# Best Events  ## Episode metadata - Episode title: Best Events - Show: Crossword - Owner / Host: Jonathan Wold & Luke Carbis - Episode publish date: 2023-08-15 - Episode AI description: Hosts discuss their early WordCamp experiences and the best of the major WordCamps. They delve into the latest news about the upcoming WordPress admin interface. They explore the design decisions behind Gutenberg and the future of the WordPress admin. They express anticipation for WordCamp US and after parties. They discuss the attendance numbers and diversity of WordCamp Europe and the excitement for future events. - Duration: 15:00 - Episode URL: [Open in Snipd](https://share.snipd.com/episode/ba290113-ea16-4bee-b5cb-96f108076f4e) - Show URL: [Open in Snipd](https://share.snipd.com/show/d1c1cfcc-9f5b-442b-ae33-fb7ff2dff07c) - Export date: 2026-02-17T23:33:06 ## Snips ### [Design Decisions and the Future of WordPress Admin](https://share.snipd.com/snip/09b7a3e3-1dcf-4125-bc8d-7598ca0d8f75) 🎧 02:23 - 07:27 (05:04) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/27575c7a-2663-4c68-b90a-2ab2b9021379" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> The author explores the new design of WordPress admin, praising its focus on content and suggesting that the entire admin could be in a sidebar. They discuss the potential impact on plugin authors and the need for backward compatibility. Despite challenges, they are optimistic about finding creative solutions and highlight WordPress's collaborative values. The author also mentions the appeal of a dark mode and raises concerns about how certain plugins with complex user interfaces will adapt. They emphasize the importance of choice and autonomy for WordPress users and the potential for rewarding those who embrace the new design. #### 📚 Transcript I have seen screen, the screenshots and short, short videos that are on make WordPress, the make WordPress design blog. And I really like it. It's obviously we predicted this. I think anybody could have predicted this really leaning into some of the design decisions that we've gotten from Gutenberg specifically around full site editing and that black sidebar on the left. One of the things I really like about it is it puts a real focus on the content of the website. It's almost as if that's front and center. And it feels as though if we could, it would be really, really nice to just have the entire WordPress admin in a sidebar. And I don't think that's ever going to be possible. Right. But the goal is let's put every admin control into a sidebar, kind of like the customizer and keep the site front and center. What do you think? I love the direction. So one of the things I started by reading the comments in the tavern, which is where I expected to see resistance, right? And it wasn't let down for that. And a lot of the resistances resistance that I agree with at a high level in terms of where the risks are, that's not to say I wouldn't do it, but it's like, it's a big change. It's going to have a lot of impact, especially on plug-in authors and the people making the products for WordPress. But when I looked into it and thought about it and just some of the things that stood out to me, for instance, there's a reference in the brief to this. They're not calling it out specifically, but like the operating system thinking where they drew a parallel to how mail and notes are handled in an operating system. And it was cool to see this like to our conversation in two weeks back or last week, I think it was, talking about the command bar coming. That's a clear example of how that gets its life, right? Like the command bar would sit within, would be accessible at any place within this admin paradigm. Yeah, exactly. It does make sense in that sense. And I wonder, could an admin like this just be built entirely in JavaScript? Could we have a PHP free WordPress admin? I don't know, maybe. And one of the other big questions is, is this a breaking change? It's got to be right. Like, there's no way plug-ins are going to be compatible with such a huge change to the WordPress admin. So I love seeing the reference to backwards compatibility. So they demoed a concept of like being able to load up the old admin screens within this box, like goes here, right? So obviously there's a lot of details to be worked out, but it's at least a conscious consideration. I at least like to think that we can pull it off, that if you combine proactive work and a lot enough time on the part of plug-in authors to sort of get ahead of this, but there will always be plug-ins that just do not make any updates that still have some like mission criticality to it. So that needs to be a part of it. It seems to me, it seems solvable. It seems like it's something that we can find creative solutions for. We've done it in the past. And I expect to see it going forward. It's going to be a lot of collaborative work, but that's one of our values in WordPress, right? Like we can figure that out. I don't know. I'm optimistic. I'm excited. I like how it looks. I think it's pretty. And I like that there's sort of a dark mode aspect to it, which is something that's always bothered me about the WordPress admin. I don't know. Can you imagine Contact Form 7? Just to give you an example of a plug-in, it's very popular. It's installed on so many websites. And it's not particularly pretty. And it's not necessarily going to get updated for this. And it has a very complicated user interface that is not going to squeeze into a little sidebar there. How do you do something like that? Do you have to leave some plug-ins behind? You know? That's where I'm inclined towards, right? Like on the one hand, it's popular and you would want to give the authors for those who desire it and the option to make it as easy for them to do as much as possible. I love the references that are being worked on to like the design language, like what they call it, right? But like, hey, let's make this easy for folks, right? So there's a responsibility in our part to do that. Make it easy for authors who wish to adapt and like fall along and be a part of that process. But no one has to do anything. We value autonomy in WordPress. Like if I don't want to change, I don't have to change. And I think the opportunity for us as an ecosystem is to then like give space to and favor and reward those who do and say, hey, we're going to make an experience for forms that works really well in this and let the quote unquote market decide. --- Created with [Snipd](https://www.snipd.com) | Highlight & Take Notes from Podcasts