I love WordPress and I recommend it as the best content management system and blog platform, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for improvement. Back in the summer of 2008 WordPress hired Ball State to conduct usability tests. The results of those tests resulted in some major changes to the admin user interface (UI) and most of those were good. Having read the report I don’t recall Ball telling WP to hide links. This, however, is exactly what WP has done with the links on the Edit Pages and Edit Posts panel. You have to mouse over the titles or the general area to get links like quick edit, trash etc. It’s true once you’ve used it often you know these are there and it’s really not a problem, but for some users who use WP as a CMS and don’t regularly update pages or write posts this is hidden information leading to questions and confusion. Perhaps more important, plugins have sometimes taken a cue from WP and implemented the same. Here it is often even more confusing to hide these links until mouse over.
Here’s the bottom line WP, WP plugin developers and others, don’t hide links that don’t need to be hidden just because the effect looks cool to you. Put as much out in the open as possible so people see it right away.