User Interview 8

jerrysarcastic: First off, before we get into the media library, how long have you been a WordPress user?  

user 8: 7-8-ish years.

jerrysarcastic: Right, so new user.  😉

user 8: 😛

jerrysarcastic: How often do you find yourself on the Media Library page in your dashboard?  Frequently, occasionally, almost never, or not at all?

user 8: Depends. But occassionally is the average.

jerrysarcastic: Gotcha.  When you do visit the Media Library, what are you trying to accomplish typically?

user 8: Uploading media in bulk, finding previously uploaded media, or editing media in batches.

jerrysarcastic: I’m curious, *why* are you usually trying to find media?

jerrysarcastic: Other than bulk editing

user 8: If I’ve uploaded an image before and can’t remember what post it’s in (if any). Usually applies to screenshots, for my own projects, or specific pieces of work for photography/artist clients.

user 8: e.g. they’ll upload a bunch of images and lose track of what they’ve already uploaded

user 8: so I have to dig through and figure out where the duplicates, if any, are

jerrysarcastic: Makes sense.  How do you locate things in the Media Library?

user 8: If it’s been named properly I’ll start with the search. Otherwise it’s tediously browsing.

user 8: I’ve used Media Library Assistant to apply taxonomies for some projects, which helps.

jerrysarcastic: Yeah, it can be tedious.  🙂

user 8: Also Media Grid plugin, whose functionality you guys seem to be possibly folding into core.

jerrysarcastic: How big a library are you managing, typically?

jerrysarcastic: Yes, well and that.  😉

user 8: On average probably 200-300 images? Media Library is basically a massive asset dump.

user 8: *not images, actually. 200-300 items. Documents in some cases.

jerrysarcastic: What type of media would you say makes up the majority of files in your library?

user 8: 90% images. 10% documents. PDFs, PPTs, CSVs, DOCs, etc.

jerrysarcastic: So really not to many audio files, video, etc?

user 8: Nah. I don’t like hosting rich media in an install. That usually goes to a 3rd party service.

user 8: Actually audio files for some projects *are* the bulk of the media

user 8: but never video

jerrysarcastic: How do you manage a library full of audio I wonder?

user 8: Poorly.

user 8: In a nutshell: We have a product that uses WordPress as the back-end. CPT with mp3 attachments via custom meta.

user 8: We don’t go into the Media Library because it’s too difficult to find things. So we find the audio files we need via the CPT.

jerrysarcastic: If I can ask a bit about that specifically, what would make it easier to deal with audio in the library?

user 8: Hard to say off the top of my head. Haven’t really tried or put much thought into it.

jerrysarcastic: Yeah, I ask because it doesn’t come up a lot, but what you describe is a common use case

jerrysarcastic: Podcasters face similar challenges I imagine

jerrysarcastic: So one thing I wanted to follow up on…

user 8: Ah, very true. Off the top of my head a different view, with different columns in the Media Library screen dependent on the type of media you’re viewing, would be handy.

jerrysarcastic: Yeah I can see how a “modal” view for just audio would be helpful

jerrysarcastic: OK You mentioned bulk editing as a reason to come to the library

user 8: Yep

jerrysarcastic: What are you editing?

user 8: Usually the name and description. Ocassionally caption.

user 8: I use the description as an internal reference for things like original source.

jerrysarcastic: Do you do that in the library, or in the post editor modal, or both?

user 8: Depends on the activity. If I’m uploading something for a specific post I’ll do it in the post editor modal.

user 8: If I’m bulk uploading straight to the Media Library I’ll do the bulk editing there.

jerrysarcastic: Gotcha

jerrysarcastic: So I’m curious, are there any tasks you find difficult to accomplish in the library currently?

user 8: Not being able to organize media without using a 3rd party plugin is a frustration

user 8: and not being able to unattach media is another.

jerrysarcastic: About organizing, when you install a plugin, how do you use that feature to help you?

user 8: Specific use case here: Working with several photographers and bloggers who have a *lot* of images.

user 8: Dumping them all into a single area (media library) isn’t practical when they need to find images down the road and add them to a gallery on the site, for example

user 8: So we’ll use Media Library Assistant, set up categories that match their galleries, then organize their images accordingly

user 8: then when they upload images in bulk, say from a photo shoot or something, they can go through and categorize their image uploads

user 8: Originally we were trying to do this via attaching images to pages or posts, but there was no way to un-attach
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
#user-interview

User Interview 7

Jerry Bates: First off, before we get into the media library, how long have you been a WordPress user?

User 7: I’ve been doing in-depth (dare I say “hardcore?”) WordPress programming as my career focus since 2010. I have had a WordPress blog since I think 2003 but I know it was version 2.3.

Jerry Bates: Very cool, so I’m curious other than developing sites for others, do you also have personal sites of your own that you use frequently?

