WordPress Launches New Homepage and Download Page Designs – WP Tavern
WordPress.org is now sporting a brand new look with a refreshed, jazzy design that enhances the recently updated News pages.
“The brand new homepage brings extra consideration to the advantages and expertise of utilizing WordPress, whereas additionally highlighting the neighborhood and sources to get began,” Automattic-sponsored WordPress advertising and marketing group contributor Nicholas Garofalo said.
“The brand new obtain web page greets guests with a brand new structure that makes getting began with WordPress even simpler by presenting each the obtain and internet hosting choices proper on the high.”
The Obtain web page now clearly gives two paths on the high – buttons for downloading and putting in WordPress, and internet hosting suggestions for setting it up by means of a internet hosting supplier. It additionally contains assist getting began with sources linked additional down the web page WordPress programs, developer sources, assist, and person boards.
Though the designs have obtained overwhelmingly optimistic suggestions, their journey to growth was not with no few bumps within the street. When the Meta group printed an update about taking the designs into growth, lower than three weeks from the design kickoff, Matt Mullenweg’s criticism of the tempo of the challenge drew the ire of some neighborhood members who have been offended by the interplay.
“This isn’t a very good use of time, nor does it additional the precise targets of a brand new homepage or obtain web page, and we have now higher locations to spend our growth time,” Mullenweg stated in response to the plans to create a block theme for the brand new designs.
Responding to the criticism on Twitter, Mullenweg said, “No matter whether or not somebody is a volunteer or sponsored, open supply builders want to have the ability to debate and talk about our work in public, as we have now because the daybreak of wp-hackers, in order that we arrive at the perfect end result for customers.”
Automattic-sponsored contributor Alex Shiels defended the period of time spent on the challenge and elaborated on among the behind-the-scenes work. Mullenweg contended that turning Figma designs right into a theme ought to have taken far much less time to launch.
“On the ‘hours not weeks’ to implement — it’s such a fundamental structure, it’s arduous to think about it taking a single particular person greater than a day on Squarespace, Wix, Webflow, or one of many WP web page builders,” Mullenweg stated.
“So, if we’re simply doing a prettier model of the identical factor, make these modifications in place with the present code method rapidly and transfer on to one thing increased worth. In case you are attempting to additional WP itself, you want a basically totally different method.”
Some interpreted these feedback as a referendum on the block editor’s usability. The event plan Shiels outlined included the creation of customized blocks so as to launch an MVP of the brand new theme. For some, this referred to as into query whether or not the block editor is delivering on its “dream it, construct it” guarantees.
“The core group has to edit the core blocks for such a easy structure – after 2+ years, what ought to abnormal customers/builders count on?” WordPress developer Aleksandar Perisic commented.
“Canine-fooding is required simply as a lot as code-focused contributions proper now,” WP Engine software program engineer Mike McAlister said. “One informs the opposite. I’ve been knee deep in FSE for months and truthfully it doesn’t really feel like anybody has tried to make a REAL web site with this.”
Along with giving WordPress.org a contemporary coat of paint, the challenge has sparked a bigger dialog about how difficult it nonetheless is to construct out easy designs with the block editor, even for the individuals who make WordPress.
