Assistant is a project started by the makers of Beaver Builder that aims to create a new front end UI space for interacting with WordPress. It consists of a panel that can be toggled on and off of any page (page, post, archive, etc…) on your site. Assistant is meant as a way to quickly navigate between pages and accomplish frequent tasks without going to the WordPress admin. In broader terms Assistant is a UI framework for creating “apps”. This app paradigm allows for any number of new user experiences to be brought to the front end of WordPress.
Assistant is available for free from the WordPress Plugin Repository. You can install it from WordPress' plugin install screen by searching "Assistant" or by downloading it from the plugin repo.
Assistant was created as an entry in the 2019 WordCamp Orange County Plugin-a-palooza competition in which it won 1st place 🎉🏅. Now that the competition is done, we’d like to open the project up to community involvement so we aren’t simply making what we think is useful, but instead collaborating with the users and other plugins to make Assistant a great new experience for WordPress sites.
Areas of interest for the project include:
- Exploring gentler ways to introduce a new user to the tasks of site creation and content management.
- Exploring new ways to find, view and navigate to content.
- Providing a global search and command mechanism that all apps can participate in.
- Offering a glanceable and customizable view of what's happening on a given site thereby reducing the time it takes someone to orient themselves.
Goals of the project
- Create a friendly and intuitive way to interact with common tasks on the front end of a site
- Find ways to humanize site building and connect people
- Explore new ways to view and manage content
- Offer an easy and fast way to create new screens and user experiences
- Aim to be intelligent and useful out-of-the-box whether installed on a fresh site with no content or on an already established site with lots of content.
Non-Goals of the project
- Assistant is NOT trying to replace the WordPress admin or customizer.
- Assistant is NOT trying to bring over every feature from the admin.
- Assistant is NOT focused solely on people who use Beaver Builder. It should be able to work well with any editing environment including Gutenberg, Classic Editor and other page builders.
- Assistant is NOT an “official” front end admin interface for WordPress and does not aim to someday be merged into WordPress core. It is, rather, a new front end experience for working with WordPress that site owners can choose to use.