme development fun again for me. I’m actually brainstorming the next release already. Thanks to Justin Tadlock and the ThemeHybrid community for keeping theme development easy and fun. (All themes on DevPress are powered by the Hybrid Core framework — developed by Justin.)

Version 0.1, the Jab

Before delving deep into version 0.2, I need to explain 0.1. It’s basically me saying, “Hey! Look at this thing that you can customize.” Version 0.1 met resistance instantly because it wasn’t ground breaking (although it continues to be the best selling item on DevPress) so I held off on promoting the plugin.

Basically, I took a safe step, got mixed reactions, and didn’t feel right promoting a product lacking the “wow” factor. I took the 0.1 criticisms and went back to the drawing board living a hermit life for a month and half before emerging to release version 0.2 yesterday and say, “Here’s what’s actually possible.”

Version 0.2, the Haymaker

Introducing version 0.2, the swinging-wildly, out-of-nowhere punch that’s going to knock your digital socks off. Unlike 0.1, it does have the wow factor, here’s proof. The new admin theme, Hunter, mentioned in that tweet is the main attraction for 0.2. But before we get to Hunter, here’s a quick recap:

Features Added

• Auto-update: Almost everyone asked for this so it’s here now.
• Media Uploader: New are two upload fields for banner and background images.
• Custom CSS: This is not a new feature, but it was re-written so you don’t lose your custom CSS with every auto-update.
• Custom Theme Capability: This was not possible in 0.1, but it is now. Documentations on developing custom themes are coming soon.
• Hunter: new admin theme.

Focus of Version 0.2

It no longer overwrites admin CSS. It is the admin CSS. DP Dashboard has been completely rewritten to remove the flash of default design before every refresh.

Most importantly, the focus is on allowing other developers to modify DP Dashboard. Open up the plugin so everyone who knows how can modify it at their own pace. If you’re an expert, you don’t have to wait for updates to get new features. Code it yourself and add it instantly through custom CSS or custom themes.

The Hunter theme

Any positive feedback for this release will be about Hunter. That’s how important it is to version 0.2. However, it’s not built for everyone. We’re humans and individually experience things differently. If you love Hunter, it means you prefer to… flow/experience WordPress differently. It doesn’t mean Hunter is superior to the default admin.

Hunter is a one-column admin theme built for single-tasking. Single tasking? Yes. Much of WordPress is built for multitasking. This explains the intimidation that greets beginners when first introduced to WordPress. There are so much to look at, all at once; it’s overwhelming. If you prefer multitasking, use the Base theme.

You can have many features, but don’t display them all on one page.

At the moment, almost everyone involved in WordPress core development seems to think the more features the better. There are pros and cons to adding more features. I’m not here to debate for either side, but I am saying not everyone need to use hundreds or even tens of features simultaneously so don’t design the WordPress admin that way.

For example, if you need to write, just write. Don’t worry about anything else. Here’s Hunter simplifying the writing page:

and compare that to WordPress’s default design…

As you can see, they’re two different philosophies. The latter is developer driven squeezing everything above the fold so you can access everything. The former is designer driven focusing on just one task at a time.

The Benefits of Hunter

• Better experience for people who prefer to single-task.
• An admin interface that you’d be proud to present to first-time WordPress clients.
• Less presence of WordPress branding in your WordPress admin. There’s no footer thanking you for using WordPress and the WordPress logo in the admin bar and on the login page is gone. Hunter is built for a personal experience, not a WordPress experience.

More Hunter Benefits

Selective indicators for main admin menu: WordPress places an icon next to every main menu item. This approach becomes less and less effective considering users can create their own custom post types through plugins now and many neglect to create a custom icon for each custom post type.

Also, when everything stands out nothing actually will, therefore, the Hunter admin menu uses icons for the most used items only. For distinguishing non-icon menu items, it relies on typography.

Simplified Menus page: This one is one of my favorite features. Menu boxes have been condensed into tabs. The default active tab is the Theme Locations tab so there’s less guessing to do for beginners. The Widgets page was given the same treatment.

Improved comments listing on Edit Post page: A bad habit of mine is clicking on the comment permalink to read the comment on the front-end because the default design for comment listing on the admin page is not friendly. It reduces the entire comment content down to a wall of texts.

This habit is a huge waste of time so here’s the new design to keep you on the same page for improving productivity.

Redesigned Category and Tag adders: For people using many categories and tagging (probably too much), you don’t have to thank me. I already know =).

