A Fresh Take On The Design Of The WordPress Backend

Browsing ManageWP.org, I came across a submission that piqued my interests. George Kordas, an interactive designer and front end developer based in Melbourne, Australia, submitted a project to the creative social network Behance.net. WordPress Admin Theme Redesign is the name of the project and it shows a fresh new perspective on what the WordPress backend could look like.

Created in 2011, the project was meant to show a different look to the WordPress backend while matching the code to current HTML and CSS markup standards. According to George, he wanted to try to “create a more current and engaging user experience.” Near the end of the project’s description, he notes that this redesign will be a free plugin which is currently in production.

When asked on Twitter how far away this plugin was from being available, George replied:

https://twitter.com/GKordas/status/403041829525803008

The Excitement Over This Design Is Reminiscent Of Ghost

While this project barely had 2,000 views on Behance a few days ago, it’s now over 19,000 while news of its existence is spreading throughout the WordPress community. I’ve seen a lot of excitement surrounding this redesign. For instance, people are already asking where they can buy the plugin. It reminds me of the time Ghost was in the middle of its Kickstarter campaign. People were chomping at the bit to use software that had only been represented by screenshots. It was new, fresh, and even if backers didn’t have one idea as to how useable it would be, they didn’t seem to care.

Would Like To See More Admin Redesigns Like This Project

The redesign project by George is in a similar situation. It presents the WordPress administration area in a way we have not seen before. It has that new car smell but like Ghost, no one knows how useful the design will be. If a beautiful interface is not useable, then what’s the point? We’ll know how useful it is once the plugin is released. Until then, I’d love to see other people in the same career field as George take a stab at recreating the WordPress backend based on the way they think it should be designed.

I can’t wait to try out this plugin. I love the design improvements in the WordPress 3.8 backend but being able to use an entirely new concept is exciting. What do you think of the redesign based on the screenshots and the video on the project page?