critterverse 3:34 pm on July 27, 2021
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Widgets in WordPress 5.8 and Beyond

WordPress 5.8 (released last week 🎉) brings the power 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/ blocks to 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. areas — which means highly customizable layout and styling options, and a more WYSIWYGWhat You See Is What You Get What You See Is What You Get. Most commonly used in relation to editors, where changes made in edit mode reflect exactly as they will translate to the published page. editing experience. I made a test site based on oldie-but-goodie Twenty Sixteen theme, which has 3 separate widget areas to work with. In this post, I’ll highlight a few cool things that are now possible to do with your widgets, and a take a look at where things may be heading next.

Zoomed-out view of a single post with one sidebar widget area and two footer widget areas. The site content is about Marine Park Salt Marsh. There are is a “List view” of blocks floating next to each widget area showing how the design is constructed.

Create interesting visual effects with overlapping layouts and Duotone images

Appearance-wise, users have a lot more control over widgets areas than ever before — especially through the use of blocks with tons of customization options like the Cover and Image 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.. Here’s what I’m able to create in the classic widgets editor (above) versus what I’m able to create in the new block-based widget editor (below).

Intersperse widgets and custom code throughout your visual designs

Container blocks like Cover and Columns make it really easy to weave dynamic or interactive elements into your designs. While dynamic/interactive elements are sort of a given for many types of widgets, the block versions of widgets can be easily wrapped and layered within container blocks to more fully integrate them into your layout.

In the example below, I tried placing a Search block in front of a Cover block, which creates a nice layered effect. I also tried inserting Custom HTMLHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites. blocks within a Columns block to display different messaging depending on the time of day. (jQuery script here)

Use traditional widget layouts (or not) with lots of flexibility over title and structure

Classic widgets have always had a lockup that includes a widget title. One cool thing about having blocks in widget areas is that you have complete flexibility over how titles appear. For example, you might choose to have a title over every widget, you might only want one title at the top of each widget area, or your design might not need titles at all.

Note: Some themes, like Twenty Twenty-One, are designed to flow content horizontally within widget areas. If you’re having trouble with a theme splitting your layout into columns, you could try keeping the lockup together by containing it within a Group block.

Side-by-side comparison of List view of a Sidebar widget area with and without grouped/nested lockups.
Ungrouped layouts (left) versus grouped layouts (right)

Copy & paste existing layouts from the WordPress Pattern Directory

While patterns haven’t been fully integrated into the widget editors yet, one thing you can do is copy and paste patterns from the game-changing new WordPress Pattern Directory into your site’s widget areas. I used this horizontal call to action pattern from the directory almost exactly as is, with minor color and copy adjustments:

Footer widget area with a black box that reads, “Become a monthly Patron” with paragraph text and a “Join now” button in a separate column. A painted image of a waves hitting rocks is directly below with no space between.
FYI: Patterns have not been curated for or integrated into widget areas yet, so you may run into some unexpected behavior!

Inserting widget patterns

There is some early discussions about how patterns can begin to be integrated into the widget editors in GitHub issue #26170. Some of the conversation has been around introducing a Patterns tab into the inserter, which would allow users to browse patterns the same way as in the post editor.

Three side-by-side views of the inserter: in the first, the Search bar is focused and “text” block icons displayed. In the second, the Patterns tab is selected and patterns are shown in a list. In the third, the drop down menu open with the “Sidebar” option hovered/active.

A couple of goals for introducing pattern insertion UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. into the widget editors are:

  • Display patterns that make sense to use in a constrained sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. or footer area, depending on the type of widget area being edited.
  • Surface patterns in a extra discoverable way for users (including classic widget users who want to quickly recreate a traditional layout).

Based on this, I’ve been exploring ways that patterns could be surfaced in the quick inserter as a default/resting state as soon as the popover is opened:

Footer widget area with a search bar and block options in the top section and pattern options in a section below. There's a black “browse all” button that stretches across the bottom of the popover.
Currently, patterns are surfaced below quick inserter options after the user begins typing in the search box. Perhaps a couple of patterns could be visible by default.
Footer widget area with a search bar and block options in the top section and pattern options in a section below. There's a black “browse all” button that stretches across the bottom of the popover.
The quick insterter could display a list of patterns that show a fly-out preview when hovered. A similar style has previously been explored for the block switcher menu.
Footer widget area with a search bar and block options in the top section and pattern options in a section below. There's a black “browse all” button that stretches across the bottom of the popover.
The quick inserter could contain a single large preview with carousel navigation to browse through patterns. This mimics the pattern placeholder setup UI.

