[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #37974: Add multi-panel feature to pages through add_theme_support

[WordPress Trac]

#37974: Add multi-panel feature to pages through add_theme_support
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 Reporter:  karmatosed                   |       Owner:
     Type:  task (blessed)               |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal                       |   Milestone:  4.7
Component:  Themes                       |     Version:
 Severity:  normal                       |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-ux-feedback needs-patch  |     Focuses:  ui
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Comment (by karmatosed):

 Lots of activity over night - which is great. Thanks everyone for their
 hard work. Let me try and do some responses to things.

 I feel that we need to do some user tests quickly on what we have, maybe.
 This could help us clarify some surprising or not elements of the
 interface. I'm happy to do that if we're all agreed we're in a place to go
 ahead.

 I actually can see a lot of people wanting this outside of theme support.
 I can see it being something that a lot of users do want and expect but
 often a theme doesn't deliver. That said, I do not know the technical
 hurdles that mean this is not a great idea. Also, in testing a lot of
 themes will need to be sampled to see what this potentially does break.

 One thing that did feel weird though @pento and @bradyvercher, was on
 loading up it showed 'Front Page Sections' without me setting a front
 page. I potentially feel this is a confusing flow. Ideally I think it
 should only appear once someone has clicked to set a front page on front.
 This feels a more natural flow. What do you think? I found it just being
 there unexpected. Here's what occurred:

 [[Image(https://cldup.com/OH2OMh6_fS.gif)]]

 I also found what potentially is a bug - or maybe unusual behaviour. As I
 switched pages, each one was added as a section. This feels like maybe a
 little excessive. See here:

 [[Image(https://cldup.com/MF8CUh4LlT.gif)]]

 @NateWr whilst I appreciate you considered reply, the child theme issue
 has been discussed a lot. There are a few things problematic with it and
 the biggest is discoverability. I feel we've come a long way with this
 patch and then moving in a different direction now feels like its not
 needed until at least we follow this patch. This means seeing where this
 direction goes over taking a different approach. I am all for changing
 direction and even ditching a lot of anyone's work if the direction is
 wrong (my own work included), it just doesn't feel so in this case. If I
 am wrong, that's ok too.

 I've also done testing with defaults and it doesn't feel bad as far as an
 experience goes - it certainly wasn't designed without thinking about the
 NUX experience. Maybe we could add some text to increase that experience,
 however it is the same as if you had no menu items. Maybe we could also
 help menus too. Iteration is always good on experiences like this and
 beyond what we have as a first version we totally shouldn't just leave
 this without improving.

 We have to also remember why we're doing this and what the current
 experience even in Twenty Seventeen is like for users. What we have now I
 would absolutely say is better. In that context, at least I feel we have
 progressed very far experience wise. However, I do not see this as
 completed yet or even unable to be improved - nothing can't be improved.

 I would really like to not see us take a reverse path on this as we have
 come a long way. Reverse doesn't mean it has to go into core, it more
 means continue on the route it's on. That said, I don't think this can be
 rolled into the theme or to that matter should at this point - I totally
 could be wrong. It potentially could be a plugin, but that again means
 Twenty Seventeen couldn't take advantage of it and be in the .org repo. Or
 that Twenty Seventeen wouldn't have the functionality - a shame. I feel
 what Twenty Seventeen has now is less of a positive experience than this
 patch. @davidakennedy can speak more on that front though.

 Pages in pages just seems clumsy to me. Whilst with a developer hat on
 this potentially makes sense, to a user it could potentially cause
 difficulty. Even the concept does sound weird if you think about it.
 Sections makes sense in that case and hopefully gets over that mind
 hurdle. We will only know this for sure in testing as we are our in our
 own headspace. We aren't hiding the fact they are pages either. We're just
 saying you add a section to the page using page content. Could we add a
 note to clarify this? Potentially yes as all things can be clarified.

 @pento the relationship indication in the page list table feels like a
 solid suggestion with current patterns. Unless anyone else has a
 suggestion, I feel that this is better than adding something new pattern
 wise.

 For reference, here is what we have:

 [[Image(https://cldup.com/8w7kMHRu3W.png, 50%)]]

 Thanks everyone for really working hard on this and getting us to our
 current experience. Here is our current experience:

 [[Image(https://cldup.com/fRtyVf8uCk.gif)]]

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/37974#comment:135>
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