If you run a blog and hope to keep the content on it fairly fresh, utilising any sort of future scheduled post functionality it really important. It means the difference between updating your blog when you’re out of the contry or not. When using such a feature, there are certain aspects that must be clearly conveyed to the user. With that in mind, let’s take a critical look at the current (Version 2.6.2) WordPress implementation of scheduled posts.
WordPress Post Status Options
The image to the right is a screenshot of the controls used to schedule (or backdate) a post in WordPress. The date controls aren’t visible by default, but rather are accessed by clicking an Edit button next to the “Publish Immediately” text. This is replaced by the word “Cancel” when clicked.
An immediate problem you’ll notice is the Cancel option itself. Being placed to the right of the text “Publish Immediately” implies that clicking it will cancel the immediate publication. That isn’t the purpose of the option. The text “Publish Immediately” also remains, even after a new date has been chosen (it remains after the post has been auto saved and will only update when the post is saved by the user, or published. Many users will publish posts without ever saving them first, and as such won’t ever see the updated text). This is completely misleading and confusing. In short, the design leaves the user with some serous doubts as to when the post will be published, if at all.
Once you’ve selected your published date and time, you have two options. You can either “Publish” or “Save”. Once again, the options are ambiguous. If I click publish, will I actually be publishing the post, or will it be published when the date and time I have chosen is reached? Likewise, if I save the post now, with a status of “Unpublished”, but with a future publish date, will the status of the post change when the date is reached?
All entirely valid questions that could be answered with better form design. Thankfully, Automattic are looking at a thorough reworking of the WordPress back end for the next release (2.7), let’s hope they put a little more thought into it this time.
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