Navigation Screen: Design Iteration #28675

shaunandrews · 2021-02-02T21:07:41Z

The current design of the beta Navigation screen looks like this:

There's a few problems here:

The large white canvas implies that you can/should fill it with blocks. However, most menus are likely to contain only a handful of links.
The ever-present List View is really just a duplicate view of the currently selected menu. It doesn't offer much, and I can't justify the duplication of elements.
The Navigation block defaults to it's horizontal variation, which doesn't feel familiar when coming from the existing menus screen. Related, the way submenu items appear/disappear makes it difficult to manage them.
The inspector sidebar is hidden inside a popover. The location of the cog icon moves depending on the block selected, making it hard to find as you add and move blocks.

This PR aims to resolve those problems, and give the beta Navigation screen solid footing for future improvements. Here's the updated design as seen in this PR:

The refreshed screen ditches the all-white canvas, focusing instead on the singular Navigation block on a familiar gray, wp-admin background.
The inspector appears as a persistent sidebar on the right, offering quick access to menu and link settings.
I've adjusted the layout and increased the spacing of the Navigation block and it's inner Link blocks to make them easier to select.
Submenu icons now appear to the left of the label.
Submenus no longer appear as a floating box; Instead they appear indented in the normal flow of the page.
Links blocks now show a light gray border when hovered.
The focus outline now appears when editing a Link's label.
The toolbar is no longer in fixedToolbar mode.
When editing a submenu, the parent link gets a border.

annezazu · 2021-02-03T00:44:58Z

This looks great! The only thing that stood out to me to create more consistency between widgets and navigation screen is the overall top toolbar. Here's the current design for Widgets:

Right now, the design above makes that top toolbar to add new, manage locations, etc feel like it's floating/disconnected from the experience:

I don't know if more major design changes are expected for widgets but felt worth noting. Finally, for the "Editing: blog footer" section, this feels a bit awkward to me for some reason. I almost wonder if this could take a page out of the template navigation experience? This part specifically:

Here's a pretend "mockup" if it can even be called that:

jasmussen · 2021-02-03T08:47:08Z

I love the track this is on.

Whether or not to top toolbar is a conversation worth having — I lean on the side of not replicating the block editor because these are screens built for different purposes, even if they are still technically block editors. However I also trust you and the others to consider all the challenges involved in choosing which direction to go.

When I spin up this PR I see this:

The "No menus available" would likely benefit, separately, from that separate mockup you made of either creating one automatically, or making it the first choice you make when visiting this screen.
You can probably hide the footer.
Same with "You are using an experimental full site editing theme". In fact you can/should probably hide every core notice on this screen, just as the block editor does.
Top toolbar or not, the "Navigation" heading could benefit from the same size as the other screens.

There's a lot of space under each menu item. That's from an empty submenu that has a min height of 44px. So there's a little juggling to do there.

Almost certainly a pre-existing and separate issue, but reloading the screen I got this:

I like the idea generally of forcing the menu to be vertical. But it may end up being more work than is good. Just one example:

The mover assumes a horizontal menu. There are probably going to be more issues as well. It could still be worth it, but it might be best to do the vertical menu as a separte PR exploration, so as to not hold up this one.

Also most probably separate, the sidebar menu could use a little love. Delete is centered and the prase above with the checkbox wraps.

jasmussen · 2021-02-03T08:47:34Z

I forgot to mention: if you like, I'm happy to set aside some time to collaborate with you on this PR with you. Just let me know!

jasmussen · 2021-02-03T09:00:20Z

To expand on forcing vertical navigation, the addition of the permanently expanded list view was probably created to address that very same issue: making it easier to configure a menu that has more than a couple of nested levels.

