This post is a summary of the Let’s start from the beginning call for testing for the FSE outreach program, the twenty-fifth effort. As always, I want to highlight those who helped to bring others along with them in this latest effort:
Shout out to @mdquer @olein @foosantos as first time contributors for this call for testing. Expect a badge on your WordPress profiles for your contribution!
High level summary
This call for testing focused on a “from scratch” experience using the big pieces from WordPress 6.3 without detailed instructions for maximum exploration, which is reflected in the lack of new bugs found and in a fair amount of usability feedback and feature requests. In particular, folks struggled immensely with figuring out how to change the sync status of an already created pattern and fumbled through using the Command Palette, with some left confused on how best to use this new tool. While no new bugs were found, Synced Patterns losing their alignment attribute and the Table of Contents block 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.’s links not working on an initial save were noted by a few folks. Here’s what some folks had to say overall:
“The only thing to mention is for me is the command palette: The command palette is not satisfying for me. It works , but for me the problem are the keywords. I could not find > top toolbar or list view. As a normal user i would expect a keyword like – list view – should open the list view, or keyword – top toolbar – , should open top toolbar, that does not work for me. I like the new patterns section with synced and unsynced patterns.” @mdquer in this comment.
I’ve been trying to use the new command palette, but I honestly don’t know what to do there. I’ve used it successfully to switch to different pages, but I don’t know what the primary purpose of the command palette is supposed to be so I have no idea if I’m leveraging its capabilities at all…In general I feel like all aspects of Gutenberg 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/ have been improved by recent updates. @beckej in this comment.
Bugs
No new bugs were found and replicated with the following known items raised instead:
Each of these touch on items planned for 6.4 and, in particular, the alignment attribute with synced patterns remains a repeated and well established pain point Pain points are “places where you know from research or analytics that users are currently getting hung up and have to ask questions, or are likely to abandon the site or app.” — Design for Real Life.
But it looks like the block does not work on previews only after the page has been published. As the preview does not have the correct structure. https://bluewinddesign.com/?page_id=385 (previewed page). Clicking one of the headings in the Table of Contents block the link anchor looks like this: https://bluewinddesign.com/resume/#head-3 . It went to a 404 page. @paaljoachim in this comment.
Feature Requests
Many of these feature requests centered on the Command Palette, a feature new to 6.3 and slated for improvements for 6.4, with one request already completed for adding a Toggle List View command. With the growing number of design and styling options, two folks noted a desire to see the Style Book elevated and more readily discoverable, which aligns nicely with a currently open design issue on that exact topic.
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I found the autosuggest/listings to be varied in their accuracy. Some of them didn’t make much sense in their order compared to the actual search query. @jordesign in this comment.
The ‘View Page’ button exists in the old block editor, so it would be nice to have a similar experience. (My apologies if this has already been raised in an Issue). @olein in this comment.
After checking further, I realized that Style Book does something like that. In my opinion, Style Book should be the default option with a site preview alternative. Or at least highlight Style Book a bit more somehow. @foosantos in this comment.
Media & text block didn’t apply the border when I edited the image styles. The Media & text could be composed of sub-blocks to inherit the properties of a single image block like the Gallery block does now. @josvelasco in this comment
General usability
Out of all of the usability feedback, a few themes emerged:
- Changing just the H2 styles was hard to find, with folks going to the Styles > Blocks > Heading rather than Typography.
- Switching a sync status of a pattern after it’s been created proved to be nearly impossible to figure out.
- Writing in the Site Editor > Pages section has a few points of friction with the locked blocks experience.
None of these tasks are necessarily niche to do yet prove to be tricky to navigate, with cumbersome steps or unclear UX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it. to navigate, like being unable to see the blinking cursor in a new page in the Site Editor.
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Using the Style Book – I was hoping to be able to make changes to the H2 specifically while viewing a preview. It wasn’t made clear anywhere what the hierarchy of editing headings was to edit the ‘Heading’ element for styles that go across all headings, but could then make individual changes to different headings under Typography > Headings. @jordesign in this comment.
I typed into the Width box where it said Auto and wrote 100. The image is now smaller. I am wondering where the size drop down is? To select full, large, medium, small, thumbnail. Instead these options are inside the Resolution dropdown and that can be very confusing. @paaljoachim in this comment.
After checking for about 2-3 minutes, I really couldn’t find a way to change from Synced to Unsynced. Both for the original and duplicated. @foosantos in this comment.
I wanted to insert the table of contents block between the title and the first block, so I moved the cursor to the page title with the mouse and pressed enter, but could not move it to the content area. @olein in this comment.
After creating the page from the Site editor, clicking the Type / to choose a block does not make the vertical text cursor | start blinking. You see it only after you start typing or pasting something like the Google Doc’s content. @josvelasco in this comment
#fse-testing-summary