User 7: Somewhat, but I wouldn’t say “Frequently.”

Jerry Bates: Gotcha. So turning to media… How often do you find yourself on the Media Library page in your dashboard? Frequently, occasionally, almost never, or not at all?

Note: I have reason to believe these comments are about the in-post media modal, and not the Media Library page in wp-admin, as was addressed later in our conversation.

User 7: Frequently, at least lately. For the past 9 months I’ve been building an Intranet for [name removed] and it’s a glorified document, image and video show-and-tell platform. So I’ve been in there a lot for testing.
User 7: I’ve felt like “Wow, the users will never figure this out because I’m struggling with it.”

Jerry Bates: That sounds a bit out of the ordinary (but very cool) but what is your usual average for how often you find yourself there?

User 7: Depends on what I’m working on. Sometimes I can be there 50 times in a week. Other times, none.

Jerry Bates: Makes sense, so it’s really about the task you need to perform, yes?
Jerry Bates: When you do visit the Media Library, what are you trying to accomplish typically?

User 7: Yes. I’m trying to upload a document and associate it with a post.
User 7: I can also be trying to associate documents with a post.
User 7: But mostly it’s about uploading documents and associating with a post. And my “documents” I mean any file types, images, pdfs, word, excel, videos (yes, videos), etc.

Jerry Bates: But is it an even mix, or heavier in one or the other?

User 7: Mostly it’s about uploading documents for use with the current post.
User 7: So the default opening in the media library is VERY disorienting.

Jerry Bates: When you add media, you do that using the Add Media page typically?

User 7: So in the media library also slows down the interaction.
User 7: By “page” do you mean the popup?

Note: At this point, we return to talking about the Media Library

Jerry Bates: No, not the “Add Media” button in the post editor, but specifically the Media>Add New page in wp admin
Jerry Bates: How often do you use that?

User 7: I rarely ever go to Media>Add New page unless there is no other way to accomplish something (after having tried other ways and gotten stuck.)

Jerry Bates: I see, so mostly you work with media directly in the post editor modal window?

User 7: Yes. Going to Media>Add New page changes context. I don’t want to change context.

Jerry Bates: So then with this in mind, you also try not to go to Media > Library too much either?

User 7: Other people may use the media library frequently but in my use-cases — at least given WordPress’ current attachment architecture — I rarely find it useful.

Jerry Bates: I see. When you do find it useful, what for?

User 7: The Media > Library is an overwhelming glob of too much stuff.
User 7: Me personally? Deleting all attachments so I can start over with a clean slate.

Jerry Bates: Makes sense. Anything else, or really you try to stay in the post editor modal?

User 7: The thing is I don’t want to change contexts. I’m working on a post, why would I want to leave it? (that’s a rhetorical question.)

Jerry Bates: Gotcha. So are there any tasks you wish the Media Library would allow you to do currently?

User 7: As in “that Media>Library would allow me to do currently?”

Jerry Bates: Yes, specifically that page in the admin

User 7: Yes. For one, I’d like to be able to take items that are the same photo uploaded multiple times and merge them into one. And I’d like a mode where you can show me groups of candidates that are likely the same to streamline the process. This would of course mean fixing up all the links and adding into the database 301 redirects for the URLs for the deleted image files so you don’t loose google juice.

User 7: The 2nd thing would be to add a lot more filters such as by file type, sort by size, by author, groups by attached post, group by date, and so on.

User 7: The 3rd thing requires an architecture enhancement that is badly needed IMO. We need image types so that people building themes could specify the image types they have the and sizes of each type and then images uploaded could be tagged with their image type and only those sizes would get generated. How this related to the Media Library is that I would then want to be able to filter by image types.

Jerry Bates: Type? What is an example?

User 7: That’s all that I can think of now. For the media library.

User 7: Type: Headshot. Top of Page Hero. Search Avatar. etc. etc. One only need talk to a designer creating a theme for a large corporate site to find out they have a list of image types and then for each image type a set of different valid sizes. For example, we might only need 300×400 (and smaller) for headshots but we need 1278×300 (and non smaller) for Heros. Why generate every size for every image? Not having image types makes managing images both as a developer and as a user much more difficult than it needs to be.

Jerry Bates: I see. So something much more specific than just tags
Jerry Bates: For example

User 7: Tags don’t really work because they are controlled by the user. Instead I’m talking about images types and sizes that are set in stone by the theme designer. They don’t need to change so they should be added in code, i.e. add_image_type( ‘headshot’, array( ‘large’ => ‘300×400’, ‘tiny’ => ‘100×125’ ) );

Jerry Bates: Right. I also noticed that you mention images a lot. Do you deal in images mostly, even though you say you have all types of media represented in your library?

User 7: Then images could use an image type taxonomy to associate with “headshot”, and then those images should only be generated in the associated sizes.

