{"id":108583,"date":"2024-12-16T20:48:31","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T18:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/?p=108583"},"modified":"2024-12-16T20:48:34","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T18:48:34","slug":"state-of-the-word-2024-summarized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/state-of-the-word-2024-summarized\/","title":{"rendered":"“State of the Word 2024” Summarized if You Don’t Have 3 Hours to Watch the Whole Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On December 16, 2024, Matt Mullenweg took the stage at Tokyo Node Hall in Tokyo, Japan to deliver the annual State of the Word, offering the WordPress community a clear look at where our platform stands and where it’s heading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Even in a year marked by a troubling legal dispute with WP Engine<\/a>, Matt started the presentation on a surprisingly upbeat note. He pointed to the city of Tokyo and its blend of tradition and progress as a metaphor for what WordPress aims to achieve: lasting relevance, continuous improvement, and a focus on how it feels to use the web rather than just how it looks on the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From my point of view, the key conclusions were that WordPress remains strong and growing, the tools are getting more intuitive, and the community continues to thrive worldwide. (Go team WordPress! \ud83d\udc4a)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mullenweg wants the community to keep moving toward a more open and flexible future, one driven by collaboration and perhaps guided by the principle of “Kansei engineering,” which Matt mentioned as inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the sections that follow, I’ll try to break down the details of the keynote and highlight some of the more interesting pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcf9 Want to see the original recording? The entire stream on YouTube<\/a> is 3 hours and 40 minutes long. The action starts around the 1-hour and 17-minute mark, featuring a surprising piano performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t

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Kansei engineering and design philosophy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the ideas Matt highlighted this year was the aforementioned “Kansei engineering<\/a>,” a Japanese design method from the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his words, “At its heart it’s this idea that excellence of design just isn’t about how something looks or works, but fundamentally how it feels to use and how it resonates with people on almost an instinctive level.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can decide on your own what this means for you exactly. Nonetheless, it’s a great reminder that whether you’re writing a blog post, crafting a plugin, or designing a theme, the response a user has truly matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kansei<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This focus on the human element of design speaks to the core of WordPress’ goals. While we’ve always talked about accessibility and usability, “Kansei engineering” is one more helper we can use to point ourselves toward thinking even more deeply about the way users experience every interaction.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Historical context and where WordPress is today<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mullenweg reminded us that Japan actually holds a special place in WordPress history. He said that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Back in 2003, Japan was the very first language that localized WordPress \u2026 even before we had a translation framework.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

These days, of course, it’s a completely different story – with WordPress being available in more than 180 locales if I’m not mistaken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The community’s global footprint has surely grown to an impressive scale. According to the data shared by Matt, WordPress now powers 43.6%<\/strong> of all websites worldwide and claims a 62.3% share of all CMS usage<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WordPress<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Its next closest competitor, Shopify, sits at 6.6%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have the rumors of WordPress’ death been greatly exaggerated? This wouldn’t be the first time.<\/em> \ud83e\udd14<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Japan<\/strong>, the numbers are even more impressive: WordPress now runs on 58.5%<\/strong> of websites there and dominates with an 83% share<\/strong> of the CMS market. Compare this to Shopify’s 2.7%, and you see just how popular WordPress is in that part of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WordPress<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Non-English usage of WordPress continues to rise, with languages like Spanish and German gaining ground. Matt also pointed out that German usage recently passed Japanese usage, which might inspire more local contributions to reclaim the spot (jokingly).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WordPress<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Speaking for myself here: a 43.6% market share is absolutely massive! Let’s not forget we’re talking about all websites<\/em> – including ones created in 1996 running stone-age scripts, sites without any CMS, and sites abandoned years ago. While I don’t believe WordPress will surpass the 50% mark, where we are now is still a huge win. \ud83d\udcaa<\/p>\n\n\n

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Gutenberg and “the roadmap”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This year’s State of the Word made it clear that Gutenberg’s evolution is still front and center. Since the last State of the Word, there have been three major WordPress releases<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n