Happy Friday! The Gutenberg plugin has gone through 2 weeks in a row of releases earlier (7.4 and 7.5) due to the beta release of WordPress 5.4. However, we did not have a release this week. Our next RC for Gutenberg will be on this coming Monday with an expected release for Wednesday. We’ll then continue with our bi-weekly release schedule.
In those two releases, we saw a myriad of features:
Added text color options to the Group block.
New link UI for adding links to text.
Background and text color support for the Columns block.
New Social Links block.
Added inline color to specific words within text.
Added featured images to the Latest Posts block.
And everyone’s kid’s favorite; TikTok embed support.
Full site editing
Full site editing is experiencing TONS of mockups and UX flow explorations right now. Check out the Figma files to see the work happening there.
Global styles
The Global styles team has narrowed down the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to just get some basic global styles into a “sidebar” interface for now. Mockups and prototypes are still being built around improvements.
We’ve also decided to trim down block patterns UX to an MVP as well. This will most likely begin as a sidebar that allows the selection of block patterns to be inserted into the content. Turns out attempting to redesign the Block Library will take more development effort. We want to get patterns in sooner, so an MVP feels the better way to go.
Lions, Tigers, and Sidebars! Oh my!
If this sounds like a lot of sidebars to you, we hear ya! It’s a quick way to test interactions out, get some feedback and forward direction. We understand that some of this work isn’t the ideal scenario, and everyone is working to improve it. Thank you so much to everyone contributing!
Get involved
Now’s a great time to get involved. While the work on this project is intense, it’s always important to glean new perspectives from other WordPress users and community members. Just drop into any of the links provided above to read up on the details and contribute.
Thanks for reading, staying informed, and contributing anywhere you can!
As discussed in this week’s meeting, let’s work together to iterate the design team about page. Along with editing and updating the content, adding notes on the way the team works and types of work might be great.
What do you wish you’d seen on first coming to this team? What could be helpful for other teams to know on this page?
If you’d like to help, dive right into this document and let’s work on this page together.
Along with this page, are there any other pages you think would be great to update in the handbook? Leave a comment on this post if there are.
We start off thanking @joshuawold for his incredible work as a team rep. He is taking a well-deserved break, and we hope to see more of him in the future.
Next up, @karmatosed suggests we create a page in our handbook that describes our team processes. Workflows, resources, and also things like how contribution badges are awarded. Our process for this has not been the most consistent. It was discussed what the criteria should be for awarding a badge, and that we should do it on a regular basis. @mrMark suggested for example we could award a team badge after 15 contribution badges were earned in the past 30 days, though @folletto reminds us to not rely too much on rigid metrics alone, there should be room for the human aspect always. @karmatosed will write up a proposal for all this and we can iterate there.
Then, @mapk brought us updates from the Gutenberg front. Designs for full site editing are coming along nicely. Some issues that could use some eyeballs:
A lot of things are coming together in this prototype, do check it out: https://www.figma.com/file/TR15iRvk7toGHnKb68QN1K/Full-Site-Editing?node-id=29%3A1016
@estelaris will soon report on P2 the findings of a working session at WordCamp Vienna to reclassify documentation into categories and subcategories to improve search.
@matveb shared an issue for the consolidation of WordPress icon usage. This touches on two topics: one how to lower the barrier of entry to making and updating icons (“input”), and one to make the new icons available in WP (“output”). There are a lot of different icons used now, no longer exclusively Dashicons. And the process of adding new icons is a bit unclear. Any thoughts on this are welcome to be shared on the issue: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/20284
Finally, @mapk needs someone to lead the Gutenberg triage next tuesday. Any volunteers are welcome to send him a Slack message. He’ll amend the Handbook page with more info on leading that meeting. It’s really not scary! https://make.wordpress.org/design/handbook/workflows/weekly-design-triage/
@nrqsnchzshared design iterations the team has been doing on the block library with a Block Patterns focus. This UI will significantly change the Block Library interface. Feedback is welcome!
Inbox
@estelaris shared an update on work for HelpHub pages. The team needs to find a way to organize the articles with the goal of creating better search. Check out the full Slack conversation if you’d like to help.
Open floor
Valentine Bora shared afewitems in Meta/Forums that need design approval. Checkout the full Slack conversation for context and helping out.
@karmatosed starts off asking for extra people to help run the triage meetings on monday, where we discuss open tickets and prioritize for the next release. Volunteers can speak up in the slack channel or via DM.
@mapk reports that Gutenberg 7.4 will be out soon, and it’s looking really good.
Next, @karmatosed asks for design feedback on the auto updates settings that’s new for 5.4. https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/48850 Take a look at it and share your thoughts, this is an interesting new feature for WordPress.
@estelaris and @bph bring a design ticket for feedback. Helphup and Devhub don’t have a way for people to leave feedback on the documentation. This would add a comment form to those pages. @karmatosed advised simplifying the form and then iterating, and @michael-arestad had concerns about moderating, but the comments will not be shown publically clarified @bph.
Finally, @paaljoachim brings https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/16014 to our attention.
Full site editing is underway! Mockups are being explored and Information Architecture (IA) flows are being examined. Let’s take a look at the work.
Full site navigation
Navigating through various pages, posts, templates, and template-parts can get overwhelming quickly. It’s tricky. Figuring out how to navigate through these flows and simplify it for the users is incredibly important.
Now’s a great time to get involved. While the work on this project is intense, it’s always important to glean new perspectives from other WordPress users and community members. Just drop into any of the links provided above to read up on the details and contribute.
Thanks for reading, staying informed, and contributing anywhere you can!