Hi! I’m new here. I work for Clear Interactive. I live in Melbourne, Australia. I love great user experiences. I’m here to listen. I’ve brought some friends with me as well.
We’ve been talking with Automattic for some time now about the WordPress for iPhone application. About the project, the community and the passion behind it. We want the WordPress for iPhone application to be the best mobile blogging tool on the iPhone.
I’d like to invite you into the thought process currently going on inside our collective heads.
Thinking Out Loud
First impressions count, it’s what I’d like to focus on right now. When you open WordPress for the first time you’re greeted with this screen:
You have two options:
- “Set up your blog”
- “About WordPress for iPhone”
The second option is interesting, but I’m not sure why it gets equal billing on the home screen when all anyone wants to do the first time they open the application is to set up their blog.
The “Add Blog” screen should be shown by default if you haven’t already added one:
Speaking of which, the cursor should already be placed in the “Blog URL” field and the keyboard should be displayed. There shouldn’t be an option to cancel as the application is unusable without at least one blog present.
The “Save” button should be disabled until the “Blog URL”, “User Name” and “Password” fields have been filled in. They keyboards return key should say “Next” instead of “Done”, it should jump into the next field I need to fill in.
It should change to “Done” only when I’ve entered all the required fields. At the same time the “Save” button should become enabled. In fact the “Save” button should probably read “Done” as well. Something like this:
When I’m done, I want useful feedback. Currently there is a spinning icon in the top right hand corner where the “Save” button used to be. But the keyboard is still present unless I hid it while entering my details. For all intents and purposes this screen still looks like it’s in an editable state. Except the application doesn’t respond at all! As a user, I require a clear indication of what is happening, otherwise confusion ensues, so we’ll fix that too.
After I click “Done” I’m back on the home screen. Why is that? Rather than adding another blog, it seems much more likely to us that you’ll want to start using the app to manage the blog you just added, so we’ll show the “Posts/Pages/Comments” screen instead. You can add the rest of your blogs later.
Moving Forward
As you can see we’ve been doing a lot of thinking, scrutinising and playing with ideas. We’ve already started adding these changes to the Subversion repository in the user-interface-rewrite branch.
They say you need to walk before you can run, let alone fly. Right now we’re still crawling, but here’s a sneak peak into the changes that we’ve got planned for the future:
User Interface Overhaul
- Home Screen
- Adding a Blog
- Editing a Blog
- Removing a Blog
- Change blog screen to use tab-bar navigation
- Changing the way local drafts work and are represented
Comment Moderation
- Activity Dashboard – Stream of consciousness for activity on a given blog
- Ability to quickly approve/delete/mark as spam
Statefulness
- Remember which blog I was working in. Go back to that blog when I restart the application
We’re Listening
While we’ve singled out these changes for the future, there’s every likelihood that you have other ideas. So while we’re thinking out loud, we would love for you to do the same. Add a comment, or post to the forums. We’re listening!
If it could support publishing of drafts & editing of custom fields – that would be awesome
Those are great usability improvements.
My suggestion: I think it would be a useful feature for users with the Editor or Administrator role able to approve, edit, and publish articles submitted by Contributors (a role that, by default, lacks permission to publish) on multi-author blogs.
Looking great. The comment moderation should be a useful feature.
Will there be any general administration abilities?
Good on you, Clear. I look forward to seeing what you cook up.
Dave.
I use the iPhone app to update my personal blog all the time. The one annoyance I’ve found is in posting iPhone screen-shots. When I take the screenshot as a horizontal it would be nice if it were posted as horizontal, instead of vertical (making everyone tilt their heads to read it). But I love the app, it makes life fun again.
There is nothing wrong with the current home page as it is. I think if you are going to put energy into change, the comment moderation is a great way to go.
Perhaps WordPress 2.9 / 3.0 will have some sort of API to allow full control of the backend through the application; and plugin authors could write for it as well
This is great news! I’ve had the WP app on my iPod touch for sometime now, but I’ve not been using it because of so many limitations. Looking forward to updates!
cool – I can’t wait as all the senior staff are getting iPhones this month.