Because we don't have a solid alternative, and to keep the good things from this PR, perhaps it's best to keep that list view for now and explore how to better integrate that separately.

draganescu · 2021-02-03T09:18:13Z

A few things in my mind:

If we force the vertical layout, why are we not using the block list view (block navigator component) and instead default to the block? Isn't that component better fit, especially for heavy nesting?
- The main idea here is heavy nesting. These menus can get quite heavy. The list view will have (at some point) the option to "drill-down", but the block is likely to display everything, which will make small fixes and updates pretty cumbersome.
I would like to add my "vote" FOR keeping the top toolbar and allowing us to use the interface package. It is only worthwile to create new components if the reasoning is giving strong benefits and it's not, in my opinion in this case.
I need to be able to delete a menu
The list of possible actions in the toolbar, to me, seem lumped together, there is no sense of importance. What bothers me in particular is the "add new" action. It is the only way to add a menu, it can't be just a link button like that, in the middle of other things.
Some items will probably have to be drop-downs (select menu, choose location).
As a label, "select menu" might work better as "switch menu" since you're always landing in one menu, there is no previous selection step. I would also attempt to "connect it" to the current edited menu's name, but that may be wrong.
In this new editor, the meaning of manage locations is broken. We should reconsider thins, possibly remove the idea and instead go forward with "Assign menu to location" or similar, as an Inspector property. The reason why I believe this is because in this version of the UI it is an important action that is done in a small square in an unrelated page (I can assign menu A while editing B, which is dangerous).

mtias · 2021-02-03T09:26:09Z

If we force the vertical layout, why are we not using the block list view (block navigator component) and instead default to the block? Isn't that component better fit, especially for heavy nesting?

It's not the best UI for just a handful of links (most navigations?). It might be good to switch or default to list view open if we detect more than one or two levels of nesting.

talldan · 2021-02-03T11:04:06Z

I need to be able to delete a menu
The list of possible actions in the toolbar, to me, seem lumped together, there is no sense of importance. What bothers me in particular is the "add new" action. It is the only way to add a menu, it can't be just a link button like that, in the middle of other things.
Some items will probably have to be drop-downs (select menu, choose location).

@draganescu These things are actually the same as they are in master. Still ok as feedback, but just thought I'd mention that they're unrelated to the changes in the PR. The delete menu button is in the navigation block's block inspector. I made an issue suggesting we revisit this - #28184.

I'm starting to wonder if we should ditch the nav block and just treat this as a normal block list with the same blocks that the nav block supports. The nav block's settings could be the equivalent of document settings. Not really sure the nav block is offering much apart from 'Show submenu indicators'.

talldan · 2021-02-03T11:06:05Z

Separately I made some PRs that could be merged into this.

Try using interface package in navigation screen re-design #28686 tries using the interface package
Force navigation screen nav block to vertical orientation #28689 fixes the block mover issue

shaunandrews · 2021-02-03T17:26:41Z

I'm starting to wonder if we should ditch the nav block and just treat this as a normal block list with the same blocks that the nav block supports.

A similar thought occurred to me while working on this PR; Adding a Menu block that is container meant specifically for the context of this dedicated screen. I'm not sure what the pros/cons are if we diverge from the Navigation block, so I mostly avoided the thought.

jasmussen · 2021-02-04T08:37:00Z

A similar thought occurred to me while working on this PR; Adding a Menu block that is container meant specifically for the context of this dedicated screen. I'm not sure what the pros/cons are if we diverge from the Navigation block, so I mostly avoided the thought.

Ultimately I'll defer to you all on timing, complexity, experience. My instinct is that there's value in some wysiwyg even on this screen.

talldan · 2021-02-05T06:48:50Z

#28769 switches from a fixed toolbar to a floating one as discussed in #28689.

shaunandrews · 2021-02-05T21:04:25Z

I think this one is is a good place to merge.

There is plenty more work to do, but this is an experimental, beta screen. I feel pretty comfortable with merging this as-is, and continuing to iterate.

…erything. Also, a nasty hack to fix the block focus outlines.

…elow their parent link.

#28769)

…der to parents whose children are being edited.

…nk is selected.

… hides the ability to toggle submenu indicators.

talldan

There are a few issues remaining, but given how big this PR is I'm going to approve and merge, as it'll be easier to tackle them in smaller parallel PRs.