User 7: So before the [name removed] we built a product that an agency has sold to over 10 large firms, based on WordPress. For each client they would define a set of image types and sizes for each type. We used a lot of images there. But in all my uses of WordPress I’ve used a lot of images, more than any other file type.

Jerry Bates: Gotcha. In terms of scale, how many files (total) are we talking about?
Jerry Bates: Say on an “average” site

User 7: In terms of scale, given how WordPress likes to replicate every image those law firms would probably end up with 25,000 files when they probably only had about 5000 media items.

User 7: For [name removed], I’m expecting over 50,000 media items or more?

User 7: For [name removed] there’s a lot of non-image documents, but they don’t represent the challenges that images represent.

Jerry Bates: Cool, that helps to know
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

#user-interview

User Interview 6

Jerry Bates: First off, before we get into the media library, how long have you been a WordPress user?

User 6: For about 5 years
User 6: maybe a bit more

Jerry Bates: Do you remember the version you started with?
Jerry Bates: For me it was 2.7 or something like that. 2007 🙂

User 6: I was just looking, maybe John Coltrane? 2008?

Jerry Bates: Cool. Time flies when you’re having fun, no?

User 6: Yes! I remember cracking up that they were named after jazzers

Jerry Bates: What about your site? How often do you write posts? What kind of topics do you write about?

User 6: I develop, not just write

Jerry Bates: Nothing wrong with that. 😉

User 6: I have a private blog I keep on WP and I write everyday.
User 6: Otherwise, I build them for others

Jerry Bates: Nice! How often do you find yourself on the Media Library page in your dashboard?
Jerry Bates: Frequently, occasionally, almost never, or not at all?

User 6: Frequently, especially when working with clients. A lot of times, they will upload images into the library so I can use them
User 6: OR if they don’t get that far, I upload for them

Jerry Bates: I see. So what are you trying to accomplish there typically?

User 6: Depends, sometimes, I get logos for headers in there, other times it’s for posts or featured images
User 6: it’s a place to store images for the whole site, not just the posts and pages

Jerry Bates: How about when you upload media to a site? Do you use the Media > Add New page for that, or the “Add Media” button in the editor

User 6: both

Jerry Bates: Depending on the situation?

User 6: depends what I am doing

Jerry Bates: What kinds of things do you tend to use the Add New Media page for?

User 6: If I am going to upload a lot at a time, pdf’s that need to be available, stuff like that

Jerry Bates: Gotcha. How much media do you have in your Media Library? Thousands of files, Hundreds of files, or just a few

User 6: depends on the site, some have thousands, some less

Jerry Bates: What type of media makes up the majority of files in your library? Images, Video, Audio, Documents (Word, pdf, etc.) or an even mix?

User 6: mix of images and pdf files, I haven’t ever hosted video on any sites, I use youtube or vimeo, and no docs

Jerry Bates: No audio either?

User 6: I have done one site with audio, but only one
User 6: that was hard
User 6: confusing, rather

Jerry Bates: You mean in context to the library?

User 6: And I don’t think I used the library to house them

Jerry Bates: I see, so just confusing, because audio
Jerry Bates: How do you find things in the Media Library? Do you tend to scan visually for the thumbnails, focus on the titles, look for where the media is “Uploaded to”, or something else?

User 6: scan and search, although searching isn’t so good. focus on dates

Jerry Bates: So when you say dates, do you use the filters at the top, or click the columns in the list to re-sort your view?

User 6: usually I re-sort, I don’t remember using filters very often. But I also have re-uploaded because I couldn’t find what I was looking for.

Jerry Bates: I have done that too.
Jerry Bates: Do you edit your media titles frequently?

User 6: No

Jerry Bates: What about captions? Do you often caption images?

User 6: no
User 6: I tell people to do so for SEO but I don’t usually

Jerry Bates: Right. So the description field and alt tag, you don’t use those much either?

User 6: No, again, I tell people to do it and some do and some don’t – depends on the amount they need to do it for

Jerry Bates: Makes sense. Are there any tasks you find difficult to accomplish in the library currently?

User 6: No, not really, I just wish the media were more like a custom post type. It had taxonomies!

Jerry Bates: Interesting, to that leads into my next question: Are there any tasks you wish the Media Library would allow you to do currently?

User 6: That’s it!

Jerry Bates: If I can ask a follow-up, how would you see yourself using taxonomies in the library?

User 6: A few things, you are looking for the image that goes with a recipe, if it had the taxonomy of beef, you could narrow your search. Also, you could use a taxonomy of images for a portfolio, for instance.
User 6: Also, another use before I forget: if you have a ton of forms as docs or pdf, you could link them in the menu as pages – post types.
User 6: That’s what I meant by post type = media. Can you program that with pods do you think?
User 6: Or as a plugin?

