Miikka

pressermannen

Halcyon Admin tunes the WordPress admin for people who prefer a steady, low-distraction workspace. It doesn’t add a settings page, a dashboard widget, or a notice — it just changes a handful of things wp-admin does by default, and gets out of the way.
What it does
<ul>
<li>Resizable admin menu — drag the right edge of the left menu to resize; width is saved per user and honored by the block editor.</li>
<li>Reduced motion by default — disables CSS transitions, jQuery animations, and the WordPress 7 view transitions for users who haven’t opted in. Honors <code>prefers-reduced-motion</code>.</li>
<li>JavaScript-delivered admin bar — the admin toolbar loads via JavaScript after page render, so full-page cache plugins can serve the complete HTML without the personalized toolbar. Users can opt out in their profile to get the default server-rendered bar.</li>
<li>Floating submit button — the Publish/Update button sticks to the bottom of the viewport when scrolling long post editor pages.</li>
<li>Sensible default — sets Fresh as the default admin color scheme for new users. Users can pick a different scheme through WordPress’s standard profile color-scheme picker.</li>
</ul>
All preferences are per-user and stored as user meta. There is no global settings page, no telemetry, and no external network calls.
<h3>Why “Halcyon”?</h3>
Halcyon means calm and peaceful. The plugin’s only job is to make wp-admin feel that way.
In professional administrative environments, efficiency, focus, and predictability are the priorities. The WordPress 7.0 upgrade introduced several new admin animations and transitions. While modern design enhancements can offer visual interest, they can also make the dashboard feel busy, less professional, and more distracting during routine editing work.
Furthermore, animation is a core accessibility concern. Extra motion in menus, panels, and transitions can be uncomfortable or problematic for users sensitive to motion. Halcyon Admin believes that:
<ol>
<li>Accessibility is a baseline — Operating system preferences like <code>prefers-reduced-motion</code> must be respected comprehensively throughout the admin area.</li>
<li>User control is paramount — Existing users shouldn’t be forced into a more animated and busy interface by default. Users, particularly those managing client sites or spending hours in the dashboard, deserve a clear, clean, and distraction-free workspace.</li>
<li>Usability matches innovation — Visual improvements are welcome, but they should enhance productivity and focus, not compete with them.</li>
</ol>
Halcyon Admin provides a quiet compromise: it restores a classic, steady dashboard experience by default, but stays completely out of the way for users who prefer standard settings.
<h3>Must-use install</h3>
To load Halcyon Admin as a must-use plugin (no activation needed, no update prompts):
<ol>
<li>Copy the <code>halcyon-admin/</code> folder to <code>wp-content/mu-plugins/halcyon-admin/</code>.</li>
<li>
Create a new file at <code>wp-content/mu-plugins/halcyon-admin-loader.php</code> containing:
<?php 
/**
<ul>
<li>Plugin Name: Halcyon Admin (mu-plugin loader)</li>
<li>Description: Loads Halcyon Admin from a mu-plugins subdirectory. 
*/</li>
</ul>
defined( ‘ABSPATH’ ) || exit;
require_once DIR . ‘/halcyon-admin/halcyon-admin.php’;
</li>
</ol>
Halcyon Admin will be loaded automatically on every request and won’t appear in the Plugins screen.

Halcyon Admin — Reduced Motion & Resizable Sidebar

A calmer, accessible wp-admin dashboard: reduced motion, resizable admin menu, cache-friendly admin bar, and sensible color defaults that work out of  …

