Make WordPress Core

Opened 4 weeks ago

Closed 3 weeks ago

#65219 closed enhancement (invalid)

Make command palette node more prominent in the center of the admin bar

Reported by: fushar's profile fushar Owned by:
Milestone: Priority: normal
Severity: normal Version:
Component: Toolbar Keywords: has-patch close
Focuses: ui, css Cc:

Description

We want to update the design of the command palette node in the admin bar, by making it more prominent in the center.

This is a continuation of https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/64672, where we decided to make it a simple icon node at that time.

Change History (4)

This ticket was mentioned in PR #11796 on WordPress/wordpress-develop by @fushar.


4 weeks ago
#1

  • Keywords has-patch added

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/65219

This PR is an attempt to take https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/11171 to the finish line. On top of that PR, I improved mobile styles, background colors, and command palette overlay behavior.

Basically, we want to make the command palette "trigger node" more prominent in the center of the admin bar. On mobile viewport, to make the layout balanced, I propose to put the icon at top-right, together with the user avatar icon.

DesktopMobile

|https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/13921f1a-dafc-4859-8ccd-5a20363b3767 |https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ad7d035e-a2c7-46ec-b526-5173c5db7006

---

The trigger node is not an actual text input form. So, I made the following improvements:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/229fd39f-e98e-45c7-83ab-3381f630a7fc

I used the following color variables, which is a bit different from the original PR. I believe the new color is more subtle and look better. It looks more like button than text input now.

NormalHover

|https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/33d1447e-b7b1-4779-b015-340d873d0b6a|https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7cad1cf5-5e9b-4724-b0ef-68951897ba09

Here's how it looks like on all color schemes:

Normal Hover
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/13921f1a-dafc-4859-8ccd-5a20363b3767 https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/46a221fa-8a77-4b78-a55f-b58fdc79df73
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/5b3312c3-0619-4653-9302-f88be54613d9 https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/17438a89-018d-464d-ab49-e508c6c76d7f
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/295346fb-b3ab-4ca2-80da-156451bab948 https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c368b2fe-3fd1-4c5c-b7b8-b91becc568a8
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c14dd058-5d8f-4f7e-9801-bb98d42530cf https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3175f6ba-5192-4a56-a4fb-1fa5b6ef7d45
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/5ef5371f-8882-4158-8ddf-9a3f37cb9dc3 https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4724cc23-21a9-4717-b3bc-eeb90e96b5b8
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e6bceb0e-ae6b-42ea-9bd1-019a2bf6deba https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/fd995ea1-be41-4620-935e-ebb57ba69faf
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c4f63578-292a-43e0-aa51-789e56a4354e https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/29e3032c-4f44-48ca-a2d0-0999b6cd601e
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/16376d07-c624-44f5-b6af-7b5357cc2b0b https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b9f7783d-be24-4a60-bfd9-8fcd6795ca38
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8f98961d-6b52-4ebd-869a-9da96190b1b1 https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6bca0427-4bd1-4d76-afb8-00e373e78674

---

The trigger node is responsive; it can reposition and resize itself in a crowded admin bar:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c8120b13-9a05-4127-ab1c-c5527c337aea

## Use of AI Tools

AI assistance: Yes
Tool(s): Claude Code
Model(s): Claude Opus 4.7
Used for: CSS implementation under my supervision.

#2 @westonruter
4 weeks ago

  • Keywords close added

This has been previously discussed, in part:

Plugins very often add admin bar menu items, which puts real estate in the admin bar at a premium. This is especially so on smaller screen sizes, and extremely so for mobile. There would be no room for such a faux command palette search bar on mobile (although you are accounting for in your PR). To me there seems to be very little value to have a wide command palette bar taking up room in the admin bar which only serves the purpose as being a very large button which opens the actual command palette in a modal with its own input field. With the keyboard shortcut appearing in the admin bar, the intention is for users to use the keyboard to invoke the command palette anyway, and not to click the admin bar anyway.

#3 @joedolson
4 weeks ago

I agree with @westonruter; the command palette is intended to be a mechanism that intentionally occupies a minimal surface in the UI, offering a quick access via keyboard. Giving it a large UI priority in a heavily used area doesn't seem helpful.

#4 @wildworks
3 weeks ago

  • Milestone Awaiting Review deleted
  • Resolution set to invalid
  • Status changed from new to closed

I agree with @westonruter, too. This ticket might be closed as "maybelater".

Note: See TracTickets for help on using tickets.