Jerry Bates: Possibly. It is not something we considered that I am aware of, but I can see how it would be useful

User 6: I have seen other CMS use media that way, and it really made sense

Jerry Bates: Right, so when you say media as a post type, you mention adding it to custom menus (more easily anyway) but what about other uses?

User 6: it could be it’s own page, easier,
User 6: but I guess the main easy is the menu.
User 6: portfolios, and collections, like a tumbler?

Jerry Bates: Gotcha. Well thanks for bringing that idea up!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

#user-interview

User Interview 5

Jerry Bates: How often do you write posts on your site? What kind of topics do you write about?

User 5: I actually am building a learning management system for teachers

Jerry Bates: Hey, that is pretty cool!

User 5: It uses WP and in the process I have to get insights from them
User 5: So one of the things I asked them was to basically share their thoughts on changing to the grid, they mentioned a few things

Jerry Bates: Well, before we talk about that, I was more curious about the existing media library

User 5: Ah
User 5: Yes

Jerry Bates: How often do you find yourself on the Media Library page in your dashboard? Frequently, occasionally, almost never, or not at all?

User 5: Frequently

Jerry Bates: what are you trying to accomplish there typically?

User 5: Usually am trying to find the right image to share usually via a link. Not always in a post, also for more advanced filtering of the media then provided inside the post area.

Jerry Bates: Any other tasks that you find yourself going to the Media Library for?

User 5: Deleting duplicates and unwanted images, also looking for images generated by weird plugins.
User 5: Mostly bulk action stuff

Jerry Bates: I see. How much media do you have in your Media Library?
Jerry Bates: Thousands of files, Hundreds of files, or just a few

User 5: About 2 hundred, one of my clients has around 14 million…

Jerry Bates: Wow. Just wow

User 5: I am not joking either, lol

Jerry Bates: and a very good hosting plan? 🙂

User 5: Each has its own thumbnail to, yes she has wpengine and then S3

Jerry Bates: What type of media makes up the majority of files in your library? Images, Video, Audio, Documents (word, pdf, etc.) or an even mix?

User 5: Its a mix of content, basically Images, Documents (PDF, Word), Videos, not many plain audio files though

Jerry Bates: So you mentioned using the library to filter through stuff, so how do you locate things in the Media Library?
Jerry Bates: Do you tend to scan visually for the thumbnails, focus on the titles, look for where the media is “Uploaded to”, or something else?

User 5: Through the sortable columns and search mostly
User 5: Then I have to scan through and find the item

Jerry Bates: Do you also sort by media type?

User 5: Yes
User 5: I actually went into the core and added more media types
User 5: I couldn’t find an action or filter to use

Jerry Bates: Interesting. What other types?

User 5: Documents
User 5: PDF
User 5: There was one more, let me look

Jerry Bates: What about filenames (Titles) do you edit those often?

User 5: No

Jerry Bates: Do you use captions with your media typically? What about the description field?

User 5: Usually not, its sort of just drop it in and select, although I have thought about making it so it auto fills it in based on the filename

Jerry Bates: Gotcha. Are there any tasks you find difficult to accomplish in the library currently?

User 5: I wish I could see which files are using the most data
User 5: Like Daisydisk for Mac
User 5: Some sort of overview I suppose

Jerry Bates: Right. I like that app, actually. I’ll have to give it a try
Jerry Bates: So what about the other side of the coin. Are there any tasks you wish the Media Library would allow you to do currently?
Jerry Bates: Though you may have already answered that a bit above…

User 5: Well, auto input for files, a bit better filtering of content by filetype, being able to see all the media by a user type, i.e. subscriber.

Jerry Bates: Interesting. I could see that being useful

User 5: Oh
User 5: The thumbnails
User 5: Whenever images have their own thumbnails, links to that maybe, something where you can see the thumbnails belonging to an image
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
#user-interview

User Interview 4

Jerry Bates: First off, before we get into the media library, how long have you been a WordPress user?

User 4: Been using wordpress since about 2.5/2.6 first registered on wordpress.org in december of 2011

Jerry Bates: Awesome, about the same time I discovered it too. 🙂
Jerry Bates: How often do you write posts on your site? What kind of topics do you write about?
Jerry Bates: Or is it mostly just helping clients? [note: user said they were a dev before we started the interview]

User 4: Most of what i do is related to clients and technical wordpress articles.

Jerry Bates: Gotcha. How often do you find yourself on the Media Library page in your dashboard? Frequently, occasionally, almost never, or not at all?

User 4: i will publish a lot for people 30-40 times a day and about once every two weeks for myself.

Jerry Bates: You mean blog posts?

User 4: blog posts, yes but also pages, custom posts types
User 4: as for the media library page its probably one of the less frequently visited areas for me

Jerry Bates: I see. When you do visit the Media Library, what are you trying to accomplish typically?

