Theme and Plugins options pages need improved tabs

[chexee]

We've talked about this in UI group before, this is essentially a continuation of [12412].

The tabs currently look rather big and bulky. We'd like to find a more graceful, subtle way to show multiple screens under one nav item.

Some notes:

• Tabs should be different sections of one nav item (primarily Themes and Plugins). They are not children of that nav item. There shouldn't be any visual hierarchy between the h1 and the tabs. The tabs, essentially, are the different h1s.

• I use the word tabs loosely. They do not necessarily have to look like traditional tabs. Creative solutions to this would be awesome.

• We are also open to suggestions to changing the wording on the tabs, especially for themes. Current they read, "Manage Themes" and "Install Themes". "Install Themes" is a bit misleading, "Add New Themes" would be more descriptive.

Attached are previous proposals.

This one has hierarchy between the header and tabs. This is wrong.

shows hierarchy. also has unstandard gradient.

Current tabs.

TECannon's concept

That should be #12412 for the related ticket

Jorbin mentioned that when this gets implemented, we should use markup consistent with jquery-ui tabs, making it easier for plugins to stay consistent with the UI.

Note: We have also tabs on the Edit Site pages: ​http://grab.by/8Gjx

current tabs design

The current tab design has been updated and is less clunky and more elegant. If everyone is okay with this, proposing close.

Replying to MikeHansenMe:

The current tab design has been updated and is less clunky and more elegant. If everyone is okay with this, proposing close.

Current tabs still essentially look like the former ones this suggestion was created against, and don't address any of the points in the ticket. @chexee (whenever you land) - still feeling the same? I don't (currently) have a thought.

The major difference between the current tabs and the previous tabs is the font but IMO that was a lot of what made them appear bulky. Also, the menu has a new style and I feel the tabs are less out of place currently than they were in the previous screenshots. Happy to leave it open for more discussion though.

I really like the design by TECannon, nice work!

• http://core.trac.wordpress.org/attachment/ticket/16414/4338289262_87ab3c207c_z.jpeg

#23493 was marked as a duplicate.

Related: #21911

Here is a patch I'm contributing to remove the tabs and standardize the head considering how Menus are now doing it.

Menu tabs were a completely different way of using tabs. A better comparison point would be the way plugins operate.

Replying to thee17:

Here is a patch I'm contributing to remove the tabs and standardize the head considering how Menus are now doing it.

Also, make sure to generate your patches from the root directory.

Replying to helen:

Menu tabs were a completely different way of using tabs. A better comparison point would be the way plugins operate.

+1 for standardizing based on the plugins header.

Corrected Diff from wp root.