Thoughts?

How would you like to see patterns incorporated into the new block-based widget editors? Join the discussion by opening a new issue on GitHub or commenting below!

#blocks, #design, #gutenberg, #widgets

Kjell Reigstad 12:57 pm on July 29, 2021  

Initial Patterns for the Patterns Directory: Launched!

As reported over on the Meta blog, the 85 patterns the community designed for launch with the Pattern Directory are now live! 🎉

A few examples of our new community-designed 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. patterns.

Thank you to everyone who submitted, refined, and helped launch this set. I’m thrilled that users have such a broad set of high-quality patterns to choose from at launch, and I look forward to iterating and growing the collection over time. 

Now that we’re post-launch, we’re going to close submission of general patterns to this initial collection. The next phase of development for the directory will allow anyone to submit their own patterns directly, so please hold onto your ideas for then!

In the meantime, the design team may add a few more patterns from time to time (similar to how default patterns were occasionally added to 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/ before). You can keep an eye on the Pattern Directory’s GitHub repository for any activity there. Also, if you notice a bug with one of the existing WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ patterns, please file an issue and let folks know! 

Thanks again to the contributors who made these patterns happen: @anariel-design, @beafialho, @bgardner, @cavalierlife, @chrislema, @circlecube, @critterverse, @greenshady, @jameskoster, @jcasabona, @karmatosed, @kellychoffman, @kjellr, @laxmariappan, @mahvash-fatima, @melchoyce, @richtabor, @schutzsmith, @tajim, @webmandesign, @wetah

Javier Arce 3:25 pm on July 13, 2021
Tags: , , , , site editor   

A Walk Around… The Search Block

Welcome to a new installment of the series where I look at the current state 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/ blocks and propose improvements.

In my previous post, I talked about the Table 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.. This time I’ll be discussing another important component: the Search block.

Since search is a central activity for blogs and other sites that index content, it’s essential to give users the ability to customize the appearance of their search bars so that they don’t look alien or feel disconnected from the design of their sites.

The Search block options are pretty limited at the moment, and the block can only offer a short range of styles. The good news is that just by adding a small group of settings (many of which already exist for other blocks), users will be able to customize their search boxes in many different ways:

With that in mind, let’s have a look at this block.

Toolbar

The current toolbar has three main buttons that perform the following actions:

  • Showing and hiding the search label.
  • Changing the position of the search button (outside, inside, or no button).
  • Toggling between a search button with text or an icon.

To be more consistent with the way other blocks present the options and also to simplify the toolbar, we could move the second and third buttons (“Change button position” and “Use the button with icon”) from the toolbar to the sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme.. In the case of “Use button with icon”, I think this is not a primary action, and also the icon itself doesn’t convey the actual operation behind the button.

We could also add a setting to modify the alignment of the text inside the input field and the position of the text button. Controlling the alignment would allow users to create bars like these ones:

For languages that use right to left scripts like Arabic, Hebrew, or Urdu, we automatically switch the alignment of the text and the position of the search button.

To allow having styles that use the writing direction defined by the language, we could offer four alignment options:

  • Default (it uses the direction of the selected language)
  • Left
  • Center
  • Right

The last three options would overwrite the direction defined by the selected language.

Sidebars

Let’s review how the sidebar could look like and the sections that it would include:

Styles

This section would replace the “Change button position” that we removed from the sidebar, and add a new option: Button only. There’s an open issue that discusses this option here.

When users add a new search bar, they’ll get the default setting (Button outside), but will have the other styles visible on their sidebars for a quick switch.

Display settings

This section would allow adjusting the general width of the block (a feature that is currently present) and also toggling the following settings:

  • The icon inside the search input.
  • The icon inside the search button.