User 4: i go there if i have to find a media item and grab the file url for something
User 4: that is the primary reeason

Jerry Bates: So typically you manage your media through the “Add Media” button in the post editor?

User 4: yes.
User 4: it would ve very useful if the media library had categories, or tags or something similar so you could organize the items into folders or albums and categorize them

Jerry Bates: Gotcha, What type of media makes up the majority of files in your library? Images, Video, Audio, Documents (word, pdf, etc.) or an even mix?

User 4: Primarily Images, then PDFS, then audio and now that video is supported in core that is growing too
User 4: no more need to use youtube

Jerry Bates: Cool. About the ability to tag/categorize media, how do you think you would use that? What problem does it solve?

User 4: The list in order of date uploaded is rather useless to me and i have heard that from a lot of people. When you upload say 100 images it would be nice to tag them at the time you upload them with a number of keywords or something that you can search for later. Looking through the media libraries in a number of my sites most of the files are titled img_0034.jpg or something like that so the search is rather useless on finding things and if I’m looking for a picture from an event or related to something 6 months from when i uploaded it it is a hard time ti find it.
User 4: If you could tag or organize or categorize it it would solve the search issue because it would provide a place to look and a starting reference point to find something rather than go did somewhere in the giant bin of the media library
User 4: organize things by the event or time frame it was uploaded or by content inside
User 4: etc

Jerry Bates: Gotcha. I can see how that would be helpful. As it is now, how do you locate things in the Media Library?
Jerry Bates: Do you tend to scan visually for the thumbnails, focus on the titles, look for where the media is “Uploaded to”, or something else?

User 4: right now i set the number per page to 100 and scary looking through haha
User 4: looking mostly at the thumbnails

Jerry Bates: Do you ever have situations where you need to use the filters at the top, or click the columns in the Media Library to re-sort your view?

User 4: so larger thumbnails wouldd help.
User 4: i can honestly say i don’t [think] i have ever used those

Jerry Bates: That is a fair answer, actually
Jerry Bates: Do you use captions with your media typically? What about the description field?

User 4: yes i enter in captions and descriptions but only when i need to use the image in something.
User 4: if i say upload 100 pics from an event I’m not going to go through them all and add captions at the time of the upload

Jerry Bates: Right

User 4: because i would have to go to the library and click through one at a time
User 4: and edit each one and it would be cumbersome and painstaking

Jerry Bates: What about renaming images, to avoid having files are titled img_0034.jpg, etc.
Jerry Bates: Do you do that?

User 4: not generally for the same reason, there is no easy way to do it
User 4: besides going through one by one.

Jerry Bates: Yeah, I can see how that is cumbersome

User 4: the only time i fill in the information is when i actually need to use an image
User 4: and then its through the media modal
User 4: in the attachment settings pane
User 4: almost never use the options on the media edit page itself

Jerry Bates: to edit metadata or edit the image (crop, rotate, etc.)?

User 4: most of my cropping/rotating i do in photoshop before upload or i grab the image and download and then reupload
User 4: editing metadata i do on the media modal on the post, page, etc

Jerry Bates: Makes sense. So aside from the idea of tagging images, are there any tasks you wish the Media Library would allow you to do currently?

User 4: One other thing i have run into in the past is related to using the media library for document storage
User 4: say you upload a PDF and then you publish a link to it somewhere else
User 4: or someone links to it from their site
User 4: etc etc
User 4: you discover an error in the PDF or need to update something
User 4: so then you go to update it and the link that was published before is now invalid
User 4: would be nice to have an option to directly replace a media item with a newer version and keep the URL

Jerry Bates: I see. Would being able to customize the link URL accomplish the same goal?

User 4: we ran into that at a huge conference here in the city about a month ago.
User 4: Yes that would solve the problem
User 4: are we talking about the link to the attachment page or the direct link to the media item in the wp-contents folder itself?

Jerry Bates: I had not really thought that far

User 4: if you could manipulate the filename post upload that would solve it but a direct swap out feature something say “Replace this version” would be very useful especially for documents and PDFs that can change over their expected lifetime
User 4: although the use year/month/ folder tree might get in the way with editing filenames

Jerry Bates: Well, assuming there are no limitations, it is an interesting idea.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
#user-interview

User Interview 3

Jerry Bates: first off, before we get into the media library, how long have you been a WordPress user?

User 3: for the past 3 years.

Jerry Bates: Cool, you came for the good years. 🙂
Jerry Bates: Do you use WordPress personally, build WordPress sites for others, or both?

User 3: you?

Jerry Bates: Oh dear, I made my first post in 2007, started building sites in 2010 or so

User 3: and yes to the last question.
User 3: that’s awesome!

Jerry Bates: How often do you find yourself on the Media Library page in your dashboard? Frequently, occasionally, almost never, or not at all?

User 3: frequently

Jerry Bates: Interesting. When you do visit the Media Library, what are you trying to accomplish typically?

