Leevi Graham’s Control Panel Theme Mockup
Leevi Graham has been causing a little stir with some tinkering he’s been doing with the EE2 control panel. If you follow back through his Twitter stream, you’ll see for the past few days he’s been chatting about doing a control panel theme of sorts. The thing that got my attention, though, was when he linked to this mockup on Ember. Judging by the retweets and replies, he is definitely tapping into a desire in the EE community for a better-designed control panel.
What do you think? Is this something you’d buy for yourself or your clients?
Posted on Jan 31, 2011 by Brian Warren
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Steven Grant — 08:51 on 01.31.2011
most definitely - I think it really needs to be looked at. I find the whole UI quite cumbersome. I know talking to a few devs at NACONF last week they were keen to see an overhaul.
I know @iain also has something to be released. What’s the current status of CP theme licencing?
Brandon — 11:44 on 01.31.2011
Something needs to happen - the pink just isn’t cutting it.
Scott McCracken — 13:11 on 01.31.2011
Yes. Yes. A thousand times, yes.
iain — 15:46 on 01.31.2011
Yeah, I wrote a theme some time ago that modified the view files directly but EL stated that the cp themes are under the same license as EE, therefor not distributable.
The original feature request was posted before the big forum blitz of 2010, so might be worth reposting in the current forums.
Todd D. — 16:13 on 01.31.2011
I’m glad Leevi is tackling this issue head on. He has the smarts to pull it off and the drive to make it a reality sooner as opposed to later. Ellislab might eventually address the CP issue themselves… but I can’t wait any longer. Go Leevi!
kasmatic — 17:40 on 01.31.2011
I would definitely buy this. No question.
Paul Frost — 19:02 on 01.31.2011
It would be nicer if EL fixed it and it was the default rather than the slow cumbersome thing we have now.
I went back to EE1 after having so many problems with the poor file management and immediately noticed a much speedier workflow. I have less than a 1mb connection which may not help.
julz — 23:16 on 01.31.2011
I
Jim — 02:07 on 02.01.2011
In a heartbeat.
Laisvunas — 03:17 on 02.01.2011
Control Panel theme overhaul is definitely needed because EE2 themes, both default and corporate, are slow and less usable than EE1 CP themes.
Nevsie — 06:23 on 02.01.2011
Think this is a good approach and agree that somehting needs to be done - by Leevi, Iain, EL, Brandon, anyone.
However, my major issue still stands with all the mods, extensions, filetypes and plugins i am already buying, now add to that themes, what is the bloody point! I am pretty much buying an empty box from EL and then paying others to fill it to make the system work right/well.
EE needs to start performing and standing on its own two feet from the start. Add-ons should be exactly that - add on’s - not requirements for every site you build.
I mean, should i really have to pay a third party to have a control panel theme that actually performs, works, and that has good UI?
Bud Parr — 11:10 on 02.01.2011
Yes, yes, yes. New control panel. The EE2 CP is largely useless, and I’ve been making attempts to improve it on my own, so I’m very happy to see this.
I would pay, though, as some here have said, I think EL could take a cue and redesign the cp themselves.
FWIW, I don’t have any slowness in the CP, I just don’t think it’s functional or well designed.
Todd D. — 13:12 on 02.01.2011
@Nevsie I have to agree with your reasoning. We shouldn’t have to pay a third party to develop a theme for EE2 that is usable. However, I’m so desperate for a workable CP, I’m throwing reason out the window.
However, if Ellislab really wanted to handle this situation, it doesn’t seem like it would be too difficult.
Here is 3 steps I would take if I were president of Ellislabs.
1. Hire Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain and pay him whatever he charges - Even if it’s like a gazillion dollars.
2. Tell him to get rid of all the AJAX crap, pink and bedazzle fluff.
3. And then let the man work his magic. The elegance of the theme Jesse made for version 1.x was not an accident. A talented and gifted designer created an elegant cp theme that just worked. Why not repeat the process for version 2?
I hope Ellislab folks don’t chime in here and say he isn’t available, because I would find it hard to believe anyone could turn down a gazillion dollars.
Brian Warren — 13:21 on 02.01.2011
Jesse’s reskinning of the 1.x control panel just happened because he did it on his own, <a href=“http://www.31three.com/notebook/archive/expressionengine_control_panel_theme”>released it<a>, and EllisLab put it into the next release of EE.
In a sense, you’re right, it wasn’t an accident, but it wasn’t exactly intentional on EllisLab’s part either.
Alex Kendrick — 14:13 on 02.01.2011
@Brian Interesting backstory on the EE1 control panel theme. I’d love it if Jesse could somehow do it again.
I agree with those who’ve said that the EE2 theme just doesn’t compare in terms of usability, cleanliness, and speed when compared to EE1. As much as I’d like EllisLab to invest in fixing the EE2 CP theme I would, as others have said, absolutely spend money on a clean theme like this for every install.
I hope that somehow EllisLab gets the message and invests in fixing the CP theme. Or at the least adjusts licensing to allow others to release their own themes.
Kelly Packer — 21:30 on 02.01.2011
While I applaud Leevi’s efforts and use Morphine on most of our sites, I believe EllisLab should be improving the cp. (And I think they are, at least file manager issues.)
If it’s a third party, it’s just one more thing to buy, update, maintain and troubleshoot. It’s core functionality and design that needs to be addressed with the default ee cp theme.
Tom Stoecklein — 18:03 on 02.04.2011
The licensing problem here is absolutely ridiculous; truth be told, it’s probably the only thing I’ve ever seen EllisLab get horrendously wrong.
I’ve been meaning to sit down and rip things apart so that they could be rebuilt in a leaner, more efficient, and pleasurable manner for my own uses and clients.
Perhaps if there’s enough talk about the subject, and movement taking place with CP mods, it might be enough to spur them into reconsidering the current approach?