Gutenberg Testing

What is Gutenberg

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 project name of the new editing experience in WordPress. The goal of Gutenberg is to simplify the creation of rich pages and posts in WordPress by replacing old 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., CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. and shortcodes with native Blocks.

Creating Gutenberg has been a huge team effort – and right now, the team needs YOUR help with usability testing. Our usability tests have been specially designed to allow anyone to take, or moderate, a user testing session.

How you can help: Every test matters!

1. Run through one of the three usability tests yourself (A, B, C)
2. Help others run through one of the three usability tests
3. Recruit your [mother | sister | partner | grandfather | child | puppy | entire social media network] to run though one of the three user tests

What feedback are we looking for?

We welcome all kinds of feedback (our doors are always open, join the conversation in  #coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.-editor on the core WordPress Slack). To make sure we get a diverse range of perspectives, our key focus is to deployDeploy Launching code from a local development environment to the production web server, so that it’s available to visitors. the user tests to a wide, global audience. In particular, we are really keen to reach participants outside of the WordPress community.

About the test

There are three usability tests that you can choose from (A, B C). The tests are almost identical, except for the complexity of the task that you will be asked to complete. Each test scales in time to take and difficulty. You are free to complete any of these tests, irrespective of whether you have prior WordPress experience or not.

Each usability test consist of three sections:

1. Part 1 asks you some general questions about your experience with using WordPress
2. Part 2 asks you to complete a task using the Gutenberg editor
3. Part 3 asks some questions about your editing experience. You also have the option to upload your screen recording and answer some questions about the video footage in this section

Running the usability test

If you are new to usability testing, please have a quick look at our Guide to observational usability testing. There are some handy tips that will help you run a fun usability testing session. We also have a quick Guide to screen recordings for those who have not done that before.

In order to complete the usability test, you will need to set up a few things:

1. Get your hands on a device (laptop, tablet, desktop or mobile device)
2. Ensure that you are familiar with the process for how to run a usability test
3. Ensure that you know how to do a screen recording on your device
4. Open two browser windows, one with the test instructions (either A, B or C) and one with the Gutenberg editor loaded with the Twenty Seventeen theme. Example setup here.
5. Follow the instructions in the test
6. Optionally, upload your screen recording
7. Optionally, write up a blog post about your observations*

How to report your results

There are three ways in which you can report back your user test results:

1. You can simply answer all the questions in the test instructions
2. You can optionally analyse your screen recording footage by answering the video coding questions in Part 3 of the test instructions
3. In addition, you are welcome to write up your test results in a blog post like this one. Share your link with us in the comments below and in  #core-editor on the core WordPress Slack

If you are new to usability testing, you may find it confusing to figure out how to provide feedback. A really easy rule to follow is to articulate what the user did when they hit an obstacle. A common mistake for new user testers is to jump straight into solution or resolution mode. While we all love to solve problems (us too!!), doing this during the testing phase is likely to cloud our ability to uncover the underlying causes of the friction. For this reason, we prefer to keep identifying the friction separate from fixing the friction.

Need help? Want to connect?

If you have run a test, you can report any findings in the forms linked. Conversations and discussions take place in #core-editor on the core WordPress Slack.