Misunderstanding the goal of the Gutenberg Experience
Now, I tried the Gutenberg writing experience for WordPress!
Having read all of the early reviews of this newest Gutenberg plugin (which continues to be an extremely early release), now and then reading the interview that Matt Mullenweg failed with Torque at WordCamp Europe, I was excited to give it a try.
That which I read in Matt’s meeting, that matched his WordCamp US talk last December, was that this focus on the editor experience would let us leapfrog the experiences which newbies enjoyed with Weebly, Wix & Squarespace.
The aim , which I thought I heard, was that the other players, although there’s obviously reference to Medium’s writing experience that’s always said. The folks which have been spending gobs of selling cash on advertisements and took market share.
It’s clear I have misunderstood something, but first…
Before I tell you allow me to put the record straight on a couple of things.
I really believe that the range of volunteers focusing on this have done a fantastic job. They have put in a lot of hours and also have basically begun re-wiring the admin interface for publishing. That is a big thing. Also it was definitely going to be a ton of work no matter what the person experience was. So I totally appreciate their hardwork.
The plugin is still in a very early state. While we speak about how fast things have moved, it’s important to learn that it’s still quite early in the procedure. So things may vary. And you need to know that going in and checking from something in a product’s life cycle.
I browse no documentation and watched no videos, so there’s a good probability that I missed lots of things. Individual user error is easy when you have not uttered everything you’re about to accomplish. And that is even more of a issue whenever you go in using pre-conceived thoughts of what you’ll be equipped to perform, and you’ll be in a position to do the job.
However, with all that said, I left the experience feeling as that I may have missed the primary objectives — and not by a little, but with a whole lot….
Are we competing with Squarespace or Moderate? Perhaps you have chose?
FIRST EFFORTS
I installed the plug in as soon as I started. I went back to the house page, I’d be dropped into the editor manner and because I presumed I can create a new page out of there.
That is not exactly what happened. I wound up developing a new page (from the admin area). Then I looked at the list of pages, also saw a fresh link, “gutenberg” and clicked on it.
Then I moved to editing that, however internally. I was not editing on presentation coating or the page. I was filming.
Can it be fine? Yes. Can it be easy? Sure. Can it feel as if it might compete with Moderate? Sure.
However, was that the point?
I thought we were attempting to let folks create pages, articles and websites which were block based & row. What I saw was that an interface which was abstracted from the fact of the published page that I created, and mostly I had been getting Moderate features.
Simply speaking, if we are currently competing with Moderate, I believe we’re on track.
Though I will say, once the post was published by me, I couldn’t work out how to get to edit that page. I went back to the page listings and clicked the “gutenberg” link, but that fell me to this page having a sterile port.
I lost of my previous writing. So I had to click “back” several days from the browser and then click save again to get the content backagain.
So it is maybe not just a Medium experience. Nonetheless, it’s nice, and I could see how someone might like it.
BUT WHO IS OUR TARGET?
Didn’t we would like to share with the entire world which WordPress was more than simply for bloggers? If by “rich content” we mean mostly blogs with nice images, then that really is it. We’ve figured stuff out.
However, I presumed that WordPress does more than blogs? Of course if we’re pursuing different things, such as pages and blogs, then we’re far that Squarespace, Weebly & Wix are advertising.
We all heard that we needed advertisements councils , and now we’re collecting advertisements casestudies, but we’re going to walk into a gun fight if our focus is on the Medium-style editor.
THE PROBLEM WE SHOULD BE SOLVING
If we will address a problem with this plug in, shouldn’t it be the cognitive dissonance that people need if they edit in 1 port and watch their job product can be found?
What exactly do we desire? On page, what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG), content creation. When do we need it? Now.
Look at what things looked like as I had been creating articles.
I made it length the width of the distance I typed in, when I added the photo. Cool. I love that appearance.
Nevertheless when I moved to see that the post, I saw some thing different.
That’s a different appearance. Perhaps not minding the whole page. But it did period the entire content location. That has been fine.
Then the theme changed. And as you would expect, things shifted.
This time the image was constrained by the pillar for articles. The side bar made it much smaller.
What is my purpose? Don’t I know that the subject does this? Not Really a Plug in?
Yes I really do. But my mom doesn’t.
And with Squarespace or Wix or even Weebly, she does not have to comprehend the gap between a theme and a plugin. Or that one controls everything. Or why the editor made matters look the expression and one way looked.