Here is a list of variations that those two settings would produce:

Spacing

In this section, users could change the padding of the item and also affect the spacing (the distance between the button and the input field).

There’s an interesting conversation around contextual padding controls in this GitHub issue, which could probably be applied to this block.

Depending on the style (button outside or button inside) the padding could behave differently:

  • If the style button outside is selected, the padding will affect both the input field and the button.
  • If the style button inside is selected, the padding will affect the outermost element.

The spacing setting could also be adjusted using a handle in the block itself. The control between the input field and the button would change the spacing, whereas the control in the button would allow resizing the whole block (which is the current behaviour).

Border

I think we should allow users to modify the border of the input field and the button independently for each of the four sides. That would give them great control to create different styles. For instance, they could create search bars with just a bottom border.

There’s an open PR that deals with border color support and border style here.

Typography

Depending on what element is selected, the typography section would affect the font and style of the input field, the text button, or the label.

Color

Like in the typography section, this one would affect the text and background colors of both the input and the button (again, depending on the selection).

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, if we implement these changes, users will be able to customize their search bars in many different and exciting ways and have more control over the design of their sites.

You can check all the designs I presented in this post in this Figma file and follow the development status in this GitHub search.

And as always, if you have any thoughts or feedback for this block, please drop a comment below. Thank you!

#blocks, #design, #gutenberg, #search, #site-editor

critterverse 9:36 pm on June 22, 2021
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Side-by-Side Image Challenge

Drag and drop is known for being one of the most intuitive interaction patterns there is. One behavior that users might expect to find in 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/ is the ability to create side-by-side images by dragging and dropping an image next to an existing one.

Note: This behavior has previously been explored in GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ issue #13202 and perhaps elsewhere!

The Current Behavior

Right now in Gutenberg, you can drag an image on top of an existing Image 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., which will upload the new image and replace the current one. The drop zone covers the full area of the block and is indicated by a blue overlay color with a CTA.

image-drag
gallery-drag

Image block and Gallery block with drop zone overlay shown at 75% opacity.

The drop zone looks exactly the same on the Gallery block, covering the full area of the block, but the behavior is slightly different there. Instead of replacing, the new image is added to the gallery.

The current overlay behavior works great for each of these singular interactions. The key design challenge is finding a way to offer both options so that a user can replace an image or add another image within a single drag motion.

Transforming an Image block into a Gallery block

indicator

The blue overlay color could be reserved for replacing an image, with a new treatment introduced for transforming the Image block into a Gallery block to achieve a side-by-side effect. I used a 4px vertical line to indicate the position of the new image — this is the same visual treatment used for the “move to” indicator (but I can also see a conceptual argument for using a 1px line like the sibling inserter).

snackbar-1

We could show a snack bar after the user completes the transform via drag and drop, as it’s not explicitly clear that this action will change the block type. A snack bar offers the opportunity to undo the transform, and could also be a way to call more attention to the new block type through the use of a block icon.

Adding and replacing images in the Gallery block

It would be nice to extend the same behavior to the Gallery block so that a user can seamlessly go from one image to two images, and from two images to three images, using the exact same interaction pattern. This could be a part of larger efforts to unify the Image block and Gallery block more closely.

Implementation

I imagine this could work by identifying separate drag zones within the area of the existing image for replacing/transforming but it would be helpful to play around with this in a PR to see what feels right.

Another option that would introduce slightly more friction to this interaction would be for the transform-related drop zones to only “unlock” after a long hover over the area. In this scenario, a quick drag and drop would always default to an image replacement with a longer hover opening up additional options (but I think the simpler interaction described above is closer to the expected behavior).

On GitHub

  • Use drag and drop to transform an Image block → Gallery block #32819
  • Unify drag and drop behavior across Image block and Gallery block #32820

Thoughts?

Please feel free to leave a comment below or drop a message in the #design channel on the Making WordPress SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. Looking forward to hearing your feedback, thanks for reading!

#blocks, #design, #gutenberg

Beatriz Fialho 8:46 pm on June 3, 2021  

Redesign of WordPress.org/News

Jazz should be recognised as music of the people, based in a lot of accents and melodies. What is jazz but music that people danced to? Jazz has the dynamic thing.

