Explore UI for destructive controls & contexts

[joedolson]

After considering ticket #49603, we think that WordPress should take a look at the consistency of informing users when they are in a destructive context and when a control will have destructive consequences.

In general, we have a standing expectation that these controls will be red & have text that clearly indicates the action to be taken, but this should be reviewed for consistency.

Reviewing #49603 showed that the 'Force Erase Personal Data' control is blue, which doesn't match expectations.

The intention of 49603 is to draw attention to the fact that the 'Erase Personal Data' screen is entirely dedicated to destructive actions. While using a background color to indicate this may not be the ideal choice, the concept is well worth exploring.

Summary: review destructive actions & contexts to ensure clarity and maximize error prevention.

[SergeyBiryukov]

Related: #36882.

Tangentially related: #11304, #27370, #28235, #37016, #39712.

[azaozz]

In general, we have a standing expectation that these controls will be red & have text that clearly indicates the action to be taken, but this should be reviewed for consistency.

Right, this is the standard expectation (afaik).

Unfortunately there are other inconsistencies with this. One was introduced during the 5.3-beta ill-fated CSS enhancements. When the "Midnight" admin color scheme is selected, all form elements get a heavy red border when in focus. See the above screenshot. This is very confusing as red borders are also used to indicate dangerous/destructive actions.

Looking at it more, there are numerous other inconsistencies/regressions that were introduced in 5.3-beta when using one of the optional admin color schemes (was kind of hoping that the people that introduced them will also fix them but that doesn't seem to be the case). Will open tickets for them.

[afercia]

This ticket was discussed during today's accessibility bug-scrub.

was kind of hoping that the people that introduced them will also fix them but that doesn't seem to be the case

@azaozz The changes to the alternate color scheme were implemented after feedback from the design team. I'd suggest you to ask the Design team for a new design :) Once we have a design, we can implement it.

Also noting this ticket is specifically about user interface control for destructive actions across the admin, which is a long-standing issue that exists since way before WP 5.3. Lastly, there is a ticket to iterate on the alternate color schemes, see #49999

[afercia]

This ticket was discussed during today's accessibility bug-scrub: agreed to move it to Future release, as this issue requires a good amount of exploration as a first step.