[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #49504: "Your homepage displays" setting missing without explanation

[WordPress Trac]

#49504: "Your homepage displays" setting missing without explanation
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 Reporter:  paulpela        |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  enhancement     |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal          |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Administration  |     Version:  5.3.2
 Severity:  minor           |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                  |     Focuses:  ui, administration, ui-copy
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Comment (by conversernz):

 Making this option appear and disappear because the user either has or has
 not any pages is a contravention of basic user interface design principles
 for GUI applications. Making a piece of a user interface visible or hidden
 depending on a setting in a completely different part of the user
 interface is bad because it is counter-intuitive. The key principle for
 design of GUI applications is that a user can see what is happening or is
 going to happen when they take an action. Since the part where pages are
 added and deleted is different from the part where the page is selected as
 a static home page or blog post page, this is not possible to achieve.

 You should only ever do this with a setting in the same part of the user
 interface as the part that is displayed or hidden. For example, the
 homepage settings could be incorporated into the Pages settings page where
 pages are added and deleted.

 The reason it is bad with the current interface is a person who is new to
 WordPress and has deleted all their pages before reaching the part of the
 user interface that enables the homepage settings will never see it and
 therefore they will never know it exists. Saying you should read the
 documentation ignores that GUI user interfaces are supposed to be designed
 to be intuitive.

 Since the Homepage Settings page provides an option to add a new page to
 remedy the problem of there not being a page to set as the static home
 page or blog posts page, it is completely unnecessary to hide the Homepage
 Settings page or the section that appears in Settings -> Reading. No fault
 is going to occur if the user does not have any pages available to be set
 in these settings areas. They will realise they have to add a page and the
 Add Page link will let them do it.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/49504#comment:4>
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