Six fears I had about Block Themes before working with them (and one I still have)

Difficult to use

When Full Site Editing (now Site Editing) was first being released, I participated in some Calls for Testing. These asked users to test experimental features and provide feedback. I was concerned that transitioning to a whole new interface for managing a site would be a huge challenge.

In my experience, and those of the clients I’ve launched on block themes, this isn’t the case. A lot of testing has been done to make the interface as simple and intuitive as possible. Nothing is perfect, but I think Block Themes are actually really powerful and only take a little effort in exchange!

Unstable over time

Gutenberg wasn’t a smooth release, so I feared Block Themes would be the same. In late 2018, WordPress 5.0 shipped with Gutenberg and the feedback was overwhelmingly negative because–at it’s core–it was a big change that many people feared. Unlike Gutenberg, which was automatically pushed to everyone that updated, Block Themes are a manual opt-in that requires you to activate a supporting theme. There was little information and I feared that lack of knowledge.

I haven’t experienced this “instability” in any meaningful way. The small problems I come across are nothing that outweigh the benefits. For example, the font size on some of my buttons is one step larger than ideal. I’ve submitted feedback, found a temporary fix, and implemented that in any locations I really cared about. The consequence of having buttons that aren’t pixel-perfect? Basically silly. Meanwhile, not having any control over my block styles–having to use what’s provided and not being able to make changes–is pretty 2020.

Increased costs for maintenance

With the fear that changes and new features would be frequent, I worried that clients needing fixes would have to pay for increased development work, increasing expenses for them and stretching the capabilities of my current team size. (We’re really liking the 5-person dynamic and are resistant to that form of growth here.)

The difference is in an entire mindset shift, though. Block themes require very little development expertise. They bring the focus to content edits, which are significantly more affordable. What a developer charges $200/hr for, a skilled VA might charge closer to one-quarter of the price: $50/hr! The ability for anyone to edit blocks means smaller businesses can have visuals and features that rival the highest-paid bloggers. This will bring more specialists into our niche and drive costs back down as competition increases again.

This shift away from development and toward content is something that many can’t wrap their heads around. Read next: Block Themes stress the hell out of bloggers.

Slow due to lack of image optimizations

A huge part of my themes was the inclusion of image optimizations through thumbnail generation and srcset sizes definitions. I know that sentence got real techy real fast, but basically I used some complex logic alongside design standards to help users get images that were the “best” size, even for small screens and high-resolution screens. This logic isn’t supported by block themes, and I felt that I was being robbed of a distinguishing factor.

However, I’ve definitely changed my tune. Browser implementation of srcset sizes hasn’t progressed as I’d wanted (e.g. using lower resolution images on slow connections) while other tools, like ShortPixel Adaptive Images, have surpassed it. Now I can remove all the complexity of my image optimizations and trust other teams–like the dedicated WordPress Core Performance Team that looks at speed regularly–to do their part. I’m reminded that focusing on one area of expertise is superior to trying to do everything for everyone.

Ugly

The early block themes were monstrosities to me. They immediately looked both over-designed and dated, not to mention completely outside of the niche I work in. I was concerned I couldn’t implement designs with them and I would need to curate which options were available.

I’m really, really impressed with what’s possible, especially when combined with just a tiny bit of custom styling. We released two custom Block Themes in 2023, have two more scheduled for launch this month, and more starting in 2024 to boot! See Easy Family Recipes and Peanut Butter and Fitness for examples! They’re beautiful and 100% customizable by clients.

Can’t maintain control over the experience

I’ve spent many hours in discussion about how to give clients a design they “can’t break”. I wanted my clients to be able to focus on content without worrying about design. This was especially needed when themes used widgets and shortcodes to hack custom pages. The interface was so disconnected from the editor that a small moment of confusion would result in the removal of some content that now felt impossible to replace.

Block Themes don’t worry about “breaking” sites, because it’s so easy to build and restore changes. I’ve come to really respect this. I was in a fear mindset, while Block Themes require an abundance mindset. With the power of Block Themes, it makes sense to give clients control because the interface allows them to easily bring design into their content. Plus it is–somehow, magically–actually easier for publishers to fix design problems than to cause them. Backend editing and frontend display are cohesive and now publishers become creators.

Lack of support in the niche

I still have one fear: that the fearmongers in our niche will continue to prevent the acceptance of Block Themes due to their own lack of acceptance. That the community necessary to support the growth of Block Themes will continue to be stunted and make the development of this product slower, despite how many advantages it gives to clients.

Our desire to control experiences, based on the limited experiences we allow ourselves to have, is holding back the clients we serve.