Conclusion

DP Dashboard version 0.2 is more than a handful. You’ll have to experience all of the improvements and features for yourself.

By the way, I’m really bad at marketing. If you want to help me, I pay 70% per referral. Here’s DevPress.com’s affiliate program. The high commission rate is for thanking you for helping with what I know almost nothing about. I’m a developer, not a marketer. Although 30% profit per sign up is not enough to justify the work I’ve put in DP Dashboard, I believe in repeat business. I’m positive anyone who buys my plugin will come back next year for a membership renewal.

The affiliate program is currently invite-only. Once it goes public, available to all, the official commission rate will be lower than 70%. Don’t worry though, invited affiliates will not be affected by the decreased commission rate. If you’ve been invited, your rate is 70%, always.

• desktop or wide screen view
• desktop, but javascript turned off view
• mobile and small screen (small screen and mobile are related, but different still). You need to test hover activated actions with an actual mobile device or simulator.

My checklist isn’t definitive. I’m sure I’ll have more to add as DP Dashboard development moves along and as WordPress changes with each version. And here’s the actual checklist:

components:
	* alerts / notifications
		* message
		* error
		* update nag
		* login error
	* admin bar
		* first level
			* second level
				* third level
			* second level secondary
				* third level secondary
		* first level secondary item
			* second level
				* third level
			* second level secondary
				* third level secondary
		* buddypress menu items
	* left admin panel
		* normal view
			* icons
			* menu-name
			* pending updates / moderation indicators
			* sub menus
			* sub menu of currently expanded parent item
		* collapsed view
		* auto collapsed view
	* headings
		* h2 heading tabs
		* h3 heading tabs
		* reset headings inside of comments
		* headings in popups and iframes
	* lists
		* custom unordered lists
		* custom ordered lists
		* .categorychecklist
		* .tagchecklist
		* #plugin header tabs
		* .subsubsub
	* descriptions
		* .howto
		* .description
		* .indicator-hint
	* form fields
		* buttons
			* .button-primary
			* .button-secondary (for backward compatibility)
			* .button-large
			* .button-small
			* .button-group (an example of it is available on the media frame Insert From URL view after you've given a valid image address)
	* forms
	* tables
		* fixed
		* form table
		* widefat
		* wp list table
	* editors
		* text
		* visual
		* comment submission editor
		* press this editor
	* wp pointers
		* up
		* down
		* left
		* right
	* media frame
		* media library
		* insert from url
		* set featured image
	* color picker

pages (and their components):
	* about
		* changelog
		* credits
		* freedoms
		* back to dashboard link
	* dashboard:
		* home
			* browser nag (not displayed by default unless your browser is out of date)
			* right now stats
			* recent comments
				* pending styles
				* undo row
			* rss widget
				* simple view
				* detailed view
			* links
			* plugins
			* quickpress
			* recent drafts
			* welcome screen
		* updates
	* posts
		* all posts
			* subsubsub
			* search
			* tablenav
			* row actions
			* bulk edit
			* quick edit
		* add new
			* global 
			* visual editor
				* buttons
				* split buttons
				* mceText
				* help window
				* editor style inside visual editor frame
			* text editor
				* buttons
			* no js editor
			* post boxes:
				* publish
					* post status
					* post time stamp / scheduling
					* move to trash link
					* publish / update button
					* no js view
				* post formats
				* categories
					* tabs
					* tab panels
					* add new category link
					* add new category fields
					* no js view
				* tags
					* add new tag
					* tag suggestion results
					* tag cloud
					* no js view
				* featured image
					* image
					* remove image link
				* custom fields
					* table
					* add new button
					* custom fields in side sortable view
				* comments
				* author
				* discussion
				* revisions
					* revision comparison
		* categories
			* add category form
			* categories listing
				* quick edit
			* mobile view
		* tags
			* tag cloud
	* media:
		* library
			* attach image window
		* add new
			* drag drop area
			* list of uploaded images
			* html uploader
	* links:
		* all links
		* add new
			* links table
		* link categories
	* pages:
		* all pages
			* bulk edit
			* quick edit
		* add new
	* comments:
		* all
		* pending
		* approved
		* spam
		* trash
	* appearance
		* themes
			* current theme
			* available theme
			* action buttons
			* individual theme details
			* theme preview iframe
			* broken themes listing
			* theme search/install
				* update link in action buttons area, in case the theme listed is already installed
			* theme installer iframe (different from theme preview iframe)
		* widgets
			* available widgets
			* inactive widgets
			* widgets within available sidebars
			* expanded widget view
			* no js view
			* accessibility enabled view
			* accessibility enabled, individual widget edit page
		* menus
			* menu settings column
				* theme locations
				* custom link
				* pagination of available links (for example, the posts box cannot list all posts if there are too many so it provides pagination when you're trying to view all posts on Menus page)
			* menu edit column
				* menu tabs
					* menu tabs pagination
				* menu header
				* menu body
					* menu items
						* name
						* edit link
						* edit fields
						* wide edit fields
						* link to original
						* remove/cancel links
					* no js view of menu items
				* menu footer
		* background
		* theme settings
		* editor
	* plugins:
		* installed plugins
			* row actions
			* inactive plugins
			* update notification
		* add new
			* plugin details window
		* editor
			* textarea
			* files listing column
			* documentations
	* users:
		* all users
		* add new
		* your profile
	* tools:
		* available tools
			* press this button
		* import
		* export
		* press this popup window
	* settings
		* general
		* writing
		* reading
		* discussion
		* media
		* privacy
		* permalinks

