Happy Friday once again! This is the last Friday of the 1st quarter of the year. Let’s take a deep breath and dig into what went on this last week.

Navigation blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience.

Work is progressing on the Navigation MenuNavigation Menu A theme feature introduced with Version 3.0. WordPress includes an easy to use mechanism for giving various control options to get users to click from one place to another on a site. block. A group of designers conducted seven usability tests last week, and have spent this week going through notes and pulling out insights. Keep an eye on this p2 for an update next week on next steps.

WidgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user.-block interfaces

wp-admin
There’s a new PR that explores the widget-blocks in a wp-admin page. It’s quite basic right now, but still a wonderful work in progress.

CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings.
Some simple explorations are being done to include blocks in the Customizer. They are rough thoughts that incorporate Customizer’s existing patterns with a bit of GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/.

Tightening up

• The block list appender is getting cleaned up. And being added as a placeholder in some areas.
• Adding character counts to the Table of Contents to help languages like Mandarin and others that use characters as individual words.
• Adding larger handles to resize elements.
• Easier resizing of columns in Media+Text block.
• Image fill option in the Media+Text block.
• Making the swap image flow clearer.

AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility)

• The Heading hierarchy is being worked on now in this PR now.
• Looks like some of the issues with linked gallery images might be addressed in another patch.
• The video block subtitles needs a final design before moving to a PR.
• The text selection with keyboard has been addressed in this PR.

Thanks for reading, staying informed, and contributing anywhere you can!

#design, #gutenberg-weekly, #phase-2