Just a thought.
I don’t think the cancel button should be removed. You’re correct that the application is useless without a login, but being stuck on a data entry screen with only the home button to exit seems wrong. You’d be better off asking for credentials on the first screen, then at least the user doesn’t feel like they went somewhere within the application and got stuck because they didn’t wish to enter the data at that time, instead they entered the application and exited directly. Essentially the same thing, but one feels better, imo.
I guess I think a little different with the save button, I wouldn’t mind being able to save the url and username and then being allowed to come back and enter the password when I have it handy. However, this comes down to philosophy and I think your suggestions are great.
I love the app and can’t wait to see what else you guys will do with it!
This is tremendous! I am loving the convenience of it.
Need this interface for self-hosted WordPress blogs.
I would love to have a way to post a picture from my iphone direct to the WP media album, and make a post from it.
And to abbility to add some words, and a title…
If it can allow users to reply to comments from the iphone, it would be great.
great news! WP for iPhone was one of the first apps I downloaded when I bought my phone, but I haven’t used it nearly as much as I thought I might. Maybe only once a month since then, but I’d love it if it could become so easy to use that I can blog daily while on the road, or even better, micro-blog twitter style live to my blog when I am at events.
It would be nice if there was a way to see stats numbers for previous days.
Looking at WP on my iPhone through Safari, the charts don’t appear.
I agree with Thomas that comment moderation needs much more attention. I rarely blog from my iPhone, but I rely on the app to moderate comments across 2 sites.
That said, I want to be able to bulk moderate comments without having to click each one individually. When I click the “Comments” link the list of comments should update automatically. Currently, I have to hit the refresh button first.
Handel the images is bad now and not flexibel enough. It will be great to choose the same settings like on the blog “thums, small, medium, full”. 640px is too small.
But: great work!
Ditto @blogie, I too have had it on my iPhone for ages, used it once or twice, but it managed to completely loose the draft I was working on, so I abandoned using it altogether (although it’s still installed). Looking forward to the improvements, they sound like a great start.
Totally agree about the home screen and flow (there isn’t any!)
Thats great to know man. Keep it up..
Great news and some sound, well thought out improvements. Look forward to seeing it all evolve and chip in.
I’d like you to add the ability to make a post local again as i am often sans a connection (eg, on the tube) and there is no way to edit a already drafted/published post.
Cool. I agree with your changes. I think it makes sense to get the basics perfect right now before too much effort goes into anything else. Then once the fundamentals are rock solid then you can look at adding new features or improving existing functionality
Nice to meet you guys!!!
Some rather sensible opening points and comments here.
In terms of additional suggestions, the app needs to ensure that drafts are clearly handled separately until they are moved to published. Currently the delineation, and the overall structure, is not strong enough to give confidence it will save drafts (ideally offline) as they’re being developed and then published only when ready (and obviously online).
I like the usability improvements that have been suggested, and I also like that you are actually *making* these changes, rather than just talking about them.
That said, I think you need to look at the key use-cases for an iPhone app for WordPress.
The iPhone keyboard is horrible to type on, so people are unlikely to actually write blog posts using it. In my opinion, the killer features are
* comment moderation (so your blog stays fresh)
* changing post status (so you can publish pre-written material without using the “future date” publishing feature)
* view usage stats (if enabled for your blog)
* picture-related posts (upload photos from your iPhone)
Cheers,
Stu.
I’d love to be able to change the password without having to delete the iPhone app, reinstall it and then set up the account again!
Develop one for Android OS (G1 phone) which it already been updated to v1.5. Its a big improvement from previous version. Its ready to roll out as popular as iPhone.
Great ideas, bro. One thing that’s bugged me, and maybe you’ve fixed it already, is that a draft I save on my iTouch is saved to my iTouch and not to the online draft folder. That makes it tough for me to write an idea on the road and then expand it once I get to a computer with a real keyboard.
I’ve used the WordPress iPhone app regularly this year, to maintain my “picture every day” posts. Sometimes it hangs and loses the post, which is annoying – but if I make sure I have good coverage before posting, it works OK.
