Brace Yourself! Gutenberg Phase 2 Has Started!
Gutenberg phase 1 has just finished with the release of WordPress 5.0. This stage has been about upgrading WordPress’s writing and editing experience, posts, pages, and the exciting things users do with the WordPress posts.
However, these are not the features of an entire WordPress website. There are plenty more features that can also be customized in the block editor. And WordPress is just on the verge of doing it in the second phase of the Gutenberg editor development.
Gutenberg Phase 2 Philosophy:
The block framework’s primary job is to simplify user interfaces. And also to make WordPress editing more accessible and less complicated for the end-users.
Gutenberg Phase 1 was intended to make posts and pages editing more comfortable and flexible for users. WordPress developers did that by leveraging blocks as the primary mode of interaction, offering more astonishment for users with zero technical knowledge.
In the upcoming phase of Gutenberg editor, WordPress intends to expand the experience of editing and customizing an entire WordPress website. For example, you could change the header, or the footer, etc. You will get the features needed to create a complete webpage. Hence, you don’t need to buy or download a 3rd party WordPress page builder plugin.
This process also aims to eliminate the tricky problems users face in their way. For example, there will be multiple layers of abstraction and navigation in the blocks. Another way is to reduce the technical knowledge required to customize a WordPress website’s overall appearance and functionality.
Gutenberg Phase 2 Plan:
Now WordPress is about to start the Gutenberg Phase 2. This entire stage is about thinking outside the box while putting the entire website inside smaller boxes!
The first step of Phase 2 will bring blocks into the Customizer to create a comfortable experience for the everyday users and developers, creating a path of upgrading Gutenberg themes.
If I start mentioning, then the post boxes, page box, and entire website layouts come in the business in this development stage. Besides, WordPress will replace widgets with blocks so that any block will be used in any registered “sidebar” for legacy themes. On the other hand, they will upgrade “menus” to a navigation block.
It will take the ease of use introduced with block-based editing and extend that capability to the Customizer, starting with widgets, to make it easier for users to customize the rest of their sites.
The next long step will begin then; it will expand the current Gutenberg post and page editor to become a full-fledged site editor. Besides, bringing everything together into a unified and modern product will ensure an excellent user experience.
Bottom line:
Every development needs a vision. And without any aspiration, it’s not easy to reach goals. WordPress has walked the patch of reaching goals with both vision and aspiration.
The 2nd phase of the Gutenberg editor is another step of reaching that goal. And it begins soon. Keep following our blogs and news for the next updates on the development of WordPress Gutenberg editor.
Phase 2 will be led by Alexis Lloyd [@alexislloyd, http://www.alexislloyd.com/ ] on the design and product side, and Riad Benguella [ @youknowriad , https://twitter.com/riadbenguella ] on the technical side.
