The upcoming WordPress 2.5 is delayed, which I saw coming, and that’s fine. I’d rather have a working release, than a buggy one, and I’m sure most of us agree.
One of the new features in 2.5 is a revamped admin look, something that won’t sit well with every user of course. Not that today’s theme is perfect in any way, but change always makes users react, which is why there are some admin themes available.
BloggingPro points out that 2.5 users will be able to get a cleaner admin look with the Fluency admin theme, looking a lot more sober than the new admin for sure.
That got me thinking. WordPress blogs are being used for more and more things, as is other blog platforms for that matter. Sometimes these new ways of using the platform means that you’ll want user to register and edit their details, which sends them into the one part of your site that isn’t controlled by your theme: The admin.
For instance, videogaming247 is forcing me to register, and while the login form and such are tailored, the actual admin isn’t, which is a hideous break to the actual site design.
Some screenshots below. The customized register box (login box is similar) to the right is the one they’re using, which fits the style well enough I’d say.
Above: The website • Below: Logged in
If you’re going to let users register, style the admin to fit your site’s design! Common sense.
Does that mean that we’ll see premium admin themes released in the near future? Perhaps as addons to premium theme releases? What do you think?
And I said it first!
I doubt that it will happen any time soon. The ability to change the administration panel through a plugin has been around for a long time, hence all the administration panel themes that are already out there. The fact is that most people don’t see why they would want to spend the time changing the design of a non-public facing system, especially if they want people with experience to be able to intuitively run around the WP admin.
Could you imagine a redesigned admin in every blog you posted on, with navigational items shifted around? That would get rather frustrating.
I don’t think they are ever going to really catch on commercially the way themes have. It seems really silly to send your ordinary site visitor to the wordpress dashboard. I think if a site wants a membership solution would be some sort of plugin.
And is it just me or is the new WP dash as unattractive as I think it is?
As I wrote in the post, I stumbled onto a site that let me into the admin area. It’s not that uncommon, and as WordPress continues to evolve, I’d reckon we’ll see more of this, blogs wanting to build membership directories and such.
But no, I don’t think it’ll be as big as premium themes are today. However, in the future, we might see admin themes as something of an add-on to the premium themes perhaps?
And Garrett, I think I agree. It’s not very nice…
I think your logic makes sense and it’s along the same lines of thinking that I had when considering the amazing amount of rejection people were having towards the 2.5 back end redesign. I thought that this would launch a health market for Admin Themes. Well, because of the changes that have taken place for the ability to upload stylesheets as plugins to change the colors, I don’t know if admin themes will be as big as I once thought.
However, when you mention premium themes, I can definitely see theme authors charging extra or providing a seperate yet cheaper price for an admin theme that goes with the front end design. But then again, Dave has mentioned the point which has yet to drive this sort of behaviour, and thats the fact of decorating a back end that most of the time, no one sees except the admins.