Dashboard, sparkline gone
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Noticed this morning that clicking “My Sites” on the black admin bar no longer drops down the black Dashboard menu on the left side of the screen. Also the sparkline is gone.
That Dashboard menu is the only access I can find to certain custom features in my theme.
I can still get to the Dashboard if I click to edit an existing post, but I suspect that’s because I’m using a script to take me to the classic editor.
I’m using Chrome on a MacBook, both fully updated.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Assuming the above are probably permanent changes, more “improvements” that nobody asked for, I’d like to note a couple of things.
Your light blue menu backgrounds are killing readability. You’re probably thinking there’s less glare with the light blue, but there’s also less contrast, which makes it much harder for some people to read.
And second, I can imagine no valid reason for removing the sparkline from the admin bar. It was invaluable right where it was, showing at a glance what kind of activity you were getting.
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@windwhistle, I hope you don’t mind me adding to your topic.
I have about 5 sites that I actively use on a near-daily basis and the change to the Admin bar “My Sites” to show only my primary site is a huge time waster for me because I now have to add more clicks to get where I need to go. First I have to click “My Sites” then “Switch Site,” select the site in the “switchboard” and then click either the site title to access the front page of the site (on any site using a P2 theme there is no point in anything else) or the Dashboard.
Frustration, not happiness.
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Hi there,
The older My Sites menu has been permanently retired, yes. The code has become too old to reliably maintain, so we’ve been switching everyone over to the newer Calypso codebase. This change has been rolled out gradually since last November, and the last accounts were switched over yesterday.
You should still see a WP-Admin link at the bottom of the My Sites menu, as well, but I keep mine bookmarked for easy access as I find that simpler.
Thank you for the feedback regarding the readability. That has been brought up by others already, both users and internally, and our developers are looking at that.
The sparkline was also based on the outdated code that has been retired, but we have a team looking at how we can add that back using the new codebase instead.
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@justjennifer I maintain two blogs and I keep bookmarks for both in my browser toolbar. Just one click to either of them. (And no, you’re not meddling at all. I value the input.)
@kokkieh I understand the need to update old code, but I’m not sure I understand why it means a total redesign of something that worked beautifully for many years — putting everything in a different place, having to drill down two or three levels to get to the page you want, etc. Fast (as few clicks as possible), easy, intuitive UI should be the goal.
I’ve already resorted to bookmarks. The majority of my browser toolbar is bookmarks to WP pages I use daily so that I can get to them with one click. It seems to me WP’s design should strive to make access that simple. The more clicks it takes to get to a desired page, the poorer your design.
I even have a bookmark to the forums because you made them so hard to find (there used to be a direct link in the dropdown menu on the right. No more. And “Help” doesn’t get you to a forums link either. Why isn’t there one on the Help page, along with all the other suggestions? (And by the way, make sure you update those support articles when you change stuff, or they’re worse than useless.) Or are you planning to discontinue the forums?
RE background color, I’ve seen and have on occasion used an offwhite (#FCFCFC or #FAFAFA) that really helps reduce glare, yet appears as white to the reader. Pale “baby” blue is distracting and frankly, rather off-putting to many.
And yes, please, please return the sparkline to the admin bar. It’s like a cell phone signal showing whether or not you’re still connected to the outside world.
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putting everything in a different place, having to drill down two or three levels to get to the page you want, etc. Fast (as few clicks as possible), easy, intuitive UI should be the goal.
I tend to agree with you here, and made these same comments a couple years ago on that other long thread, if you recall :) And I am passing this feedback along to the developers and designers, but ultimately the decisions are up to them and some we’ll just need to live with at the end of the day.
And “Help” doesn’t get you to a forums link either. Why isn’t there one on the Help page, along with all the other suggestions?
If you click on the Contact Us button on the Help screen you’ll be routed to either live chat, email or the forums, depending on whether you own any upgrades or plans or not. That is why all the documentation also link to the contact form page only rather than separate links for the contact form and the forums.
If you prefer to get help in the forums you can by all means come here directly to post, but we recommend the contact form so you can be routed to private support should you be entitled to it. The forums are not going anywhere :)
(And by the way, make sure you update those support articles when you change stuff, or they’re worse than useless.)
Are you speaking about the How to get support document? I personally updated that one a few months ago, but I could have missed something. If you can give some more detail on exactly what you think is out of date I’ll be happy to follow up and fix it if needed.
And yes, please, please return the sparkline to the admin bar. It’s like a cell phone signal showing whether or not you’re still connected to the outside world.
I don’t know exactly where the devs are planning to to add that back, but I have passed along this request.
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I tend to agree with you here, and made these same comments a couple years ago on that other long thread, if you recall :)
I recall that very clearly and that is when I stopped blogging here.
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It’s like a cell phone signal showing whether or not you’re still connected to the outside world.
I really like this analogy – unfortunately, my sparkline, much like my cell phone signal when I’m camping, is usually a flatline. Guess I need to blog more!
