Though nothing stays still for long with WordPress, the design of your blog’s dashboard hasn’t changed much lately. While we’ve added new features and made some adjustments along the way, the dashboard has been looking forward to a refresh for some time. With that in mind, seven weeks ago, a scrappy gang of web designers and developers teamed up to explore how to do just that. We asked ourselves the question: “What should a modern version of WordPress look like?” We decided that:

• 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 drawn new icons, increased contrast and font size, and generally modernized the design from top to bottom. We’re still working on it, but you can preview it starting today! To step into the future, head over to Users → Personal Settings in your blog’s dashboard and check “Enable experimental admin design (MP6),” then Save Changes.

We’d love to have you preview the new design and let us know what you think. You can use this feedback form to send us your ideas. Since it’s a work in progress, you may see some things that don’t look quite right or aren’t working just yet. You can instantly switch back and forth between the new and old dashboard design during this test period. We’ll switch on the new design for everyone later this year.

If you’d like to learn more about how the new design was created, or you’re a designer or developer who would like to contribute, please join us on the Make WordPress UI blog.