User 3: just checking on some files, verifying URLs, etc. i suppose i should say occasionally given the percentage of time there over writing, coding, and the like.

Jerry Bates: Gotcha. If I can ask, what are you checking on?
Jerry Bates: Sounds like it can be a few different things

User 3: sometimes i may check to see whether or not i have a specific image, where i placed it, what the URL is for embedding it elsewhere. don’t use it for audio or video, yet.

Jerry Bates: I see, so mostly images?

User 3: yes

Jerry Bates: How much do you have in your Media Library? Thousands of files, Hundreds of files, or just a few

User 3: close to thousands, hundreds in several installs.

Jerry Bates: How about when you upload media to your site? Do you use the Media > Add New page?

User 3: yes
User 3: or i use deskpm or pressgram. XMLRPC.

Jerry Bates: Very cool. When you are actually adding media in the Add New page, is that just in certain situations? If so, what kinds?

User 3: i’d say almost everyday for blog posts, pages, or site content for clients.

Jerry Bates: Do you use it more frequently than, say the post editor Add Media button?

User 3: No. I misread what you said earlier. addhngmedia via the add new page happens several times a week but not as often as the add media button in the post editor.

Jerry Bates: No problem. So how do you locate things in the Media Library?
Jerry Bates: Do you tend to scan visually for the thumbnails, focus on the titles, look for where the media is “Uploaded to”, or something else?

User 3: scanning for thumbnails …

Jerry Bates: Do you ever have situations where you need to use the filters at the top, or click the columns in the Media Library to re-sort your view, or do you really just look for images visually?

User 3: rarely filter.
User 3: most media files I’m looking for tend to be recent,
User 3: but, I’m glad its there.
User 3: along with search.

Jerry Bates: Great. Do you use captions with your media typically? What about the description field?

User 3: depends. captions from time to time. description not really. working on using alternative text more for accessibility purposes.

Jerry Bates: Are there any tasks you find difficult to accomplish in the library currently?

User 3: it’s always nice to have a fresh UI that would be grid like like iTunes album covers, with the ability to increase/decreasre size.

Jerry Bates: I see. What about the other side of the coin?
Jerry Bates: Are there any tasks you wish the Media Library would allow you to do currently?

User 3: it’d be great to have an auto alt tag feature that takes the title and sets it as the alt tag.

Jerry Bates: Hmm that is interesting. I worry for all the DSC09844 alt tags we might release on the internet.
Jerry Bates: Do you often change the title of your images?

User 3: regarding the difficulties, sometimes its hard to locate files, but then again, i should use the filters and search.
User 3: no i don’t … and imagine the img21133 alt tags too!

Jerry Bates: ha, well it is a cool idea nonetheless

User 3: for sure.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
#user-interview

User Interview 2

Jerry Bates: First off, before we get into the media library, how long have you been a WordPress user?

User 2: somewhere between 3 and 4 years maybe
User 2: not that long 🙂

Jerry Bates: Gotcha. How often do you write posts on your site? What kind of topics do you write about?

User 2: I don’t usually write posts for myself. I’m work as a developer so it is usually just whenever someone is having some issues with the interface. Although me and a couple classmates have a “blog” with school articles.
User 2: So i guess you could say i usually just write science articles. That would be about once a month. But the work I do involves a lot more tiny editing around articles (many times a day)

Jerry Bates: How often do you find yourself on the Media Library page in your dashboard? Frequently, occasionally, almost never, or not at all?

User 2: Somewhere between Frequently and occasionally. it depends on how you would classify them.
User 2: Not every day, but almost always more than once a week.

Jerry Bates: Gotcha. When you do visit the Media Library, what are you trying to accomplish typically?

User 2: Usually one of three things. #1 Upload images to use in theme or code somewhere, #2 upload a bunch of images, #3 Looking for broken images
User 2: Oh, and searching for/locating and retrieving information for an image (like URL)
User 2: So I usually just use the media library page when I need to upload a [bunch] of images (or files). otherwise I would just use the “add media” button from the edit screen of a post.

Jerry Bates: How much media do you have in your Media Library? Thousands of files, Hundreds of files, or just a few

User 2: It rarely goes beyond 1000
User 2: (So houndreds)

Jerry Bates: I see. What type of media makes up the majority of files in your library?
Jerry Bates: Images, Video, Audio, Documents (word, pdf, etc.) or an even mix?

User 2: That would be images
User 2: Although there are also some documents. But never videos or Audio

Jerry Bates: Gotcha. So when looking, how do you locate media in the library?
Jerry Bates: Do you tend to scan visually for the thumbnails, focus on the titles, look for where the media is “Uploaded to”, or something else?

