This monthly digest covers key WordPress community developments, including the Website Speed Build Challenge, WordPress 6.6 features, contribution opportunities, and WP Engine’s brand refresh.
Website Speed Build Challenge
Jamie Marsland of Pootlepress hosts a competitive live-streamed event where participants recreate website designs within 30 minutes using various tools like Gutenberg, Bricks, Divi, or custom code. Contestants have five minutes to plan before building begins, making it a high-energy showcase of WordPress development skills.
WordPress 6.6 Features
Scheduled for July 16, 2024, WordPress 6.6 emphasizes enhanced design tools and user experience improvements. Key features include grid layouts, section-specific block styling, negative margins, and theme.json version 3. The unified publish flow combines technical and design improvements with streamlined pattern management.
Users can combine typography styles and color palettes from theme variations, enabling 48 combinations from Twenty Twenty-Four’s eight style variations alone.
WordPress Contribution Pathways
Beyond coding, contributors can create documentation, test features, design themes, translate content, and improve accessibility. WP Engine’s recent Contributor Day involved 20 contributors making 302 contributions across 81 hours, demonstrating the breadth of ways the community can participate.
WP Engine Brand Refresh
The company underwent rebranding emphasizing four pillars: elevated expertise, people-focused culture, relentless innovation, and unmatched performance through updated logo design and simplified color palette.