Each day, you blog, you create, and you make things with your WordPress.com site. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the code that runs WordPress.com gets updated dozens of times a day, as we deploy improvements. While you can't see the vast majority of those changes, there is one improvement we can't wait for you to see: a brand-new, redesigned WordPress.com dashboard featuring better contrast and the oh-so-lovely Open Sans typeface.

The dashboard's new design features Open Sans -- the free, open source typeface by Steve Matteson offers a pleasing reading experience.

The dashboard's new design features Open Sans -- the free, open source typeface by Steve Matteson offers a pleasing reading experience.

Back in April, I shared our goals for the WordPress.com dashboard redesign:

  • It should have a simple, uncluttered design; free of excessive decoration and focused on your content.
  • It should use webfonts for beautiful, legible typography that's consistent in every browser.
  • It should have a responsive design that's tailored to PCs, tablets, and smartphones.
  • It should do all this while retaining the familiar, user-tested dashboard interface that millions of users already understand.

We've redrawn all the icons, we've opened up spacing, we've moved to Open Sans as our default typeface, and we've increased contrast to make the dashboard as beautiful on the inside as your blog is on the outside:

Beautiful new icons and stronger contrast are two elements of the dashboard's redesign.

Beautiful new icons and stronger contrast are two elements of the dashboard's redesign.

Opt in to responsive goodness

We're also hard at work on a responsive design, so you can view and work in your WordPress.com dashboard on your smartphone or tablet. It will be available for everyone later this year, but you can preview it today. To enable the responsive dashboard, go to Profile and click the checkbox next to: Enable experimental responsive design (MP6). If you've previously opted in to our design preview, you'll have this enabled by default.

The responsive dashboard is tailored for smartphones and tablets.

The responsive dashboard is tailored for smartphones and tablets.

We hope the redesign makes creating things with WordPress even more enjoyable.

Special thanks to the early adopters who took the new dashboard design for a spin and took the time to share their feedback -- your thoughts and ideas were a big help as we iterated on the design and fixed bugs.