Things that seem like they'll be good follow-ups:

Work on responsive designs/styles for the new screen
Reimplement Clear block selection in the navigation editor when clicking editor canvas #28382, which regressed in this PR.
Improve the way this works with the Page List block, which was merged just before this PR. Page List still shows flyout style menus.
Accessibility testing
Find a solution to the amount of extra navigation block styling this introduces (mentioned in comment below)

Thanks for all your work @shaunandrews, the new design is an exciting step!

talldan · 2021-02-08T05:50:15Z

packages/edit-navigation/src/components/editor/style.scss

+	.wp-block-navigation {
+		margin: 0;
+		font-size: 15px;
+		padding: $grid-unit-15;
 	}

-	.components-spinner {
+	.wp-block-navigation-link {
 		display: block;
-		margin: 10px auto;
+
+		// The following attempts to fix the focus outlines
+		&.is-selected > .wp-block-navigation-link__content,
+		&.is-selected:hover > .wp-block-navigation-link__content {
+			box-shadow: 0 0 0 var(--wp-admin-border-width-focus) var(--wp-admin-theme-color);
+		}
+
+		&.block-editor-block-list__block:not([contenteditable]):focus::after {
+			display: none;
+		}
 	}
-}

-.edit-navigation-editor__list-view {
-	border-top: 1px solid $gray-300;
-	padding: $grid-unit-20;
+	.wp-block-navigation-link__content {
+		padding: 0;
+		margin-bottom: 6px;//$grid-unit-05;
+		border-radius: $radius-block-ui;

-	@include break-medium() {
-		border-left: 1px solid $gray-300;
-		border-top: none;
-		margin-top: 0;
-		width: 300px;
+		&:hover {
+			box-shadow: 0 0 0 $border-width $gray-300;
+		}
 	}

-	.edit-navigation-editor__list-view-title {
-		font-size: 1.2em;
-		margin: 0;
+	.wp-block-navigation-link__label {
+		padding: $grid-unit-15;
+		padding-left: $grid-unit-30;
+
+		// Without this Links with submenus display a pointer.
+		cursor: text;
 	}

-	.components-spinner {
-		display: block;
-		margin: 100px auto;
+	// Position the submenu icon so it appears to the left of
+	// the Link. All the extra specificity is help override the
+	// rotation on the SVG.
+	.wp-block-navigation .wp-block-navigation-link .wp-block-navigation-link__submenu-icon {
+		position: absolute;
+		top: 6px;
+		left: 2px;
+		padding: 6px;
+		pointer-events: none;
+
+		svg {
+			padding: 0;
+			transform: rotate(90deg);
+		}
+	}
+
+	// Submenus
+	// There's a bunch of stuff to override just to get submenus to
+	// as a normal block element.
+	.wp-block-navigation-link.has-child {
+		cursor: default;
+		border-radius: $radius-block-ui;
+	}
+
+	// When editing a link with children, highlight the parent
+	// and adjust the spacing and submenu icon.
+	.wp-block-navigation-link.has-child.is-editing {
+		> .wp-block-navigation__container {
+			opacity: 1;
+			visibility: visible;
+			position: relative;
+			background: transparent;
+			top: auto;
+			left: auto;
+			padding-left: $grid-unit-15;
+			min-width: auto;
+			width: 100%;
+			border: none;
+			display: block;
+
+			&::before {
+				display: none;
+			}
+		}
+	}


The maintainability of all the block styles being defined here will be difficult. If the block's own styles change there's the strong potential for bugs in the navigation editor. That or unused styles. The goal seems to be to make the submenu items appear inline (not as a flyout menu):

As a follow-up it'll be worth thinking about how we can solve this. For example, perhaps this is a style variation of the nav block?

We'll also have to make this work for the Page List block which was just merged to master.

Would be interested in your thoughts @tellthemachines.

Actually, I remember now about the discussion around using a dropdown block for submenus (#23745), so maybe in some distant future the nav screen would use a collapse/expand block (I completely forget the proper name for this?) instead of dropdown.

shaunandrews added [Focus] Accessibility (a11y) Changes that impact accessibility and need corresponding review (e.g. markup changes). Needs Design Feedback Needs general design feedback. [Feature] Navigation Screen labels Feb 2, 2021

shaunandrews requested review from draganescu, mtias, talldan, jasmussen and grzim February 2, 2021 21:07

shaunandrews requested review from adamziel, kevin940726, noisysocks and tellthemachines as code owners February 2, 2021 21:07

This was referenced Feb 3, 2021

Try using interface package in navigation screen re-design #28686

Closed

Force navigation screen nav block to vertical orientation #28689

Merged

shaunandrews mentioned this pull request Feb 3, 2021

Adds edit in place for menu name #25343

Closed

6 tasks

talldan mentioned this pull request Feb 5, 2021

Use floating toolbar instead of fixed toolbar in the navigation editor #28769

Merged

6 tasks

shaunandrews and others added 14 commits February 8, 2021 11:48

Force the Nav block to list items vertically, and add more spacing ev…

4e78944

…erything. Also, a nasty hack to fix the block focus outlines.

