How we helped millions of WordPress users secure their website access

Case study

The client

WordPress.org is an open source content management platform and free to download for all.

At UXATT, we love open source.    Whenever we can, we try to contribute back.

38,5% of all the websites world wide uses WordPress as a Content Management System*.

With thousands of volunteers, we work on improving the software where we can.

UXATT focusses on keeping the software  as usable and accessible  as possible. This, within the limits given in open source projects.

The problem

When a WordPress website is set up, you have to enter an admin email address. 

This email address is used for notifications on software updates, technical problems or recovery emails.

But when owners start using the website, they forget to update this email address, because it’s out of sight.

And when the management of the website moves to someone else, there’s can be an outdated email address registered on a WordPress website.

So WordPress needed a solution to verify the admin email address that’s registered for a site.

The solution

The goal was to make it easy for people to learn why it is important to keep the admin email up-to-date. 

People from different WordPress teams collaborated strongly on this project.

Design, accessibility, frontend and backend development worked together to get to the result.

We discussed accessibility, link texts, frequency of showing the message (and to whom).

At last, WordPress users should have an option to dismiss the notification and get a reminder. 

At the same time, we needed to   while showing this extra screen on login.

limit irritation

Deliverable: High fidelity prototype

Research & strategy

We first looked at best practices of email verification screens in other software. 

For colors and typography, we followed the predefined WordPress color scheme and fonts.

The result

We created a clear and quick message to guide WordPress users to update their admin login if needed.

We kept an eye on the WordPress design patterns and used these in our prototype

With this feature, the user experience improved for all WordPress users now and in the future.