Work is under way to transform the block list view into a persistent sidebar which is going to greatly enhance how one navigates through complex documents with multiple nested blocks.

I was chatting with Shaun Andrews about the possibility of the Inserter panel was also being persistent, and stacking with the list view.

This would open up interesting opportunities to do fun things like dragging blocks from the inserter directly into the list view, for high-precision block insertion.

Maybe the Inserter even shows contextual blocks based on the currently selected block in the list view? If I’ve selected the Header template part, the Inserter might highlight the Site Logo, Site Title, Site Tagline, Navigation, etc. Having these panels open persistently ties the experience together and would make interactions like this feel more natural.

It is easy to imagine the edge of the sidebar, and the separator between the Inserter and List View being draggable, which would empower users to tailor the interface to their requirements ad hoc.

Too extreme? Perhaps… it is fun to think about these things though.