WordPress Ideas » Topic: Non-disruptive notifications (wp-admin)

Vitor Madeira on "Non-disruptive notifications (wp-admin)"

Vitor Madeira — Thu, 04 May 2017 08:52:10 +0000

I'm not a coder, but I really support this idea: notifications can make the difference between success or failure, depending if you fail to understand them or not, but can also be a real pain...

So my contribution to this idea would be: why not create a history of notifications since the very firs day of the WordPress installation?

Sometimes, one might click on the 'dismiss' button, but there you go... "That" was an important notification that you just deleted... What was in there that you did not pay attention?

History would help solve this problem.

(I'm using Windows 10 on a laptop and boy... How I would like to have an history of notifications there... ;) )

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) on "Non-disruptive notifications (wp-admin)"

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) — Mon, 27 Feb 2017 21:37:36 +0000

What do you mean by 'Right direction'?

You mean like the work being done in https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-notification-center ?

WPSight on "Non-disruptive notifications (wp-admin)"

WPSight — Sun, 26 Feb 2017 18:12:56 +0000

Hey, glad that I finally found a discussion around this topic. I recently stumbled upon the same issue and asked myself if there is already someone working on that problem or not. Couldn't find anything so far, so I started my own project right now.

I'm working on a "Better WordPress Admin Notices" Plugin which I aim to submit as a feature plugin and which should solve this whole thing finally by utilizing the same concept as popular platforms already do: A mixture of a notifications panel and live notification popups (bottom right).

If anyone could point me into the right direction I would be very grateful.

Thanks

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) on "Non-disruptive notifications (wp-admin)"

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) — Thu, 26 Nov 2015 00:55:53 +0000

It's showing you confirmation that yes it WAS saved. We used to have them fade away and people missed them :/

Neejoh on "Non-disruptive notifications (wp-admin)"

Neejoh — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 22:13:28 +0000

I admit I don't have a solid plan on how to go at it. I do know however, that the current way of displaying notices (non-call to action) ask way to much attention and break the natural flow of working with the WP admin.
I clicked on [update], I know the page will be saved. Why show me that when it's expected behaviour?

Multiple messages are bad in its own right in my opinion, but I'm sure we can find a better solution than stacking a couple messages right on each other right?

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) on "Non-disruptive notifications (wp-admin)"

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 21:58:30 +0000

Since there can be multiple messages, this really wouldn't work as well as it should. It would actually make people less likely to see and act on a notice :/

Neejoh on "Non-disruptive notifications (wp-admin)"

Neejoh — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 09:10:37 +0000

Currently all notifications in the WP Admin are placed in between the title and content of pages. This is bad, because it is taking up space pushing the expected content down.
This type of behaviour should be reserved for content or elements that require you to do something, not for someone or something telling you that you did an awesome job saving that page.

It breaks the user flow and even though not many users see "small" user experience flaws like this as an actual problem, it does pile up until the point where users notice them and get annoyed by them. For me that point has come a long time ago, but I'm hearing people around me experiencing the same. "Why does this happen, it's stupid...", and I agree.
This made me submit this idea.

Notifications should be non-disruptive. Maybe slide in or pop on screen to get a little attention but it should float and not take up any active space. Floating it in an empty space in the admin bar would be ideal. For the sake of a quick explanation I've attached an example floating it somewhere else, but you can see it does not take up more space than it should.
Or success messages anyway... With messages that require the user to do something, that is different.

User case: When a user is working on a page and clicks the [update] button, the page reloads. This takes a second, depending on the speed of the internet connection and browser (and hardware), even on very fast computers and internet connections. During this loading of the page, many users already move their mouse to the position of their next action, whatever that may be. Whether it being clicking in the textarea, title bar, the [view page] button or doing a metabox action.
In any case, you need to re-adjust your mouse position after it has fully reloaded because of the system notification pushing the content down.

TL;DR
Float notifications in the WP Admin, make them non-disruptive.

Attachment: Visual explanation of problem/solution »