[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:  feature request  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal           |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Themes           |     Version:
 Severity:  normal           |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                   |     Focuses:
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Comment (by karmatosed):

 @babbardel yes and the issue there was that child pages is a hard concept
 for people to. Initially we thought it would just make sense for people.
 Turns out actually it's a feature not many use. Now, if we actually looked
 at that interface as part of this, perhaps we could address the issues.
 I'm doubtful though. Child pages in every test I ran were a lot more of an
 issue.

 The big issue of everything is discoverability. We have to have a solution
 that users as much as can 'just get'. That's hard. We have to get out of
 our heads a bit and I know that's hard. What for us seems sensible,
 logical.. it's often not for users.

 @westonruter I'm going to have to be honest and say half of what you're
 saying is going a little over my comprehension here. I get this is
 potentially complex but we seem to be diving into implementation and hows
 before we work out whys. I also whilst don't understand everything seem to
 feel you are saying we need a lot of other things implemented first. I
 don't believe that. The solution I'm suggesting does work without all the
 pieces in place like that.

 Can we please at the idea stage try and keep things a little easier to
 make sense of? I really want to understand and not assume or make the
 wrong judgement this early. I know others do too. When we dive into deep
 complexity and technical spec this makes it really hard for some of those
 of us coming from a UX/design angle to find a key in. We should welcome at
 this stage those types of brains. We all have different skills so if we
 try and communication on a level we all can participate in, that will
 create some awesome ideas. I really don't want to not understand
 everything you are saying @westonruter.

 I really feel having a simpler but robust and user tested solution works.
 Shortcodes aren't user friendly. We can hope they are, they are 'us'
 friendly. But the majority of users do not find them a discoverable
 solution right now. I also don't feel other solutions which haven't been
 user tested should be wrapped up in this one that has.

 @ThemeZee why doesn't having one standardisation make sense? It feels like
 this absolutely is where it would make sense. You avoid the confusion for
 users, you show a good, solid approach to themers. Win win right? I have
 seen so many bad ways of doing this:

 - Muddled theme options: pretty much I think I've seen every combination
 - Child pages: this as said earlier has a lot of issues
 - Widgets: a disaster for discoverability, theme changing and
 expectations. Also often really ugly. Pages really shouldn't be built from
 widgets. That's using something which is designed for one thing as a
 sticky plaster content block.
 - And many more 'interesting' takes on this.

 I also have tried my own variations and within Automattic seen a lot too.
 We came to this one through extensive user testing and failures. I openly
 admit I've made the mistakes and seen the results myself getting to this
 point.

 Content blocks of course would be amazing but wow it's a long way off.
 Should we really not add something as simple and already solved as this?
 Should we not maybe even think around this to come up with a better
 solution - maybe there is one that also is user friendly (I'm not seeing
 one in comments unfortunately)? I think so.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/37974#comment:13>
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