Al Jarreau

The blog page of WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ has stayed the same for a very long time and it could benefit from a careful rethinking and visual attention to detail. There are things we can do to improve the reader’s experience, to make it less visually constrained, and introduce an improved design language. After a request from Matt Mullenweg, I’ve spent some time thinking through a possible redesign, and I’d like to share some directional ideas below.

Making It Jazzy

Some of WordPress’s visual materials have been influenced by jazz aesthetics, which immediately translated into a clear visual direction. Although subtly, I’d like to express the playfulness of jazz, as in the album artworks you can see above.

Imagery in the blog is often sparse, so I explored elements such as stroke shapes, typography, layout and colors, to achieve a timeless result.

Leaving Space for Content

The current layout and typographic styles lack space. Opening up the canvas, rethinking spacings, placements and line heights could make it feel less boxed and improve readability.

I have also explored variations between categories, while maintaining coherence within the same section of the website, taking content in consideration and playing with it.

Rethinking Typefaces

Open Sans is widely used in the current site, and while there’s nothing wrong with it, its quirkiness wasn’t propelling improvement or helping readability, so I suggest we replace it with Inter, an open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. font, which I’m using for paragraphs and functional text. It works well for screens and reading and it has a timeless feel that fits universally with any type of content it’s used with.

EB Garamond, equally open source, is used in headings, bringing elegance and delicacy to the blog.

Continuously Iterating

Certain pieces are still in progress of refinement, such as the blog’s “home” page, text styles and the balance in the usage of paint strokes (some of the ones used here aren’t as polished). Colors are still being iterated on, but the vibrant blue seems to associate well with the evolving 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/ language.

Higher Level Concept

I’ve also spent some time thinking about simplifying the nav bar and footer for the site, which ultimately contribute to its visual consistency. Beyond that, I have found potential in the concept of recreating different “languages” of jazz throughout the site, in a way that’s coherent and balanced enough that isn’t confusing or misleading for people.

A huge thank you to @pablohoneyhoney for the continuous help and guidance in these iterations. I’m very happy to share bits of this work in progress, which is all available in this Figma link, and will try to post updates as regularly as possible.

I hope you’re as excited as I am about this, and I can’t wait to know what you think in comments below!

Editorial postscript – The design above is early, but has already gone through multiple iterations. As with so many open source things, all feedback is welcome and anything that can be changed will be. 🙂 ~josepha

Javier Arce 2:18 pm on June 15, 2021
Tags: , ,   

A Walk Around… The Table Block

In this post I’d like to talk about the Table 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. and propose several improvements and enhancements. Many of these changes require implementing one important feature: multi-cell selection. Others, like improving the initial placeholder state, could be addressed independently.

If you want to check out all the designs mentioned in this post, here’s the Figma file that contains all the designs covered below, along with some explorations and references. I’ve also opened a tracking issue on GitHub to organize the work around this block.

I’ve centered my work around these five main areas:

Placeholder

The current placeholder state is simple: users can set the number of columns and rows they want their table to have.

But these two numbers don’t give a clear picture of the kind of table the user is about to create, and since we don’t have a quick way to add new columns or rows (more on that later), creating the right table from the start is really important.

To solve this problem, we could offer an automatic preview that reflects the information entered by the user so that they can immediately see what the shape of their table will be.

Here’s an example of how this interface could look like:

  • The table in the preview gets updated whenever the user adds or removes rows and columns.
  • The height of the preview window is fixed, so the input elements below won’t move.
  • If the user creates a large table, we can show an ellipsis implying that the table contains rows or columns that are not being shown.

Another idea based on this UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. is the possibility to resize the table using the preview interface itself: if the user hovers the cells and then clicks one of them, the table gets resized automatically.

Related

Multi-cell selection

This is the biggest change in the Table block and would allow creating more complex designs than the ones that are possible right now.

Adding this feature would require refactoring the block and use inner blocks, so that cell is a block of its own. There’s been some talk around this topic in this issue.

To illustrate how this feature could work, here’s how Google Docs and TinyMCE do multi-cell selection.