User 2: It depends on what I’m doing.
User 2: When I was looking for broken images I just looked at the thumbnails.
User 2: Otherwise i tend to search for the name (if I know it).
User 2: Afterwards I usually look at the “Uploaded to” to verify that it works on the post.
User 2: On smaller sites with just around 20 images, visual scanning is more than enough.

Jerry Bates: Gotcha. What about times when the filename doesn’t help? Or do you typically rename everything to get rid of stuff like DSC00398?

User 2: Way too many files are named from the cameras (like you describe), so filenames doesn’t always help. Then it is usually just visual scanning as you said.

Jerry Bates: Yeah, those things really don’t help, do they
Jerry Bates: Do you use captions with your media typically? What about the description field?

User 2: Hm, I must say no. I like to do so, however it tend to take too much time. Although if the image should be displayed with one I obviously write it.

Jerry Bates: And when you write a caption in those situations, do you do it in the Media Library, or in the post editor?

User 2: Post editor
User 2: I don’t think I’ve ever done it in Media library

Jerry Bates: Do you ever have situations where you need to use the filters at the top, or click the columns to re-sort your view?

User 2: Yes, I’ve sorted the filename alphabetically, and sometimes the author.
User 2: But I usually leave it alone

Jerry Bates: Gotcha. Are there any tasks you find difficult to accomplish in the library currently?

User 2: hm
User 2: Actually, yes. Sometimes I would like to get the basic information from quite a few images. Often just URL but sometimes also Width and Height. But whenever I do this I’m left with either tons of tabs open, or I need to go back and fourth to the library.
User 2: This also occurs after a large bulk upload
User 2: Its not directly an issue, but more an enhancement.
User 2: Instead of clicking “edit” to access more image details, it could fade in or something. Like the post screen does.
User 2: post library or whatever, when you click “quick edit”
User 2: “Quick info” 🙂

Jerry Bates: Interesting. So you kind of already answered this, but I want to ask it anyway:
Jerry Bates: Assuming there are no limitations, How would you fill in the blank here? “My life would be easier if the Media Library did ______”

User 2: Show me more basic information.

Jerry Bates: You mentioned file URL and dimensions (for images) anything else useful?

User 2: Hm, No I think that is basically it. There isn’t much more information on the edit screen after all.
User 2: Perhaps file size
User 2: I don’t use it, but that is the only thing missing except the image editor.
User 2: oh, and captions and description. But that might take up too much space. I don’t know… Atleast I would use the URL and dimensions
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
#user-interview

User Interview 1

Jerry Bates: First off, before we get into the media library, how long have you been a WordPress user?

User 1: since 2006

Jerry Bates: Cool, How often do you write posts on your site?

User 1: I am not the most regular blogger of my own content
User 1: I write posts when I am on holiday
User 1: or for business purposes
User 1: I do however run a dev company and we build sites for our clients

Jerry Bates: No problem, you don’t need to be a power blogger.

User 1: I regularly test and evaluate sites we build
User 1: I would say I am definitely a power user

Jerry Bates: Very cool! How often do you find yourself on the Media Library page in your dashboard? Frequently, occasionally, almost never, or not at all?

User 1: occasionally
User 1: I usually use media from posts or post types

Jerry Bates: How do you mean?

User 1: when adding a post I use the media library functions via “add new post” page
User 1: we use post types a lot

Jerry Bates: Ah, gotcha. When you do visit the Media Library, what are you trying to accomplish typically?

User 1: maybe search for images
User 1: one sec, lemme open and view to think

Jerry Bates: sure thing. I wonder, what are you searching for typically?

User 1: ok, so we import data from other sites
User 1: for example migration from joomla to wordpress
User 1: now ~I need to find an image
User 1: with “cape-town” in the name
User 1: I got to search media
User 1: we use a plugin called ewww image optimizer
User 1: we use that
User 1: from that page sometimes
User 1: sometimes I need to edit images
User 1: crop
User 1: resize
User 1: or other
User 1: I do that from the media library, but also quite often from the “add post” page
User 1: I often try to identify what post the image is attached to
User 1: going to the media library and searching for names helps find suitable candidates and then you can tell what posts they are attached to to
User 1: deleting images from media library is useful, especially in bulk

Jerry Bates: Gotcha! How much media do you have in your Media Library? Thousands of files, Hundreds of files, or just a few

User 1: my blog doesn’t have much
User 1: but the sites I work with generally have thousands of posts
User 1: and more often than not have a minimum of 1 featured image and about 5 images attached (used for gallery)
User 1: our sites import data from external APIs
User 1: which is why we have so many posts stored in different post types

Jerry Bates: That’s pretty interesting. What type of media makes up the majority of files in your library?
Jerry Bates: Images, Video, Audio, Documents (word, pdf, etc.) or an even mix

User 1: images
User 1: mostly png
User 1: never audio or video
User 1: because we live in south africa
User 1: you don’t even want to know how crap the interwebs are here
User 1: documents = PDFs
User 1: never word

Jerry Bates: Perfect. Since you typically have images, How do you locate them in the library?
Jerry Bates: Do you tend to scan visually for the thumbnails, focus on the titles, look for where the media is “Uploaded to”, or something else?

