Interesting ideas on the WordPress back-end editor UI

This post from last week on the WordPress Core blog offers some interesting insight on the possible future direction of the back-end editor user interface: http://make.wordpress.org/core/2014/08/20/gsoc-update/

Three things stand out in that piece:

a) The inclusion of a visual interface for plugins and shortcodes within the editor window, so possibly things like columns can be visualised more easily for users (the example on that page shows how a Google Map can be used). The forthcoming WordPress 4.0 release will already make embeds (such as YouTube videos) visible in the editor screen, so it’s good that things are heading in this direction.

b) No refreshing the page/post on hitting the Publish button, which makes things feel a lot quicker.

c) Whilst WordPress 4.0 will bring a floating editor toolbar that’s “sticky” and stays at the top of the editor box even when you scroll (which I think is a great idea!), it looks from the ideas posted on that blog above that an inline editor is being explored instead of a toolbar positioned at the top. Personally, though, I’m not convinced that’s going to make things more intuitive for most users, but can see it has its benefits.

Exciting stuff and look forward to following these developments!