Untangle My Home

[Copons]

Important

Project Thread: p5j4vm-4Yc-p2

Current PRs:

• MU WPCOM: dashboard: add launchpad jetpack#41138
• MU WPCOM: dashboard: add site links/preview jetpack#41106
• MU WPCOM: dashboard: add daily writing prompt jetpack#41094
• MU WPCOM: dashboard: add general tasks widget scaffolding + one card (domain upsell) jetpack#41150

Brief

To remove the “My Home” page in the Classic wp-admin interface and relocate its features either to the Site Management panel or as widgets in the wp-admin dashboard.

This change simplifies the user experience by addressing the redundancy between the “Dashboard” and “My Home” pages. Having two central hubs creates confusion, so we propose consolidating functionality into the Dashboard to better align with the core WordPress experience.​

Visuals

Plan (to be confirmed)

Feature	Action
Launchpad tasks	Port to Dashboard
General tasks	Port to Dashboard
Domain upsell	Port to Dashboard
Daily prompt	Port to Dashboard
Site preview	Port to Dashboard
Quick links	Port to Dashboard
Stats	No action: Already exists as a Dashboard widget
Reader nudge	No action: Leave it in My Home
Learning cards	No action: Leave it in My Home
Get help	No action: Leave it in My Home
App promotion	No action: Leave it in My Home

[richtabor]

Just to confirm, the idea here is to leverage the WP dashboard wholesale, with custom widgets for much of this here in My Home?

[taipeicoder]

@richtabor yes. We consider the My Home screen redundant and confusing in the Classic wp-admin interface. In addition, it's built on Calypso which we want to remove from the wp-admin interface experience.

This project is to move some My Home components into wp-admin dashboard widgets.

[simison]

I don't think you're heading towards success with this approach, and problem-solving purely from a "WP Classic" perspective feels narrow. WP Classic is something we'll want to have across all sites, not just a self-selected few, so solutions should be solid.

You're planning to take all this:

Launchpad tasks
General tasks
Domain upsell
Daily prompt
Site preview
Quick links

And add it here:

What's the point of all those widgets combined then? What was the go of My home that you're carrying over to dashboard? I could visualise the end result here but I'm sure it would look very hectic. :-)

Alternatively, I'd suggest:

• Have a Calypso page just for launchpad tasks + website preview, as something part of onboarding. The task list should be considered evolving as user continues tackle them; new suggestions are added.

  Here's an example from Ghost:

  
  

• Iterate on how we do domain upsells across WP.com. Take into account the sidebar nudge, and consider moving to dismissable footer banner and occasional popups, for example.

• Move Daily prompt to be part of launchpad for onboarded folks, and brainstorm more placements for it like Reader and email series.

• The rest of the widgets you list are not important enough to keep and move around to any dashboard, especially things like quick links.al

[taipeicoder]

@simison we have a Feedback Request post. I've copied your feedback pekYwv-4JJ-p2#comment-4279 to keep discussions in a centralized place.

[github-actions]

Support References

This comment is automatically generated. Please do not edit it.

• pekYwv-4JJ-p2#comment-4279

[simison]

Thanks!

[ellatrix]

You're planning to take all this:

Launchpad tasks
General tasks
Domain upsell
Daily prompt
Site preview
Quick links

Why not? There's certainly things that can be combined and organised in such a way that it looks good and clear. For example Daily prompt could be extending quick draft. Should quick links be there in the first place? Why are they not in the main menu? Site Health status could be removed (cause we manage that), and replaced with general/launchpad tasks. Etc.

Eventually we'll want to align with the WP admin redesign and help out there instead of doing our own dashboard.

[jameskoster]

I had the same thoughts as Ella. Additionally:

• There is a dedicated domain upsell widget, and the first suggestion in the General tasks widget is to register a domain. Are both necessary? Maybe registering a domain should be an optional Launchpad task?
• Driving traffic/promoting content is kind of irrelevant until the site is set up and launched; could be a dedicated widget that appears only after the site is launched.
• Creating a logo and Making money could be optional launchpad tasks rather than dedicated widgets.
• Learn.wp callout could be combined with Learning Cards and Get Help links in a single widget.
• The WP app is called out during onboarding, does it also need a dedicated widget? Curious how well that converts.

We need to keep the efforts to refresh onboarding in mind here, but I think it's worth exploring a design that consolidates My Home with the wp-admin Dashboard. I have some ideas and will share soon :)

[simison]

Design explorations from @nuriapenya, somewhat touching the point of splitting launchpad/onboarding mechanisms separately from the dashboard itself:

• p9Jlb4-fb3-p2
• p9Jlb4-eTm-p2
• p9Jlb4-fmP-p2

[jameskoster]

Here’s a preliminary draft focusing on the overall user flow rather than fine-tuning the design of individual widgets. I recognize this iteration isn't polished, but the priority for now is leveraging as much existing technology as possible. We can refine the finer details after agreeing upon the flows.

Building on the onboarding work @nuriapenya has been exploring, the following screenshot illustrates what a user might see on the Dashboard immediately after signing up. The page header is reused from site-health.php, and the ‘Site Setup’ widget is the sole visible Dashboard widget. This keeps the user focused on setup without being distracted by any other widgets.

To re-iterate, I'm not concentrating what the individual steps should be, just the overall flow and general composition. In this case each incomplete step in the widget can be expanded / collapsed, likely with one open by default. As the user works through each item they're marked as complete or skipped. Each item follows a simple format; Title, Graphic (optional), Description, Primary action, Secondary action (optional), Skip.

Once the user completes all tasks within the ‘Site Setup’ widget, it automatically disappears, and the user is redirected to the Main Dashboard.

For developers or experienced users (or just folks who dislike setup wizards), the ’Go to Dashboard’ link provides a shortcut to skip directly to the main Dashboard. If they choose this option without completing the setup, the ‘Site Setup’ widget simply reappears alongside the other widgets in the main Dashboard.

From here, users can finish setup tasks at their own pace or hide the widget entirely via Screen Options.

Widget visibility should dynamically adapt based on onboarding responses and other contextual factors. If a user hasn’t registered a domain but has completed relevant onboarding steps, we might display a widget encouraging them to register one. Similarly the ‘Learn…’ and ‘Grow…’ widgets may only be visible after the site is launched:

Ultimately there is a lot of scope to define different widget configurations based on user responses during signup, and the completion of steps during the onboarding tasks. If this proposal makes sense we should continue to discuss that, and iterate on widget designs.

Changes Overview

Migrated / Consolidated

• Launchpad → Integrated into the ‘Site Setup’ widget.
• General tasks → Relocated either to 'Site Setup' or categorized under new widgets (‘Grow…’ and ‘Learn’).
• Domain upsell → Becomes a widget that appears conditionally, IE once setup is complete and the user has not registered a domain. To be honest we might consider removing this based on the outcome of Dotcom Upsells: Better Design and Strategy #96875.
• Daily prompt, Reader nudge → Merged into Quick Draft functionality (needs design iteration).

Removed

• View site → This functionality is readily accessible from the admin bar.
• Quick links → Redundant due to admin bar and main navigation.

Hidden
The following core widgets are hidden by default:

• At a glance
• Activity
• Site health status
• WP Events & News

Let me know what y'all think.