We have started on this ‘path’ of redesigning cPanel’s current primary theme called x3. We have even gone so far as to begin calling this new project x4. When Egon is explaining to Winston that the coming psychokinetic activity would be a Twinkie…”thirty-five feet long, weighing approximately six hundred pounds”, Winston simply replies, “Thats a big Twinkie.”
The redesign of cPanel into x4 is, well, a big Twinkie. The home page of cPanel alone has over 65+ icons linking to roughly 120+ pages. These numbers don’t even take into count any additional pages and icons individual hosts have added. Now, almost all of you reading this have gotten used to this enormous Twinkie we call cPanel. Though if you think back and remember the first time you saw cPanel?
So where in the world am I going, talking about a thirty-five foot long Twinkie and what does it have to do with x4?
There is a type of observational bias known as ‘The Streetlight Effect’ where people look for whatever they are looking for where it is easiest to look. The most common parable explaining this goes something like this.
A policeman sees a drunk man searching for something under a streetlight and asks what the drunk has lost. He says he lost his keys and they both look under the streetlight together. After a few minutes the policeman asks if he is sure he lost them here, and the drunk replies, “no”, that he lost them in the park. The policeman asks why he is searching here, and the drunk replies,”this is where the light is.”
Despite having an amazing UI team here, we are still subject to the street light effect at times. With the x4 project, we will be leaving the comfort of the streetlight, and going into those some 120+ pages. Hopefully shedding light on some pages of cPanel that time may have forgotten, or for one reason or another, just have not been updated. These updates, while not a complete overhaul of cPanel, should at the very least make a lot of the things easier to use, with less obstructions.
The first example, right out of the gate will be the “Change Password” page. You currently have to enter your old password, your new password, verify the new password, and then hit enter. Whether you are successful or not, we currently take you to another page to inform you that you have either successfully completed your change of password, or you have committed an error. Now, you will get validation on the same page, no clicking a back button needed. While this seems like an insignificant change, it’s not the only one being made to “Change Password”. Multiply something like this times 120… and you should see some dramatic work flow changes.
