WordPress.org profiles are set to get a revamp in the very near future. Jen Mylo posted yeseterday, asking for thoughts and ideas about what to incorporate into the new profiles. She will be working with Mel Choyce to design a new UI for the profile data.
Mylo also initiated an effort to get speaker information from past WordCamp organizers as part of the plan is to bring in data from a user’s involvement in WordPress activities outside of WordPress.org. One of the biggest challenges, however, is ensuring that the profiles will be attractive for all users, including those with very little activity.
More User Data to Be Added to the Activity Stream
The current profiles on WordPress.org track support forum topics, ideas, and various activities related to Trac. The team plans to add the following additions:
- International Forums – new topic or reply (for poster)
- Plugins Directory – released a new plugin (for plugin author)
- Themes Directory – released a new theme (for theme author)
- Make P2s – newly published post (for post author)
- Make P2s – new comment (for commenter)
- Trac – new comment (for commenter)
- Trac – new props (for user getting prop’d)
- WordCamps – new speaker added
- WordCamps – new organizer added
The updated activity stream should be in place soon. Mylo floated a working sketch earlier today to illustrate some of the ideas they’ve been discussing. She emphasized that the changes to profiles are likely to be added over several iterations.
Ultimately, the team plans to merge the new WordPress.org profiles with the forums profiles, but this will probably be completed further down the road.
Your WordPress Resume and Dashboard
The feedback on Mylo’s post regarding how people use their WordPress.org profiles indicates that contributors want to be able to easily find trac tickets and conversations they’re involved in. Others commented that contact information and contributions such as plugins and themes are high on the list of items they look for when viewing a person’s profile.
“The way I’m looking at profiles from a UX perspective is that for a visitor, the profile serves as someone’s WP resume,” Mylo said. “While for the profile owner, it serves as the dashboard for their involvement in the open source project.”
In the past, many people haven’t bothered to use or update their WordPress.org profiles, perhaps due to the lack of relevant information displayed about user activities. The planned changes will make WordPress.org profiles the go-to place for finding out about someone’s interactions and contributions to the WordPress project. If you’re looking to hire a WordPress professional who has a history of contributing back, the new WordPress.org profiles will soon be the best representation of a person’s involvement with WordPress.
If you want to contribute to the conversation about WordPress.org profiles, head over to http://make.wordpress.org/community/2014/02/25/profiles-how-do-you-use-them-or-want-to/ and comment. :)