Tag: publishing

Inclusive Design, Day 12/15: Improved Publishing Confidence on WordPress.com

This is day 12 of 15 in a short series on inclusive design. If you missed any of the earlier posts, see day 1 here or view the full list.

The pre-publish confirmation step in the WordPress.com editor.
Screenshot of the pre-publish confirmation step in the WordPress.com editor.

I’d like to share another example of solving for one case, extending to many. This one comes from my team at Automattic. We’re called “Delta” — and we focus on making the editing–publishing flow for WordPress.com as smooth and pain-free as possible.

The WordPress.com blog in English.
Screenshot of the WordPress.com blog in English. This blog is read by 40-plus million people.

From our own experience, we know that publishing content to the entire world can be nerve-wracking! This “publishing confidence” experience started out with a specific case in mind: the WordPress.com announcements blog. With 43 million email subscribers as of the latest count, the authors at Automattic writing for this English-language blog never want to accidentally hit that “Publish” button before a new announcement is polished and ready to go.

That’d be a total disaster, right?

Many years ago, we solved this by placing a tiny plugin created for our VIP customers on the WordPress.com blog. It’s super simple, a JavaScript alert() dialog intended to add a quick warning before publishing. Developed for use on high-end client sites running on WordPress.com, it looks like this:

View of the VIP plugin for publish confirmation.
Screenshot of the WordPress.com VIP plugin for “are you sure?” publishing confirmation.

Fast-forward to 2017 — the Delta team starts revamping these same publishing flows as we upgrade many of the key features in the new WordPress.com interface. As we researched the pain points in the experience, we realized that this same feeling of anxiety could be shared by many other people. In fact, our customers often wrote in to request this exact thing for their own blogs.

There needs to be an “Are You Sure” button on the publish section, I’ve accidentally published a blog post too early so many times. — A WordPress mobile app user, writing it to support in 2017.

What if we could make a product change to reduce that same anxiety for everyone? Well, yes — it makes sense. The team also upgraded the blog post preview pane to add in a switcher for screen sizes — mobile, tablet, and desktop — to further improve the confidence in the end result.

Solving this in the WordPress.com editor experience means making it much harder to accidentally publish on any blog. The change enables all of our customers to breathe easier. Like us with the WordPress.com announcements blog — they can now feel more confident that the changes they’re sharing are ready for the world.

The WordPress.com editor screen
Screenshot of the WordPress.com editor screen, showing the confirmation step in the sidebar. Note the opt-out checkbox to remove this extra step if it’s not helpful.
The WordPress.com preview pane.
Screenshot of the WordPress.com preview pane, showing screen size options. This way you can review your post before it goes live: in mobile, tablet, and desktop sizes.

See also Publishing on WordPress.com for a project-level report on improving this publishing experience written by colleague Shaun Andrews.

For day 13 of 15 of inclusive design, we’ll look at speed and connectivity as an exclusion example. How the trend of “Lite” apps built for certain markets to drive adoption brings needed improvements to everyone.

About this Inclusive Design series — In 3 days I’ll give a talk on inclusive design at WordCamp Phoenix 2018. Leading up to the conference I’m publishing notes on voices, stories, products, and other resources: everything I’m learning about this emerging practice. This is day 12 of 15. Read more about the series.

Video: A Look into Calypso

A Look into Calypso, a talk by Matías Ventura at WordCamp Europe 2016, is an engaging survey of the open source technology running the new WordPress.com publishing interface. Why it’s important, what it’s made of, the values and principles that guide it, and how to use it today for your own projects.

The introduction of Calypso has brought the notion of a modern JavaScript approach to the front and center of the WordPress community. What does an admin UI built entirely in JavaScript (with technologies like React that have taken the JavaScript community by storm) mean for WordPress and how we think of JavaScript in the project?

Matías ends with a challenge to everyone wanting to contribute to advancing JavaScript in WordPress; I won’t spoil it, watch the video to see the call to action.

Links and resources mentioned in the video below. You can also download the slides (PDF, 10.4 MB).

You Should Start a Blog

You blog whether you know it or not—even without a blog or website. You might not think of it as blogging. Yet, it is. Tweeting a photo or sharing an update on Facebook. A funny quote or story you see in your daily life. A beautiful sunset. Clueing in friends and family back home to a fun experience when you travel.

Blogging on your own website is much better than directly using services like Twitter and Facebook because you own your own content; it’s your online hub that you control. When people read your content, it will link back to you. Not some third-party site.

To spread the word to your social network—in case they don’t happen to know about or follow your blog—simply use features like WordPress.com’s Publicize and Sharing to share out the content to popular services (see Jetpack Publicize if you host your own blog).

To understand what I mean by publishing your content on your own blog—then push it from there to any social media service easily—I recommend watching this video: WordPress as Your Publishing Hub by Andrew Spittle (about 25 minutes long).

A few examples of my own blogs—several of which are brand new in the last few months.

Lance On the Go

Lance on the Go — A “moblog”, which is “mobile blogging” for quick things on the go, like from your phone, not long-form essays or big picture galleries. Not too polished or curated, just point-and-shoot and post.

Bad Français

Bad Français — My “Bad French” blog. As a language major (French & Spanish) I often find it hard to resist poking fun at misspelled foreign words—it’s a habit. Please don’t take offense if you or your business make it to this blog.

Theme Spotting

Theme Spotting — Geeky WordPress themes blog, fun with theme names. When you spot a theme in the wild, you post a picture of it. (Want to join the fun? See theme names at WordPress.com Theme Showcase and WordPress.org Theme Directory and then look for them as you are out and about.)

What to blog? Photos of things you see on your daily journey. Put up random notes. Whatever is on your mind. Quotes. Fun songs or videos you see online.

Why blog? Express yourself! Clue in your friends and family to your experiences. Importantly, you own the content you post—not a company like Facebook or Twitter. For me (any anyone in the WordPress community) it is good practice using WordPress itself: helping find bugs and suggesting improvements to the software. Using the mobile apps more, helping them be better.

Don’t just take my word for this, though, that you are a blogger and should blog. Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress, recently explained the “why blogging” succinctly when echoing Ernest Hemingway’s expression “write for two people: one specific person and yourself.” See also The Intrinsic Value of Blogging and Short-form blogging by Gina Trapani.

Let me know when you start and I’ll follow your blog. ):}