The Plugin Directory gets a refresh

Over the past few weeks, the MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. team has been working on a new theme for the Plugin Directory. This visual refresh is part of the continued effort to establish a consistent design language across WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/. The updated site launched today. Congratulations to everyone involved in this effort.

The update’s primary focus was to standardize the site’s layout, fonts, spacing, and colors with other newly updated sections of WordPress.org. This follows the recent Pattern Directory refresh and the Forums refresh launched a few weeks prior. 

Here’s a look at the new homepage, followed by a single plugin page.

The updated homepage versus the current site.
The updated homepage versus the current site.
The updated single pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party layout versus the current site.

Next steps

The Plugin Directory refresh is now live for WordPress.org and all foreign-language sites (Rosetta sites). Some translation work may need to be done for each locale, and that can be managed in the WordPress Plugin Directory project.

It’s important to note that this refresh is not a complete redesign. Over the years, there have been many discussions throughout the community on how the Plugin Directory could be improved—everything from a completely different homepage layout and more data for plugin authors to better search and plugin categorization. The aesthetic updates completed in this iteration do not fundamentally change the Plugin Directory, but they do set the stage for future, more consequential improvements. 

Minor iterations and follow-ups are planned in the next few weeks as the community begins using the directory and any new issues are created. There are also a few accessibility issues that will be addressed post-launch, and I wanted to highlight the following open discussions:

If you find an issue or have suggestions for larger functional changes, please add an item to the WordPress.org issues queue on GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ or in Meta Trac

Finally, make sure to join the #website-redesign SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel if you are interested in additional updates coming to WordPress.org and want to contribute. Thanks!

Props to @laurlittle and @dufresnesteven for reviewing this post and providing feedback.

+make.wordpress.org/plugins/
+make.wordpress.org/support/
+make.wordpress.org/design/
+make.wordpress.org/polyglots/
+make.wordpress.org/marketing/
+make.wordpress.org/accessibility/

#website-redesign