I recently published an article on our dev process, which relies heavily on standard WordPress templates, a bit on Beaver Builder, and a smattering of Gutenberg. Then of course the very next week WordPress announces that Gutenberg full-site editing will be coming later this year in WordPress 5.6.
I don’t know how robust it will be, but it’s slated to include editing ability for headers and footers. Given that we don’t use our current builder to develop headers and footers, I can’t say how useful this will be for us.
Drum beats louder
Gutenberg is growing, and in ways I wouldn’t have guessed…
Aside: I used to follow WordPress news on a more fervent basis, keeping up with the latest news, changes, and features. I’ve paid less attention over the last few years, mostly because we’re a small business, we’re busy, and I like to play. But historically, much of my knowledge came from the Theme Hybrid community, and it’s founder Justin Tadlock in particular. He’s since moved on to become a writer for WP Tavern – a major source for WP news. His writing has brought me back and I’ve been consuming WP news again via RSS
Daily there are posts on WP Tavern about new Gutenberg features, plugins, patterns, and more. The more I read, the more I realize how far behind our studio might be.
Falling behind?
For the last 10 years we’ve been able to (mostly) keep up with changes within WordPress. Gutenberg feels like it’s changing that dynamic at the moment. Being a small design studio, we don’t have the resources to spend a ton of time on learning curves. Our customers expect a solid, modern product at a value conscious price. And while we are constantly learning, it would take serious effort on a daily (weekly?) basis to keep up with all the latest.
Inching up the bandwagon
So while I very much approve of the direction WordPress is taking with the Gutenberg editor, we’re not ready quite yet to be fully on deck. As much as I’d like us to be – it’s smarter for us to take a baby step approach and cross our fingers that we don’t fall too far behind.
Given our history, I’m not too concerned. We’ll continue to build high quality, modern websites for our customers here in Park City, Utah, and beyond.