WordPress.org boasts a fresh new look with a jazzy design to complement its recently updated news page.
“The new homepage focuses more attention on the benefits and experiences of using WordPress, while also highlighting the community and resources to get started,” said Nicholas Garofalo, Contributor on the Automattic-sponsored WordPress Marketing Team. said.
“The new download page greets visitors with a new layout that makes getting started with WordPress even easier by displaying both download and hosting options at the top.”
Two paths are now clearly visible at the top of the download page: a button to download and install WordPress, and hosting recommendations to set it up through your hosting provider. It also includes help getting started with resources linked further down the page on WordPress courses, developer resources, support, and user forums.
The design received overwhelmingly positive feedback, but the road to development wasn’t without some hiccups. Matt Mullenweg’s criticism of the project’s pacing was offended by the exchange when his team released an update about moving the design into development less than three weeks after its kickoff. which caused the anger of some of his members in the community.
“It’s not a good use of your time, nor does it further the actual goals of the new homepage and download pages. There are better places to spend your development time,” Mullenweg said of the new design.
Mullenweg responded to criticism on Twitter Said“Whether someone is volunteering or sponsoring, open source developers, as they have been since the dawn of wp hackers, do our job to reach the best possible outcome for our users. We need to be able to discuss and discuss in public.”
Automattic-sponsored contributor Alex Shiels defended the time spent on the project, detailing some of the behind-the-scenes work. Mullenweg argued that changing Figma’s design to a theme should have significantly shortened the time to launch.
“It can be implemented in ‘hours, not weeks’. It’s a basic layout, so it’s hard to imagine one person using Squarespace, Wix, Webflow, or one of the WP page builders for more than a day. said Mullenweg.
“So if you’re doing a more sophisticated version of the same thing, make these changes quickly in your existing code approach and move to something more valuable. WP itself is trying to go further We need a fundamentally different approach.”
Some interpreted these comments as a referendum on the usability of the block editor. The development plan outlined by Shiels included creating a custom his block to launch a new themed MVP. This made me question whether Block Editor was living up to its promise of “dream it, build it”.
“The core team should edit the core block for such a simple layout. After 2+ years, what should a regular user/developer expect?” WordPress developer Aleksandar Perisic commented.
“We need as much dogfooding as we do code-focused contributions right now,” said Mike McAlister, WP Engine Software Engineer. Said“One informs the other. I’ve been heavily involved with FSE for months, and I honestly can’t imagine anyone trying to build a real site with it.”
In addition to giving WordPress.org a new coat of paint, this project has also sparked a bigger debate about how difficult it is for WordPress creators to build simple designs using the block editor. rice field.