Google Docs

The nice thing about multi-cell selection in Google Docs is that it’s possible to select one single cell. However, it’s not possible to select the entire table in an easy way (except, obviously, by highlighting all the cells with the mouse cursor).

TinyMCE

In contrast, in the TinyMCE editor it’s possible to select the whole table by clicking on it. Strangely, you can’t select just one single cell.

I believe our tables should support these two basic use cases: single-cell selection and the highlighting of the whole table. That would make the styling process much easier.

Two other handy features we could offer would be: merging and splitting.

Merging

Some apps like Google Spreadsheets offer several types of merging: horizontal, vertical, or full merge, depending on the direction in which the cells get merged.

I think we could start by offering the full merge (which combines a group of cells into one single element), as shown in the example below.

image

Google Spreadsheets also offers the option of “unmerging” a previously merged group of cells, which is a way to reconstruct the previous structure of a table. This is an advanced use case that we don’t probably need to cover, at least initially.

Splitting

Microsoft PowerPoint also allows to customize the splitting of cells. In our case, we could offer two options for splitting: horizontal or vertical. The reason to offer two ways and not automatically divide rows horizontally and columns vertically is to support the case where a user just want to split a single cell. In that case, it makes sense to give them the option to pick the method they prefer.

image
Related

Right now is only possible to change the text and background colors of all the cells at the same time. If we had mulit-cell selection in place, users would be able to customize their tables in many different and interesting ways.

These are the sections I think we should include in the sidebar:

Let me review them:

Styles

This section could show four several common table styles. Instead of using gray to color the cells, we could use the default main color defined by the current theme (which means that those previews should be generated using code).

These styles set and combine basic elements like stripes, and the presence of headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes., and footer rows. In the case of the last one (‘Left column’), it also sets the background color of a group of cells.

Table settings

In this section, I would add a controller to modify the dimensions of the table, since the only way to do this at the moment is using the toolbar (and that requires two clicks to add or remove a column or row of cells), which makes the process of modifying the dimension of a table a bit tedious.

Besides this section, another handy way to add more rows to a table could just be pressing the tab key in the last cell, as other apps do. I would also allow using the Tab key to traverse the cells.

Border Settings

This section would allow users to change the border settings for each cell or if it’s selected, the whole table.

With the idea to allowing to style tables in many different ways, we could also offer a special control (similar to the padding one) that would allow setting the width of each of the selection borders independently.

Color settings

Instead of changing the color settings of the whole table, this section would only affect the selected cells. This section would also offer the possibility to create a zebra-striped table (important thing though: the user could still overwrite the stripe color setting the background color with the control above).

Typography

Nothing shocking or revolutionary here: we should allow changing the style of the text for each cell and the table caption.

Related

The toolbar

If we were to implement all these changes we would end up having at least 10 actions that could go in the toolbar. Instead of having one single option that gives access to all the available actions, we could group them by categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging..

We could have three categories: insert, remove, and cell operations.

  • Insert would give access to all the additive operations: insert row before, insert row after, insert column before, and insert column after.
  • Delete would give access to all the destructive operations: delete row, delete column, and delete selected cells.
  • Cell operations would give access to merge, and split horizontally & vertically.

Icons

I’m also proposing to update several icons to make them faster to read and use the same kind of design language (i.e.: border radius, line widths, etc.) as other current icons. Here’s a first exploration:


Notice that, in the case of the four insert icons, the weight of the elements indicates the direction (before or after) in which the action will take place, while the current icons use the plus symbol instead. This is a delicate distinction that probably requires some careful consideration. Please, share your opinion and ideas in the comments of this post or in this GitHub issue.

And here’s the full set of icons (again, an initial exploration) that also include the Split, Merge, and Remove cells icons.

Related

I’ll continue working to improve this block. If you have any thoughts or feedback, please drop a comment below. Thank you!

#blocks, #design, #gutenberg

Kjell Reigstad 12:17 pm on June 8, 2021  

Initial Patterns for the WordPress.org Patterns Directory

After the Pattern Directory has launched, users will be able to add their own patterns to it directly. In the meantime though, the project needs a collection of high-quality, diverse, community-designed patterns to populate it with during development. These patterns will set the tone for quality in the repository, and will make the directory useful for folks upon its launch.

