Move block removal under ellipsis

[karmatosed]

Where block removal is placed right now it's easy to accidentally hit it when you are interacting with the menu. Removal of a block should be a deliberate process and this allows that.

[jasmussen]

I think this is a crucial step for mobile, where if you accidentally delete a block, it's gone, because the undo/redo buttons aren't present there.

On desktop, this is less of an issue, because there are convenient undo shortcuts and buttons at the top, which means there are no truly destructive actions. Perhaps we can start with doing this for mobile, and revisit if it becomes necessary for desktop?

[ZebulanStanphill]

The remove button was already removed once before and then re-added because it was convenient to have it around for quick block removal on hover. Of course, this only applies to desktop since you can not hover things on mobile, so given what @jasmussen pointed out, I think putting the remove option under the ellipsis is a good idea there, but the button should remain on desktop.

[karmatosed]

Whilst I get the idea of having just on mobile, on desktop there is still the potential issue of accidentally clicking delete. I'd be less forceful about having this on all devices if we had a check on deleting. I am not saying we should but as we don't we shouldn't have it able to so easily be hit.

[jasmussen]

I have no super strong opinions — for the longest time I hoped we could do without the button, because pressing Delete or Backspace should hopefully be sufficient and enough, and we have good undo/redo. Since then I've come to find it convenient.

[mtias]

One thing to consider here is the "shared" block menu, as there's an option to "delete shared block" and would overlap with "remove from the post". Would need to make sure that is clear.

[karmatosed]

I could be wrong but as the delete shared block removes the block, can't we just have a delete block?

[mtias]

Not sure I understand what you mean there. Deleting a shared block means removing it from the block library, removing from the post is just the regular "trash button" action.

[jaymanpandya]

I was thinking whether we can do this? It solves the problem of accidentally clicking the block and losing it and it can be implemented on both phones and desktops.

[ZebulanStanphill]

@jaymanpandya I feel like that undermines the purpose of the Remove button being on the side, which is really just convenience. By adding a confirmation, the convenience factor is much smaller, and you might as well just have the Remove option be in the ellipsis menu, which may be faster in some cases due to a lower amount of mouse travel from the ellipsis to the Remove option as opposed to from the Remove option button to the Delete button in a pop-up.

[karmatosed]

@jaymanpandya thanks for the suggestion but in this case I think adding a step doesn't really inform the user as much as cause a hitch. It also doesn't remove the fact it could get hit, even seeing a pop-up could be clicked and ignored.

@mtias ah right yes we probably need to have both and split by a separator in this case. Which avoids hopefully slippy fingers.

[designsimply]

I am in favor of moving the Remove icon to a menu item under the ellipsis because deleting a block should be a deliberate process. This may also help prevent data loss.

[designsimply]

I would like to add, similar to @jasmussen! and now that this is in my head 😁, I agree that it's easy to get used to that 'Removal' trash icon! I also think change is tough, so adding it one way and then switching it can be hard for people who are already testing Gutenberg. I also feel that, when I tried out earlier iterations of Gutenberg, it was much easier to add a new blocks and therefore it felt really good to have a quick delete option in that context. Since it is relatively more deliberate to add a block now, it feels like a good balance to make the removal option a bit more deliberate as well. 🙂