What’s Coming in WordPress 4.9

As y'all might remember, I'm currently co-leading the release of WordPress 4.9. Since we're winding down toward release, I wanted to take the opportunity to walk through some of the key features of the release. Drafting and scheduling changes in the Customizer In WordPress 4.9, you'll be able to draft your customizations before publishing them, or …

Recruiting participants for remote user tests

I recently attended my first remote design sprint at Automattic. It ran over a two week period and  was attended by fellow designers, developers, data scientists, happiness engineers, and marketers. Together we created two prototypes and tested them out with real customers. I found the experience to be both rewarding and inspiring. We came up …

From No Code to Pro Code

I'm lucky that Automattic sponsors my time to work on the core WordPress software full-time. This allows me the time and focus to take on more leadership responsibilities in the community, including my current role as Customization Design Lead and the co-lead for the upcoming WordPress 4.9 release. ✌️ One of our major goals during …

WordPress as a Classic Diesel Engine

In 2015 I set out to buy a 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 with a Cummins diesel engine. I could probably get a used 2014 or 2013 model for a great deal, so why would I want something so… old? I did a lot of research, and a diesel engine of that particular year proved to …

Back to Childhood: Blocks are the Future

Check out my previous post about the future of site building & customization in WordPress. Last month, my colleague Joen wrote a great post about blocks and the Editor Focus for WordPress in 2017. Joen designed a fantastic blueprint for blocks in WordPress that the Customization Focus will continue to flesh out and build on …

Building a Site That’s Right for You

Hello everyone!  I’m Mel Choyce, a product designer on the Apollo team here at Automattic. Apollo is comprised of the Automatticians who contribute full-time to the open source side of WordPress over at WordPress.org. I’m the design co-lead of WordPress’ customization focus for 2017. Prior to joining Apollo to work on this focus, I was …