* check everything above on a multisite install

If you’re a great developer, don’t make people think you’re not by having custom, but ugly plugin setting pages.

Use What’s There

The majority of scenarios have been built. The WordPress UI team doesn’t exist for nothing you know? Take advantage of the WordPress admin form tables, postbox, two-column liquid layout, thickbox, buttons, tables, etc. If that aren’t enough tools for you to put together your plugin setting page:

• Does it need to be that complicated?
• What can you live without?
• Show it to me for suggestions.

Things That Float

Imagine how it will look if the users were to resize browser pushing the floated element to its own line.

Use box-sizing: border-box; for any custom item not supported by WordPress admin CSS so the padding of the item gets included in the width. For example:

DON’T

#example {
	float: left;
	padding: 10px;
	width: 95%;
	}

DO

#example {
	box-sizing: border-box;             
		-moz-box-sizing: border-box;
		-webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
	float: left;
	padding: 10px;
	width: 100%;
	}

Typography and Sizing

If you’re structuring the page by sub headings, respect the WP admin CSS sizing. Don’t try to change h3, h4, etc. Users are used to the bigger system. Don’t make them learn a new system just for your plugin. If a user installs 20 plugins, each with its own custom settings page, that’s 20 new structures to learn.

Use percentages and ems instead of pixels. For example, if a word should be a little bit bigger, use font-size: 120%;. This works regardless of WordPress admin css or any colors scheme stylesheet provided by plugins.

Use WordPress’s typography selectors:

.alert
.alt
.alternate
.approve
.activate
.deactivate
.delete
.file-error
.highlight
.message
.spam
.trash
.unapprove

Ordered and Unordered Lists

By default, WordPress uses decimal for ordered lists and nothing for unordered lists. If you need to number or bullet your lists, style your list based on:

ul.ul-disc {list-style: disc outside;}
ul.ul-square {list-style: square outside;}
ol.ol-decimal {list-style: decimal outside;}

Buttons

Several types of buttons are available to form and link buttons:

.button
.button.button-hero
.button.button-large
.button.button-small
.button-secondary /* for backward compatibility */
.button-primary
.button-primary.button-large

Don’t forget button groups:

.button-group .button

Buttons within button groups will display as inline blocks and have no margins other than a negative side margin so the buttons overlap each other by one pixel creating a line of visually linked buttons.

Page Titles and Tabs

Use h2 for the main page title. Within the page title, you can have tabs and .subtitle. Here’s an example of tabs:

<h2 class="nav-tab-wrapper">
	<a href="themes.php" class="nav-tab nav-tab-active">Manage Themes</a>
	<a href="http://dp.dev/wp-admin/theme-install.php" class="nav-tab">Install Themes</a>
</h2>

But remember, just because tabs are doable doesn’t mean you should rely on them for all plugin navigation. Imagine ten tabs for tablet or mobile view — not user friendly.

WordPress.org Guidelines and Policies

There are pros and cons to the way WordPress.org and WordCamp (extension of WordPress.org) are run. I’m here to argue for neither. WordPress.org has the right to do whatever it feels as a website and organization. I deserve the same freedom on DevPress.com.

What’s troubling for me personally is how a massive site like WordPress.org continues to make decisions against the interests of the community without consequence. Every couple of years, something new gets established at WordPress.org. We’d argue about it at the expense of someone’s blog for about 100 to 200 comments and then learn to live with it without compromise.

