It’s really easy to get caught up in implementation details. I do it and watch people do it all the time. When I’m working on things, and especially when I’m stuck in a rut, I think to myself: “How can this make a user feel more confident?” This is relevant even when there’s no UI involved – a user can be a lot of different things. For instance:
- Local autosaves of post content help users feel confident that they can choose to write directly in the editor without fear of data loss. (You can still write somewhere else, that’s cool. I happen to like the WYSIWYG.)
- Not having shared terms helps users of both code and UI feel confident that changes to one taxonomy term won’t unexpectedly affect another.
- Widgets in the customizer remove the element of “save and surprise” on a live site. The customizer as a whole is grounded in easing that friction.
- Embed previews help creators feel confident about the appearance and content of their site.
- Automatic background updates help site owners feel confident about the security of their site.
Right now, I think new-to-WordPress-admin users never get a chance to build that confidence. What can we do for them, while not hindering those who already have that confidence? We want to surprise and delight – but that means delightful surprises, not jarring ones.
