Fellow 9ruler Greg over at Airbag Industries has posted about the lack of design in the WordPress Administration User Interface. I thought it prudent to address his concerns while at the same time try get everyone up to speed on the Shuttle project.

Personally I think it’s just wrong to criticize a completely open source project like WordPress as though it owes you something, unless of course you’re prepared to do something about it. WordPress is not the vision of one person, but the collaborative efforts of thousands. The fact of the matter is that when someone doesn’t like how WordPress does something, or know that they can do a better job, it’s well within their right to do just that. It’s not frowned upon, but actually encouraged and aided whenever possible. Greg isn’t saying any new here, countless others have voiced this opinion, except some have chosen to do something about it and help the community by contributing.

It’s very funny that he should mention the fight between the developer and the designer. I experience this every day, only it’s between the engineer and the architect. I will say that most fights/arguements come between the designers on the team rather than from the developers side. Joen, Michael and I are constantly bickering over 2 pixels!!! That’s when the rest of the team keeps quiet as the three geeks go at it, explaining the virtues of keeping things compact or not.

The shuttle project is ALIVE and kicking. In fact it’s hasn’t been this busy since we announced the project back in December of last year. The esteemed Bryan Veloso has also been added to the development team. We’ve recently finished a great milestone in the project after MUCH coming and going between us. Many people ask about showing what the interface is going to look like, and while NOTHING would make me happier than to show EVERYONE what we’re up to, I’ve got to make sure I don’t because the mock ups change on a weekly basis, as we work through things between us. We’re currently on version 27 of the main write up area. Expect several mammoth posts crossing over several blogs when this is done, but until then, know that we’re on top of things. It’s not the fastest process by any stretch of the imagination but it’s getting there.

If you’ve downloaded the latest beta or played around with a blog on WordPress.com then you’ll see a few changes from the current 1.2 install. Subtle things like the blue colour now found in the admin panel, the moveable sections in the sidebar, or the increase/decrease textarea. While these are still not styled properly the fact that they are part of the design is not a mistake, it’s due to the give and take over several months.