UX Enhancement Proposal: Use a Neutral Disabled State Instead of a Red Cross for Disabled AI Experiments on the WP Dashboard #718

The AI Status widget currently uses a green checkmark (✅) for enabled features and a red cross (❌) for disabled experiments.

While this accurately reflects the state of each feature, the red cross may unintentionally suggest that something is broken, misconfigured, or requires user attention. In reality, many of these experiments are simply disabled by choice and are functioning as intended.

From a user perspective, seeing numerous red crosses on the Dashboard immediately after logging in can create the impression that something is wrong, rather than simply indicating that certain features are currently disabled.

Current Behaviour

• ✅ Enabled experiment → Green checkmark
• ❌ Disabled experiment → Red cross

Proposed Behaviour

Why This Change?

A red cross is commonly associated with:

• Errors
• Failures
• Missing configuration
• Unsupported functionality

However, disabled experiments are often an expected and healthy state. Using a neutral disabled indicator would better communicate that:

• The feature is available.
• The feature is simply turned off.

Benefits

• Reduces the perception that something is wrong with the AI setup.

• Distinguishes between:

  • Enabled features
  • Disabled features
  • Actual errors/issues

This proposal is purely a UX improvement and does not change any functionality.