The masterbar changes, including the removal of the sparkline, have been a highly debated topic internally as well. I’m one of the developers on the stats system, and based off of feedback we have added the sparkline back to the sidebar menu in the admin area.
So the sparkline can currently be seen by clicking ‘My Sites’ on the black front end masterbar, and in the admin panel. They are displayed next to the ‘Stats’ link in both places.
We do have a multi-site view for stats that gives a quick high-level overview of each site: https://wordpress.com/stats – would adding the sparkline here be of use too?
It has also been requested and logged that the current sparkline does not display the highest number when hovering – we are hoping to add better visibility into these hourly stats so that data is more accessible than it currently is in a small image.
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@kokkieh I don’t remember a prior discussion about this, but I don’t frequent the forums much anymore. Anything you pass along would be very much appreciated.
I don’t recall a specific out-of-date help article, but I was thinking of those that explain more obscure items like, say, the visibility settings on widgets. I have come across some in the past where the illustrations or text didn’t match the current options.
@timmydcrawford I saw the pale little sparkline on the dropdown menu and didn’t know if that was current activity or just some sort of static icon. I don’t want to have to go looking for the sparkline. I like it right there at the top of my home page, in crisp black and white, showing me instantly if I’ve got any activity. It tells me if what I posted a few hours ago is getting a lot of interest or falling flat. It shows me when attention is lagging and maybe it’s time for another post. That quick glance, that one little item on my home page, very often determines what I do next — whether I check my stats to see where the action is, or start writing a new post, or go to the latest post to see the likes and respond to comments. I had, however, stopped clicking on it to get to the stats page because I didn’t like the new stats page. I’ve been using a bookmark for that.
I don’t need or want a multi-site stats view because I rarely work on any but my primary blog. It’s too much unwanted information.
I very much liked the stats page you got rid of, which wasn’t like either the “old” or “new” stats pages currently available (I now have bookmarks to both). I liked being able to choose which modules to show and where on the page to put them. I liked that they utilized the full width of my computer screen (no serious blogger works on a mobile screen). And I liked that the bar graph at the top showed both views and visits. And though I don’t recall now, I’d guess the sparkline was always visible in the masterbar.
Sorry your sparkline has been flat, but if you’re doing your job here, you don’t have time to blog. That’s one of the shortcomings of the system, actually. Happiness engineers, staff, and devs, busy doing their jobs, don’t get to spend a lot of time actually blogging … which is exactly what they need to be doing to best understand what bloggers need and want, like and dislike.
Anyway, thanks to all here for listening, and for your feedback.
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@windwhistle I really do appreciate the candid feedback – thank you. I hope you might give the new stats system a second chance sometime – I think there are a few things you might find helpful.
The “Recent Post Summary” offers a great glance into stats on your most recent post. Alternatively, accessing the post stats detail page is now one click away using the action bar in the lower right corner on your site.
I liked that they utilized the full width of my computer screen
This too has been updated – the new stats screen now measures out at 1040px wide, while the old stats page was constrained to 956px wide.
I liked being able to choose which modules to show and where on the page to put them.
Thanks for mentioning this. We have had a few other users ask for this feature back, and even a few have requested the ability to fully customize their own stats page. I hope we can bring more customization power back to stats.
Sorry your sparkline has been flat, but if you’re doing your job here, you don’t have time to blog.
No excuses! I just need to blog more. My primary blog is mostly about my adventures standing in a river tossing artificial flies at fish – not the most exciting stuff to read about to many ;)
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The Recent Post Summary is okay (lots of empty horizonatal white space) but I have to click on “Days” at the top to get to the page I most want. That’s why I’ve made a bookmark for it.
The only action bar I get in the lower right corner is “Customize.” That’s not something I do often enough to warrant access on the front page. There is no stats link showing.
Again, thanks for your time. Have fun fly fishing.
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@windwhistle – appreciated. :)
@timmydcrawford – Glad there’s discussion about getting the view number back in the sparkline. It’s pretty pointless without it.
Also, there used to be a separate stats chart for syndicated views (feeds). Has that been eliminated? If so, that info should be updated in the Feeds support doc.
As far as cutting down on the number of clicks to get where I need to go, I bookmarked my global dashboard>visible sites, but I shouldn’t have to.
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@justjennifer
Is this sticky thread https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/stats-feedback?replies=234 in need of closure? -
@timmydcrawford Small correction. On my home page the lower right action bar only says “Customize.” But if I’m looking at a post page, it says “Customize, Edit, Stats”
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@windwhistle yes that is the link I was referring to. It only appears on post pages – so post listing pages like home/category/tag listings it will not appear.
@justjennifer currently syndicated views are not accessible. Is this the support doc you are referring to? https://en.support.wordpress.com/feeds/#feed-statistics
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@timmydcrawford -yes, that is the support article I referred to. Thanks for updating it.
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