I spent a couple evenings a week or so working on an updated design for WordPress. I just wanted to see where I could go with it. There’s no current plan to implement it (other than maybe spinning up another MP6 and fiddling with things). It’s far from feature complete, but I think it’s at a good point to share and get some feedback.
The dashboard

The site activity head map is the headliner change here (other than, you know a bunch of other stuff). I think it’s time we did some encouragement right up front from the dashboard at a glance. If you look closely, you can see the dropdown that I was imagining would allow changing what information was presented on the heat map (comment activity, viewers, etc).
The top bar has been totally removed as a thing. You’ll see a bit more in the next screenshot. It’s still there in spirit, but no longer feels like yet another toolbar.
The Editor

I took some ideas from some of the work we’ve been doing on WordPress.com as well as some of the ideas I implemented in Press This V1. (still missing pieces like the kitchen sink) I’m not sold on the right column meta boxes yet and haven’t messed much with custom fields, but it’s a start.
Settings

I think it’s about time Settings got some major love.
Thoughts?
I’d love to hear your thoughts and if you’re interested on jamming on something like this. Go!
I’d love to help out if you go forward with trying to implement it via a plugin.
Very interesting concept! Things I especially like:
Settings screen, with the sub navigation on the right
The simplified / almost gone toolbar
The heat map on the dashboard
Regarding the heat map, I think that alone will be of great value for many WordPress users. I’m gonna play with this and try to come up with a prototype!
I started a repo to get going with this as plugin. If you want to get started messing with the heat map component, create an issue or PR and we can get going on that. I can help set up front-end styles/etc.
Repo: https://github.com/MichaelArestad/Dark-Admin/
Secret project oh god!, i like 😀 btw. You give hope for modern-look dashboard in wordpress. Finally!
Make it noooooooooowwww!!! 🙂
(please 🙂
Dashboard view looks great. Tell me if you need any help.
This is Fantastic, love it!
Cool! The heat map looks awesome! 😀 can`t wait to see it up and running
I like how clean and focused the editor looks!
Love it! Can’t wait to try it out. +1 for making a plugin.
I WANT IT!!!
Interesting one…
Really! Fantastic Concepts