RankWP: Alternative Plugin Directory

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There are 7 comments

February 19, 2013 #

Yoram Zara

It looks very ugly. The squares display is vet space consuming. and difficult to read. If they don’t change the UI soon, I don’t think they have a chance.
- February 19, 2013 #
  
  Jonathan Tittle
  
  The current design could be more for proof of concept than anything – prove the concept of an alternate directory works and if it does, fine-tune the UI so it’s more pleasing and appealing.
  
  Not all sites prioritize design as sometimes you just need to “get it out there” to see if it’s really worth pouring more time and money into it. Take a look at what Twitter used to look like a while back during it’s conceptual stages. You probably wouldn’t use it today if it looked like it did then :-). While Twitter is certainly in a different category, as is Facebook, MySpace, and others that have used the same concept, you get the idea.
February 19, 2013 #

bostjan spetic

thanks for comments, and thanks jonathan for chiming in – it’s exactly as you described it – this design is clearly an experiment, and i’m sure lot’s of people will hate it. as it’s a side-project, i’ll also be more than happy to hear anyone’s suggestions to make it better.
- February 21, 2013 #
  
  Jonathan
  
  Plenty of sites use what looks like a wireframe as a design concept, it’s fairly common. Some look better than others, some look worse, though I didn’t think it to be fair to flat out say it’s ugly without knowing the [possible] reason why such a design was chosen.
  
  With that said, personally, I would move the navigation to the top and use drop-down menus to categorize that way you have more screen real estate to use for displaying plugins. On larger screen resolutions, everything currently is shifted to the left of the screen so that’s where my focus goes. I barely noticed the feedback button.
  
  If you moved the navigation to the top, you could easily push 5 plugins per row. I’ve always been a fan of rounded corners as well, so perhaps using border radius to do a 3-6px curve (3px is good – it’s not too round, but still noticeable). Moving the navigation to the top would also allow you to put more focus on a search bar next to the navigation (think Twitter – it’s there and you can’t not look at it because it’s always in front of you :)).
  
  As for the featured plugin, it’s really “just there” and isn’t really in a position to garner any attention. Perhaps move it to the top and make it span and entire block instead of just a single block like all others.
  
  Just a few suggestions :-).
  - March 20, 2013 #
    
    bostjan spetic
    
    heya,
    
    wow, that’s a long list 🙂
    
    the debate btw vertical – horizontal layout is interesting. it’s not entirely clear what the benefits are. i personally prefer vertical layouts in general, because our screens are becoming wider.
    
    i agree on making search and feedback and featured plugin more visible though.
    
    best, b
February 19, 2013 #

Scott Kingsley Clark

Looks pretty similar to what I’d think is a much better / cleaner solution: http://plugins.uproot.us/

The plugin quality/scores on RankWP also seem a bit off, maybe slanted a bit too much with certain stats it uses in the calculation.
- February 19, 2013 #
  
  bostjan spetic
  
  interesting, didn’t know about this one, looks nice.
  
  unfortunately it seems it is only using downloads data, which is almost completely irrelevant if you want to know how many people are actually using the plugin.
  
  what score did you find off? would love to hear more, either here or maybe even over e-mail.
  
  thanks!

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