unconscious vs. conscious interface design

I just recently discovered Justin Palmer’s blog Encytemedia. About a month or so ago he wrote an article about Unconscious Interface Design as defined by Marco Dorante.

Basically, unconscious design is design where there is no “conversation with the situation”. Sometimes we make design decisions based out of habit; we are simply following the norm; or we just never asked ourselves “Why?”. Every design decision we make should involve us having a “conversation with the situation” if we wish to break free of unconscious design.

He goes on to talk about examples of unconscious design in the Wordpress admin interface which got me thinking about all of the bulk information that I don’t really need to see every time I login in to add a post or do whatever. Has anyone else been interested in revamping the wordpress admin? I’m not concentrating on look and feel, but actually putting together an “admin admin” that lets the user decide what information they want to see on each page as they manage their blog. If so let please let me know by either leaving a comment or emailing me directly.