Site editor UX issues, revert back to frontpage, extra edit prompt

[Humanify-nl]

Description

Since 6.2 to 6.3 I experience many problems with the revised site editor UX and performance.

1. Reverting to frontpage
The editor often reverts back to frontpage while loading something. This is very big issue. Every time I open a pattern or template, the canvas starts loading it, and then sometimes suddenly it switches back to the front-page template. Clicking again on the template does nothing. It needs a hard refresh while back into the editor (first view) and then we can try again. This is hard to reproduce but happens enough to be an issue.

2. Big usability problem
There is a problem with opening a part or pattern in non-editor mode. Clicking on a template or part opens the canvas in a non-editing mode, and then again a prompt is given 'if you want to edit this block - edit this template'.

Since we are working inside an editor. User expectation is to edit the site. The extra prompt is confusing. We are in an editor, YES we want to edit.

Is there ever an intention to view the site in the editor just to look at without editing? I wonder what is the reasoning for these extra clicks and slowdown of user flow. This is a UX regression.

As you can see in the screencap, the cover block flickers quite a lot as well in this view.

3. Canvas size
When the post-content is constrained to i.e. 700 pixels in the template, and we open the post-editor, the canvas gets resized to the constrained with. This is great! However, it is very slow. When opening the template it starts at full width. Then after a 30 sec or so, it goes into its contrained width.

Too many clicks
I know this is very opinionated; but, every time the editor is changed, the UX gets worse because there are extra clicks / actions needed to get somewhere.

Go to backend -> Appearance -> Editor (wait 4s) -> Pattern (wait again 2s) -> Choose which sort of patterns -> Click on edit template (20s wait) -> We can finally do something meaningful.

Step-by-step reproduction instructions

Issue 1 & 2 - Just try to open a page in front end, and click on the 'edit site' in admin bar. It mostly works bug-free when we go from appearance->site editor.

Issue 3 - Build a template with 2 columns, add post-content in one of the columns and set this column to inner blocks use content width. Save. Open the page and edit. See content width.

Screenshots, screen recording, code snippet

Environment info

• WP 6.3.1
• No gutenberg
• LocalWP

Please confirm that you have searched existing issues in the repo.

Yes

Please confirm that you have tested with all plugins deactivated except Gutenberg.

Yes

[richtabor]

There is a problem with opening a part or pattern in non-editor mode. Clicking on a template or part opens the canvas in a non-editing mode, and then again a prompt is given 'if you want to edit this block - edit this template'.

Since we are working inside an editor. User expectation is to edit the site. The extra prompt is confusing. We are in an editor, YES we want to edit.

I've hit this consistently too.

[richtabor]

Go to backend -> Appearance -> Editor (wait 40s) -> Pattern (wait again 20s)

These times are way out of line. Something else must be going on.

[Humanify-nl]

Go to backend -> Appearance -> Editor (wait 40s) -> Pattern (wait again 20s)

These times are way out of line. Something else must be going on.

I am guilty of a nasty typo, I meant 4s and 2s. Also I am aware LocalWP is terribly slow these days, which may add up! However it was much better in 6.2.3

[annezazu]

Thanks so much for opening this issue @Humanify-nl! I'm afraid having all of these slammed into one issue makes it hard to triage and get help. As a result, I've broken out the following into a separate issue that's very bug related and likely more actionable for 6.4:

#54479

I also want to follow up on the double confirmation but I can't replicate it and am not quite sure what to write for replication steps. I'd appreciate if someone else can open up an issue there and add it to the 6.4 board if they can replicate/have a video.

[Humanify-nl]

@annezazu Apologies for dumping it all in one issue. I should have known better and split these three issues.

About the 'edit this template prompt'.

I have done a few more tests with different 6.3.1 themes because the behavior seemed inconsistent. I have been able to pinpoint this a bit more.

Here are the reproduction steps:

1: Make sure the frontpage has a template part (I suppose on top, like a header or page-header)
2: From wp-admin click on appearance -> editor
3: Do not click anything untill the right side preview is loaded (for me this takes 3-5 sec).
4: Click on the right side preview view (in my case this is always frontpage template).
5: Editor opens this now in 'edit post' block editor instead of site-editor.
6: We can edit the content of this page, but when clicking on a template-part, it asks the prompt: "if you want to edit this template, etc."

So what actually happens,

Issue 1: When we initially open the site editor, and click on the frontpage review; the editor opens this in 'edit-post' instead of 'edit-site'. This confusion nr 1 (user expectation is: this is a template editor).

Issue 2: When there are template parts in view, they are a bit buggy (flickering as in above screencast), and when clicking the template part, only then: 'edit this template to edit this block', is triggered, and clicking on it we trigger a reload of the page in the site editor view.

Possibly important detail: If there are no template parts present, this problem is pretty invisible.

I suppose this can be solved by making sure that clicking the initial front page review opens this in site editor mode, instead of page editing mode.

From UX perspective:
The unification of the editor experience, with combining post editing & site editing in the same flow caused this confusion. Are we editing a page or a template? I think it is not clear enough if user is editing a template or a page.

Maybe its just my bias/confusion because I am an old WP guy who is so used to managing pages via the old pages view because that is 10 times faster, and only use the editor for template building.

[richtabor]

What's confusing is how the front page of your site may be a template, rather than a page.

So when you go into the site editor to edit it (because there is no page content to edit in the standard admin page UX), you are presented with the edit confirmation "Edit this template to edit this block" notice — even though this is the only way to edit that template/page.

Perhaps we should omit that notice/logic from the home/front page? Or perhaps you're taken to the template view when editing your home page, like how "Blog" does automatically.

[github-actions]

Hi,
This issue has gone 30 days without any activity. This means it is time for a check-in to make sure it is still relevant. If you are still experiencing this issue with the latest versions, you can help the project by responding to confirm the problem and by providing any updated reproduction steps.
Thanks for helping out.

[Humanify-nl]

• Clicking “edit site” should always open the edit template view
• Clicking “edit page” should open the edit page view

This would solve any confusion and removes the extra confirmation step. We are either editing content or templates, both at the same is going to be a mess.

[github-actions]

Hi,
This issue has gone 30 days without any activity. This means it is time for a check-in to make sure it is still relevant. If you are still experiencing this issue with the latest versions, you can help the project by responding to confirm the problem and by providing any updated reproduction steps.
Thanks for helping out.