The one big negative is that the post insists on setting “width=300″ on pictures, even though I’ve set my blog default to 500.
Every picture post I make from the app, I have to go back and edit it to correct the image width values.
Other than that, it works and I’m happy with using it.
Wow!
I am truly taken aback by the number of comments posted in such a short amount of time. Thank you everyone.
All of your ideas have been noted. Some were already on the todo list, the new ones are in another list for sorting and prioritising.
Keep the feedback coming!
[...] A Change is in the Air Hi! I’m new here. I work for Clear Interactive. I live in Melbourne, Australia. I love great user experiences. [...] [...]
All sound like very sensible changes to an already good app. I look forward to seeing the results Gareth. I was also interested to see you’re working with Anthony at Clear Interactive, I know him from way back.
Sweet blog. I never know what I am going to come across next. I think you should do more posting as you have some pretty intelligent stuff to say.
I’ll be watching you .
It’s a great app, no doubt! But instead of putting to much effort in improving the ui of the home screen, the app should be stabilized. There is a lot of suggestions in the newly created forum you might follow.
And one thing: there is a lot of people who use the iPhone to seriously *write text*!
[...] WordPress for iPhone › A Change is in the Air We’ve been talking with Automattic for some time now about the WordPress for iPhone application. About the project, the community and the passion behind it. We want the WordPress for iPhone application to be the best mobile blogging tool on the iPhone. (tags: wordpress iphone blogging apps automattic) [...]
Please make the claimed “offline editing” work! I would like to be able to start a post on my iPod Touch from anywhere, without an internet connection, save it as a local draft, then upload it when I get home or to someplace with WiFi. Currently it doesn’t work. If I’m not connected to the internet, the app just spins a wheel on my blog and does nothing when I tap on a name.
Shame on you for advertising offline use when it doesn’t work!
Fantastic news. Very smart changes and think you are on the right track.
Streamlined setup/login (already covered)
Editing posts ( yes some of us DO use the iphone keyboard!!)
Not crashing when posting iPhone photos
Managing comments
Checkbox ( checked by default ) to Post Immediately
Right now I juggle between the wordpress app and loading the wp admin cp in safari. If I could do it all from the wp app that would rock. Thanks!!
what about having support for uploading videos to the blog?
with the new 3G S coming – now that would rock
[...] bigger UI changes we discussed earlier are well underway and will begin appearing soon in a future release. Possibly related posts: [...]
It’s great to see that I’ll be able to edit the blog, I recently changed my password and currently I have to remove the whole WfI app so I can update the password it’s a bit silly.
Also are you looking to improve the responsiveness on the home screen as there is a delay between touching an option and the blue highlight appearing.
Finally on my blog (wp 2.8) it couldn’t retrieve the categories or theme and it didn’t save the categories with the post that I specified – in case you weren’t aware of that.
This feature is probably a little too “out there” to be considered any time soon but I reckon it’d be brilliant if you could record a video from within the WordPress app, upload it to Youtube and and have the video embed code automatically inserted into the post the user is currently working on.
I would like a check box to force SSL connections for those of us that have SSL on our sites. Unless I am mistaken when using WiFi the data is not encrypted.
[...] I couldn’t find a list of new features from the iPhone WordPress blog but you could get details by looking at the blog. [...]
Hi,
I loved the app at first because I put an image and a small message up on both blogs I contribute to.
Would be great if the images coulbe be rotated as a long list of portrait images is no fun.
Easily adding a title or footnote for an image.
Changing password easily on accounts.
At present my app seems to have stopped adding the images on the sites, just meaningless references.
Good luck!
App does not work. When I set up my blog it validates correctly (I know this because I used the wrong username and it failed, when I put the correct username it went back to the home screen). Unfortunately there is a spinning wheel next to the arrow (>) for my blog, but it never stops spinning and I can never access any info regarding my blog.
[...] informatie over de vernieuwingen: A Change is in the Air Via: WordPress 2 submitted for review [...]