The Design team has already produced a small set of patterns to kick this off. If you’re using the 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/ pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party, you may have noticed a new set of bundled block patterns in the pattern inserter recently: 

These were designed by @beafialho, @melchoyce, and myself as iterations on the default set that shipped with WordPress 5.5. They have already been migrated into the upcoming Patterns Directory on WordPress.org for testing there.

This small set is just the beginning though! The three of us are continuing to design patterns to feed into the Pattern Directory, and we’d love your help. We encourage you to submit pattern candidates (in the form of mockups and/or 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. markup) using the “[Type] Pattern Submission” tag in the Pattern Directory’s GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ repository. There’s an issue template already created to help you get started. 

In this early phase, the Design team will review each suggested pattern and work to identify a list of criteria for which types of patterns are good candidates for pre-submission to the directory.

Please share any questions or concerns in the comments below. I’m looking forward to growing the Pattern Directory, and can’t wait to see we all design together!

Mel Choyce-Dwan 10:00 am on June 14, 2021  

Video tutorial: designing and submitting block patterns for the new WordPress Pattern Directory

Some of you may have seen @kjellr‘s recent post about creating patterns for the new Pattern Directory, which will be in betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. and then launching later this year. The directory’s still a WIP (for example, front-end submission hasn’t been built yet), but the development team is hoping to launch it with a bunch of high quality, curated patterns already in place on the WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ user.

I put together a ~20m video about my process bringing designs into the editor and then submitting them to the GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ repo. If you’re interested in making patterns for the directory, or making patterns in general for your own usage, please give it a watch!

ashiquzzaman 4:44 pm on May 20, 2021
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Design Team Meeting Notes May 20, 2021

These are the weekly notes for the design meeting that happens on Wednesdays.

You can read the full transcript on our Slack channel and find the meeting agenda here.

You can join the SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel by following the instructions in our handbook.

Housekeeping:

Where: #design channel on Slack.

Meeting Facilitator: @chaion07
Note Taker: @ashiquzzaman

Attendees:   @manzwebdesigns, @ashiquzzaman,  @kellychoffman, @chaion07, @antpb, @keoshi,  @shaunandrews, @karmatosed, @estelaris, @estelaris,  @critterverse, @jameskoster, @nahidsharifkomol, @gtarafdarr,

We have an open call for note-takers and triage facilitators. These both are great ways to get involved for new contributors but everyone is welcome to help out. Let us know if you are interested in the comments.

Contributions to the Design Team is always welcomed. Please pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” @estelaris or @chaion07 and they will guide you through.

Announcements:

WordPress 5.7.2 is now available. The 5.7.2 release was led by @peterwilsoncc and @audrasjb. Thanks to everyone who helped make WordPress 5.7.2 happen. For more information refer to the version 5.7.2 HelpHub documentation page.

5.8 Schedule Review, The schedule currently stands:

  • Final Alpha Scrub focused on features and enhancements before Feature Freeze on Tuesday, 25 May 2021
  • Feature Freeze in 6 days on Tuesday, May 25th
  • BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1 in 20 days on Tuesday, June 8th
  • RCRelease Candidate A beta version of software with the potential to be a final product, which is ready to release unless significant bugs emerge. 1 in 41 days on Tuesday, June 29th
  • 5.8 release in 62 days on Tuesday, July 20th

Read more in this P2.

@shaunandrews published an update on the ongoing work for WordPress.org Patterns Directory, i2

Work continues on both Github and in Figma; Please do join in the fun and help us out. If you have any thoughts or feedback feel free to drop a comment on the P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/.. Thanks!

WordCamp Northeast Ohio is happening this week. You can find the full schedule here: https://neo.wordcamp.org/2021/schedule/ and get a ticket following this link: https://neo.wordcamp.org/2021/tickets/

 WC EU tickets are up for grabs https://europe.wordcamp.org/2021/registration/

 @karmatosed is part of the Design Team for WC EU 2021

Request For Testing: .

