Blog: WordPress on iPad – a nightmare

I have a bit of a love, hate relationship with WordPress on mobile devices. My main concern is that the interfaces are not aligned. The mobile WordPress experience is so much different from that on a desktop browser/computer.

When it comes to usability, the app works just fine. But I never really know what my posts are going to look like, before publishing. Hence, I end up writing my text on the WordPress-App and then switch over to a browser version of WordPress to see what my articles will look like online.

With >30% of all users, using WordPress on phones and tablets, something needs to change. I urge the community to step up and help out.

WordPress workflow painstaking

This is of course not the most ideal workflow. It is highly frustrating, that the desktop browser versions support beautiful “block-based” (Gutenberg-Style) writing options, whereas the iPad-application is a mere text editor. On the iPad app, the mark-up options are limited and harder to find.

I love my iPad, though. I would not want to trade it in for a regular PC. As I am on the go a lot, I want to take the most versatile device with me as possible. The iPad hits many of the marks that I look for in a device. I can take notes on it, a quick snapshot to scan documents and contracts, the screen has a decent size when traveling and it is fairly light.

On my daily commutes, I use an iPad 12.9 inch (latest 2018 edition with FaceID). It is by far the best iPad experience I have had so far, and I love it. However, blogging/writing is something I really enjoy and the WordPress experience is far from ideal.

Settings are hidden

The screen on an iPad is large enough for a side bar navigation. However, the iPad app does not support this feature.

Before publishing a post, I need to go into the settings (click on the “…” in the right top hand corner) and fiddle about to select the right category, url and focus keywords (that I use to segment my posts).

This workflow causes me to make mistakes. I have published numerous posts without having gone into the settings first, because I simply forgot. Yes, I know it is a user-mistake and I should know how to do it, but as a heavy user it should be easier to get things done.

Add-ons are not supported

The beauty of WordPress to me, is the abundance of tools and add-ons. Apps such as Yoast (SEO-Plugin) are a great help and keep my posts focused, and clean. However, these plugins (though installed) are not supported on the mobile app-version of WordPress.

If only we could find a way to get around that and add plugin functionality to the iPad application… And ideally, the mobile version, too. I do not believe that screen real-estate should be an issue. Good and solid UX-design are the things we should look at together.

Automattic, please help us out

I really love WordPress, the platform is amazing and the community stellar. But we need to step up our game when it comes to the mobile ecosystem. I believe that the future of computing is mobile, as do many others out there. My mobile devices are the only ones I want to truly work with and drag around with me.

Could you please help us out here?