[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #37661: A New Experience for Discovering, Installing, and Previewing Themes in the Customizer

[WordPress Trac]

#37661: A New Experience for Discovering, Installing, and Previewing Themes in the
Customizer
-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------
 Reporter:  celloexpressions         |       Owner:  westonruter
     Type:  feature request          |      Status:  reopened
 Priority:  high                     |   Milestone:  4.7
Component:  Customize                |     Version:  4.2
 Severity:  normal                   |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch has-           |     Focuses:  ui, accessibility,
  screenshots needs-testing has-     |  javascript
  user-testing has-ux-feedback       |
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Comment (by folletto):

 > I was the one who opened #38365 two weeks! ago and there is still no
 activity for such a major issue.

 There's been a bit of a discussion on a tangent imho there which didn't
 help. But I agree with you the major problem given the 4.7 timeline is the
 lack of work there.

 > It's not possible to close the filter accordion

 I'd note that's an implementation thing, the original design didn't have
 that issue.

 ----

 > After living with this for a while and collecting some informal direct
 feedback from some design-minded folks, I'm not finding this to be a
 polished and compelling enough experience to ship, and given the general
 direction and timeline of 4.7 along with the underlying non-core issue of
 how you find themes in the first place, I don't think it makes sense to
 prioritize polishing this over other places where the same people are
 involved.

 I'm fine with this decision, as I don't think there's any rush. Given
 this, I'd surface again the elephant in the room that all the designs
 above had to deal with: the .org API. Most of the awkward design choices
 there are direct consequence of API limitations and customizer
 limitations. Namely:

 1. The inability to apply multiple filters AND search at the same time
 (either local themes or .org ones). '''This is MAJOR.'''
 2. The lack of an accessible control that deals with checkmarks/options to
 allow a design like
 [https://core.trac.wordpress.org/attachment/ticket/37661/customizer-theme-
 showcase-alt-selectors.png this].
 3. The restrictions imposed from customizer in allowing more fitting
 designs (see the whole discussion above when we switched direction). I
 can't get into much more detail about this myself, but I guess someone
 could expand on this.

 '''Given the above, we badly, badly need at the very least an updated .org
 API.''' Without that, the filtering/search experience will always be a bad
 compromise.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/37661#comment:116>
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