Help Test the Widgets Editor for WordPress 5.8

This is a call for testing for the new 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. based Widgets Editor. Please report your findings on GithubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ in the Gutenberg repository as issues or in the comments below. If you have triage access, labeling any issue with [Feature] Widgets Screen or [Feature] Widgets Customizer,  depending on the issue, would be very helpful. Alternatively, you can simply include “[Widgets Screen]” in the title to help those who can set the labels appropriately.

@critterverse and @shaunandrews both did some testing on Widgets, the testing results are –

Proposal on the icons:

@keoshi proposed a couple of changes to existing icons a few new ones 

  • Tweaking existing icons: make a slight tweak to icons that have human representations: replace the solid dot (generally reserved for interface elements) for a more open, outlined shape. Not only does this styling match the rest of the icon, it’s also much more consistent with the rest of the library, and it humanizes these icons.
  • Adding new icons: grow the library by introducing new icons: bug, no-bug, security, card-add, key, and box-3d. These last two I’m not super happy with the results and could definitely use more love.

    Changes:
  • People and block-post-author icons.
  • The solid dot is generally used for interface elements, so I’m proposing opening up the shape a bit and outline it instead to humanize these two icons a bit.

 New addition:

  • bug/no-bug to be used in technical contexts such as issues, bug reports, fixes, changelogs, etc.
  • backward/forward useful for navigation.
  • key to be paired with the lock icons, or for plugins that support licenses.
  • card-add a generic element to add new elements beyond just the block editor.
  • security using the shield metaphor applies to site health and plugins in general.
  • box-3d to highlight physical products or related services.

He’s still on the fence about the 3D box because it would be the first use to use some sort of perspective so it could introduce that major inconsistency.

Design team will post a detailed P2 about it.

Updates:

For Figma workshop: At the moment, the design team doesn’t have people available to run the Figma workshop for WCEU.  If anyone is available and willing to, please @estelaris know. It could be a basic workshop on how we use Figma for WP.

Did you read these:

Open Floor:

@antpb highlighted a ticket for design review before feature freeze

#meeting, #meeting-notes

shaunandrews 9:33 pm on May 12, 2021
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WordPress.org Patterns Directory, i2

There’s been ongoing work on the WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ Patterns Directory since I last posted. I’ve continued to iterate on the design for the site and editor and wanted to share some updates. You can find the latest designs in Figma, along with all the past iterations and explorations.

The homepage of WordPress.org/Patterns
Examples of how individual patterns appear within the list.
Navigating multiple pages of patterns.
The pattern detail screen displays a large, interactive preview with a dropdown for adjusting the width.
When visiting the pattern editor for the first time a welcome tour walks you through the various aspects of creating patterns.
In order to avoid licensing issues or obscene/unwanted content, we’ll be restricting uploads and providing media for pattern authors to use.
The pattern editor is reminiscent of the template editor and includes a viewport width menu.
The inspector sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. includes all the various metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. information for patterns including title, description, categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging., and keywords.

Some notable changes since the last post:

  • The search has been made more prominent.
  • The chaotic masonry-style layout has been replaced with a more rigid grid.
  • Pattern titles are always visible.
  • Author avatars along with view and favorite counts are displayed below the pattern title.
  • The “Load more” button has been replaced with a UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. for navigating between pages.
  • The pattern preview gains a menu to adjust the width of the viewport to see how a pattern reacts at various sizes.
  • The pattern editor gets it’s own welcome tour.
  • Media uploads will be restricted, meaning patterns can only use media provided to them in the library.
  • The background color of the pattern editor now matches that of the 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. editors “template editing” mode.
  • The pattern editor replaces the “Preview” menu with a “Width” menu, which allows designers to set the viewportWidth property of their pattern.
  • Clicking the “Publish” button in the editor uses a multi-step modal that walks through collecting and confirming the required details (title, description, category) of a pattern.
  • My Patterns has been split into two screens; The first is for patterns you own, and the second is for patterns that you’ve favorited.

Work continues on both Github and in Figma; Please do join in the fun and help us out. If you have any thoughts or feedback feel free to drop a comment below. Thanks!

#meta, #patterns, #patterns-directory, #wordpress-org