Surprisingly, we have no influence on the hub we contribute to. It’s like an immune system trying to a keep a person alive, but he/she can’t stop getting sick. Even if it’s for a good cause like running for a healthier body, you shouldn’t run 20 miles on the first day. Maybe , you (WordPress.org) should learn to listen to your body (community).

Compromise and Take Care of Your Kids

That’s what parents do for the good of the family. Some suggests Automattic should create a 100% GPL compliant market to replace ThemeForest. That’s a no-no. When parents fight based on personal interests, they need to compromise, not win. When one side wins, you get even less freedom.

Create Grandparents

The WordPress community needs a new WordPress centric place to simply exist without strict guidelines.

• a place to act as a hub for communication
• an unbiased source where we can read the news, learn, and exist without the filters that are WordPress.org and Themeforest.net
• a place to meet up for online events
• and maybe a free market will grow from it without affecting the .org side of your WordPress life

Why do we, one of the biggest communities online, spread ourselves too thin across Twitter, Facebook, WordPress.org, Google Plus, etc.?

Why There’s No Neutral Ground

Like the personal computer/laptop, when you do anything to the WordPress admin and people don’t like it, it gets personal because we use WordPress so much, which explains why people will either hate it or love it.

Thank You to the WordPress UI Team

Before I address the recent criticisms, I want to thank the team behind the WordPress admin UI. It’s a difficult and thankless job. When you design for millions, you’re bound to have several hundred thousand pissed off users. You just can’t win.

Issue 1: It’s Ugly!

This is subjective. It goes back to my point above about designing for millions. So far, people who have actually used it, love it. If you don’t like the default style of DP Dashboard then wait for the upcoming themes. I have more coming.

Issue 2: Is WordPress really that difficult to merit a $40 improvement?

Concerning difficulty, for some it’s extremely difficult and mildly so for others, but deciding whether to use this plugin based on difficulty is missing the point.

The open source nature of WordPress and specifically how new features/improvements are currently decided aren’t a good platform for design collaboration. The system lacks vision for the bigger picture and user experience regarding what you actually feel when you use the WordPress admin.

John O’nolan sums it up in fourteen words:

…things that are wrong with WordPress: A bunch of developers, discussing design, in Trac.

I made this plugin for myself and who I am is a full-time WordPress designer/developer/blogger, basically someone who uses WordPress frequently. (My skills aren’t up there with the best of them to consider myself a designer/developer, but that’s the easiest way to explain what I do.) And, for full-time WordPress professionals like me, it’s well worth the money and then some.

Three reasons to use DP Dashboard:

• Happiness during work hours affects productivity. Why compose blog entries in text editors like NotePad when you have the WordPress editor itself to work with? Eight hours per day, everyday, how many times have you mis-clicked something because the sub actions/tasks were hard to identify? Don’t you wish everything was easier to find?
• I built this for designers/developers and meant it. DP Dashboard is a month worth of documentations. That alone is worth the money if you’re planning on customizing the admin for yourself or for clients. (Visual documentations are coming soon.)
• Even among the mightiest heroes and few suave astrophysicists, only a handful fully understands the beauty and beast that is the WordPress admin. What you’re doing when you purchase DP Dashboard is giving yourself a head start and a constant guide to everything latest about the tool that you use everyday, leaving the heavy lifting to me.

Issue 3: You’re just skinning it, not making it simpler!

Whoah! One step at a time. I haven’t shown you the experimental features and themes being built. The default theme IS a simplification of the admin, but not to the extent the WordPress community has been hungry for. I did this purposely for the initial DP Dashboard release because I want to set the tone for this plugin and that is to say DP Dashboard is an alternative for everyone, not just a select few.

The WordPress admin UI currently does a good job of handling and presenting all of its features to all different types of users. Drastically simplifying the admin requires going niche, meaning designing for a small group of people with a limited and very specific use of WordPress. For example, designing for bloggers requires removing most menu items. That would be useful to bloggers, but not to everyone else who uses WordPress for other purposes (portfolios, ecommerce, etc.) I didn’t want the first release to be experimental, which is only useful for a select few.

Conclusion

Most criticisms are based on my own shortcoming with the English language. I’m not a writer and certainly didn’t do a good job of explaining the initial DP Dashboard release on its home page. Last but not least, thank you very much to those who purchased the DP Dashboard. You’re contributing to a project much needed in the WordPress community.