kinetichub

KineticHub is a lightweight suite of animated Gutenberg blocks for designers, agencies, developers, and site builders who want to add motion, media, and interactive UI effects to WordPress pages without leaving the block editor.
The plugin includes visual blocks for animated typography, video modals, audio players, before-and-after image comparisons, marquees, interactive buttons, hero backgrounds, scroll dividers, split scroll layouts, cursor reveal lists, ambient visuals, and motion-ready containers.
KineticHub is designed for modern WordPress workflows. Blocks can be inserted, configured, and reused directly inside the editor, while frontend assets are loaded through WordPress block asset registration.
Use KineticHub to build:
<ul>
<li>Animated landing page sections</li>
<li>Portfolio and agency pages</li>
<li>Interactive hero areas</li>
<li>Product and service highlights</li>
<li>Editorial layouts with motion</li>
<li>Media-rich Gutenberg pages</li>
<li>Lightweight visual effects without a page builder dependency</li>
</ul>
View demos and documentation at: 
https://getkinetichub.com
KineticHub includes 12 Gutenberg blocks. The full block list is available in the Blocks section below.
<h4>Performance Focused</h4>
KineticHub is designed to avoid unnecessary page weight and unnecessary frontend execution.
<ul>
<li>Block assets are loaded through WordPress block asset registration.</li>
<li>Shared runtime behavior is handled by lightweight frontend assets.</li>
<li>Video embeds are initialized lazily after user interaction where supported by the block setup.</li>
<li>Motion-heavy effects respect reduced-motion preferences.</li>
<li>Global motion settings can be configured from the KineticHub dashboard.</li>
<li>Blocks are designed to work with modern WordPress themes and performance optimization tools.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Accessibility</h4>
KineticHub includes accessibility-oriented behavior across supported blocks.
<ul>
<li>Reduced-motion support for users who prefer less animation.</li>
<li>Keyboard focus handling where interactive controls are used.</li>
<li>Screen-reader friendly fallback text for animated typography.</li>
<li>ARIA labels for video modal controls.</li>
<li>Semantic output and escaped server-side rendering.</li>
<li>Interactive blocks are designed to remain usable without relying only on motion.</li>
</ul>
<h4>External Services</h4>
The plugin does not connect to external services on activation.
Some blocks may load third-party media only when a site administrator configures content that uses those providers. For example, the Kinetic Video Modal block can embed videos from YouTube or Vimeo when a YouTube or Vimeo URL is entered by the site administrator.
Third-party services may receive visitor data when embedded media is loaded by the browser. This depends on the configured media URL, the provider used, and the visitor’s browser behavior.
Supported optional video providers include:
<ul>
<li>YouTube</li>
<li>YouTube NoCookie</li>
<li>Vimeo</li>
</ul>
Self-hosted media files can also be used.
Provider endpoints that may be used when configured by the site administrator:
<ul>
<li>YouTube video embeds: https://www.youtube.com/</li>
<li>YouTube privacy-enhanced embeds: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/</li>
<li>YouTube thumbnail images: https://img.youtube.com/</li>
<li>Vimeo video embeds: https://player.vimeo.com/</li>
</ul>
Provider policies:
<ul>
<li>YouTube Terms of Service: https://www.youtube.com/t/terms</li>
<li>YouTube Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy</li>
<li>Vimeo Terms of Service: https://vimeo.com/terms</li>
<li>Vimeo Privacy Policy: https://vimeo.com/privacy</li>
</ul>
<h3>Source Code</h3>
This plugin includes compiled JavaScript and CSS generated with npm and WordPress build tools.
The human-readable source files used to build the distributed assets are included directly in this plugin package in the following directory:
<pre><code>source/
</code></pre>
The source directory includes the uncompiled free-version source files, package.json, webpack configuration, and build instructions for the JavaScript and CSS assets included in the distributed <code>build/</code> directory.
The same human-readable free-version source is also publicly available here:
https://github.com/GetKineticHub/kinetichub-free-source/tree/wporg-free-source-1.0.7
<h4>Build Instructions</h4>
The plugin uses the standard WordPress block build pipeline based on <code>@wordpress/scripts</code>.
To rebuild the distributed assets from the included source files:
<ol>
<li>Open a terminal.</li>
<li>
Go to the included source directory:
cd source
</li>
<li>
Install build dependencies:
npm install
</li>
<li>
Generate production assets:
npm run build
</li>
</ol>
The build process compiles source files from the <code>source/src</code> directory into a <code>build</code> directory using the included webpack configuration.
<h4>Build Requirements</h4>
<ul>
<li>Node.js 18 or later</li>
<li>npm 9 or later</li>
</ul>

KineticHub – Animated Gutenberg Blocks

Animated Gutenberg blocks for motion, media, typography, buttons, marquees, dividers, and interactive page sections.

Halcyon Admin — Reduced Motion & Resizable Sidebar vs KineticHub – Animated Gutenberg Blocks