Although the WordPress admin panel is very straight forward, some have said it’s not as polished as the Movable Type or Expression Engine admin areas. That is about to change.

The WordPress Shuttle project, an endeavor to beautify the WordPress admin panel featuring the Silk Icon set from FamFamFam, will help to make the WordPress admin area more user friendly, accessible, and polished.

From the mock ups, it looks as though the team has developed a gem, however, one thing I would like to see is a way to integrate the current blog’s theme into the login/registration areas. Another thing that appears to be missing (according to the mock ups) is the optional post excerpt in the post writing screens. Aside from that and a few other nuances that can be added, this is certainly going to be a vast improvement over the current WordPress admin panel.

Though the project has officially launched, there is no immediate date for its incorporation into WordPress. I am anxious to see this rolled out in future versions of WordPress, however, it makes me wonder whether I should rethink that “using the WordPress admin” guide I have been planning…