Removing the styling from the top bar.

22af1cd

Adjusting the space around the link blocks and the appender.

307c028

Forcing submenu links to display as normal block elements, indented b…

9806fe9

…elow their parent link.

Adjusting some spacing, and removing some unused CSS.

37b9c78

Use floating toolbar instead of fixed toolbar in the navigation editor (

6b83843

#28769)

Force navigation screen nav block to vertical variation (#28689)

d0de51d

Moving styles to the right folder, and removing some empty selectors.

84b0ade

Replacing fixed values with variables; Cleaning up spacing; Added bor…

6126db7

…der to parents whose children are being edited.

Bringing back submenu arrows and hiding submenus unless the parent li…

be0e7a6

…nk is selected.

Bringing back the removeNavigationBlockEditUnsupportedFeatures, which…

127e641

… hides the ability to toggle submenu indicators.

Linting

59d05a3

Update comments

87e031f

Use SCSS variables

1f20e66

talldan force-pushed the try/menus-cleanup branch from 76df2d4 to 1f20e66 Compare February 8, 2021 05:56

talldan added 2 commits February 8, 2021 14:08

Fix getNavigationPostForMenu test, should expect the menu to be vertical

db7c0b4

Update e2e snapshots and skip test for regressed feature

693700a

shaunandrews requested review from ajitbohra, nerrad and ntwb as code owners February 8, 2021 06:56

talldan approved these changes Feb 8, 2021

View reviewed changes

talldan merged commit 201ccbc into master Feb 8, 2021

talldan deleted the try/menus-cleanup branch February 8, 2021 07:58

github-actions bot added this to the Gutenberg 10.0 milestone Feb 8, 2021

shaunandrews mentioned this pull request Feb 10, 2021

Navigation page: create consistent experience to navigate to the toolbar #25296

Closed

This was referenced Feb 15, 2021

Navigation Screen: Show a persistent inspector sidebar #28434

Closed

Navigation Screen: Remove List View and display vertical Navigation variant #28435

Closed

Improve responsiveness of the navigation screen #29100

Closed

Mamaduka mentioned this pull request Sep 22, 2021

Navigation Editor: Update the Hooks section in docs #35035

Merged

7 tasks

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Navigation Screen: Design Iteration #28675

Navigation Screen: Design Iteration #28675

shaunandrews commented Feb 2, 2021 •

edited

Loading

annezazu commented Feb 3, 2021

jasmussen commented Feb 3, 2021

jasmussen commented Feb 3, 2021

jasmussen commented Feb 3, 2021

draganescu commented Feb 3, 2021

mtias commented Feb 3, 2021

talldan commented Feb 3, 2021

talldan commented Feb 3, 2021

shaunandrews commented Feb 3, 2021

jasmussen commented Feb 4, 2021

talldan commented Feb 5, 2021

shaunandrews commented Feb 5, 2021

talldan left a comment •

edited

Loading

talldan Feb 8, 2021

talldan Feb 8, 2021 •

edited

Loading

Navigation Screen: Design Iteration #28675

Navigation Screen: Design Iteration #28675

Conversation

shaunandrews commented Feb 2, 2021 • edited Loading

annezazu commented Feb 3, 2021

jasmussen commented Feb 3, 2021

jasmussen commented Feb 3, 2021

jasmussen commented Feb 3, 2021

draganescu commented Feb 3, 2021

mtias commented Feb 3, 2021

talldan commented Feb 3, 2021

talldan commented Feb 3, 2021

shaunandrews commented Feb 3, 2021

jasmussen commented Feb 4, 2021

talldan commented Feb 5, 2021

shaunandrews commented Feb 5, 2021

talldan left a comment • edited Loading

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

talldan Feb 8, 2021

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

talldan Feb 8, 2021 • edited Loading

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

shaunandrews commented Feb 2, 2021 •

edited

Loading

talldan left a comment •

edited

Loading

talldan Feb 8, 2021 •

edited

Loading