User 1: good question, with difficulty
User 1: unfortunately people are not really diligent in naming files
User 1: the imports we do often have good data, but also often have bad data naming conventions
User 1: like DSC00546
User 1: personally I rename files before uploading
User 1: when I batch upload files to my own site
User 1: I purposely rename everything before and bulk upload via the media library upload page

Jerry Bates: Interesting. Do you do anything to help filter your view when searching for something specific?
Jerry Bates: Like use the filters at the top, or click the columns to re-sort the view

User 1: ok, lemme think
User 1: ok, filters like on posts page
User 1: for example
User 1: currently the only filter is by date
User 1: so no I have not used filters on media library data

Jerry Bates: Or re-sorted the columns (kinda like a filter I guess)

User 1: filters are always helpful, same goes for clickable columns

Jerry Bates: How do they help you?

User 1: not very much

Jerry Bates: Gotcha. 🙂

User 1: sort by author is useful
User 1: but most images are imported
User 1: so no author attached

Jerry Bates: Do you use captions with your media typically? What about the description field?

User 1: good question, yes and yes, but mostly I do this when loading an image via a post, it is not usually relevant straight from the media library

Jerry Bates: What kinds of situations do you use the Add New Media page for? You mentioned bulk uploading. Do you ever use it besides that?

User 1: I use that page for bulk uploading regularly, then edit names afterwards

Jerry Bates: So are there tasks you find difficult to accomplish in the library currently?

User 1: yes, maybe this is our coding, but I found a challenging issue today, when I wanted to find a featured image after clicking featured image, I wanted to select an image size that you can usually select from within a post
User 1: size = small, medium, large
User 1: I need to sit with my developer tomorrow and discuss why this process is challenging

Jerry Bates: Sounds like that is outside of the media library, though (and in the post editor) yeah?

User 1: yes
User 1: media library works well imo
User 1: I am easy to please
User 1: and don’t find anything really that challenging about media library

Jerry Bates: Assuming there are no limitations, How would you fill in the blank here? “My life would be easier if the Media Library did ______”

User 1: well… tough question, it doesn’t bother me
User 1: so currently I don’t have any issues
User 1: or needs
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
#user-interview

4.0 Roadmap

We’re quickly coming up to 4.0 merge decision day. Next Wednesday in core dev chat our plugin will be decided to be core-worthy or not. In preparation, I’d like to nail down a roadmap for Media Grid in the 4.0 cycle.

1. Clean up bulk editing UI. I just shoved the default wp.media.Attachments view, and added some CSS so it looks okay. Would appreciate some review from UI folks about where we should go with it. See a recent post of mine for more discussion that needs feedback.
2. Image library thumbnail size control. We need review on this, whether it’s helpful to users, and more discussion on how it should be implemented if we’re going forward with it. See Shaun’s latest post.
3. Remove the router menu (i.e. the tabs) and move Upload Media into a link next to the Media Library title, a la post type list pages. Upload media could open in a modal view on top of the media grid.
4. Filtering and Searching. What can we do to make this experience better for users? Currently we have a basic search that only searches the title field of the attachment.
5. Field parity between Edit Media screen and Attachment Details sidebar view.
6. We need to allow users to access the old Edit Media screen, in case they have custom UI there (custom meta boxes, custom taxonomies, who knows). On that note, we should probably have a general filter to disable the media grid view to allow folks to keep editing as they have been in the past.
7. Responsive support.
8. Keyboard Accessibility (see #23560), which we’re currently scoring a big 0 on. Whatever we do here should go upstream to the modal.
9. Previews of media within the grid. Listen to audio attachments, view videos leveraging recent media work (perhaps in the Attachment Details sidebar view? Full-screen (or modal-like) previews of images.

Feel free to add other items we should focus on in the comments.

#23560

Recreating the Faded Backgrounds in the Backbone Branch

One thing that has been well recieved is using the selected image as a zoomed in and faded out background, for the sidebar. This was in the non-backbone version. Since the decision has been made to switch to the backbone branch as primary, it would be great to recreate this functionality in that branch.

I began messing around with it today, and had some issues with opacity transferring to the content of the sidebar. However, by putting the faded background in a :before pseudo element, we can fade it out without fading the sidebar’s content:

.media-sidebar:before {
    content:"";
    position:absolute;
    top:0;
    bottom:0;
    left:0;
    right:0;
    background-position:center center;
    background-size:cover;
    opacity:0.2; 
}

The next thing to do would be to tie in to backbone, find the event which fires whenever an image is selected, and use that to set the background-image. Additionally we need to decide what to do when multiple images are selected.