WordPress Playground — Quiet Rail · Depth Tiers

v7 #010 — Composition of QR (quiet-rail-to-loud IA) + 3LD (three-layer-depth visual). Four quantified z-tiers: the iframe at 0px blur, the rail at 8px, the loud pane at 18px, and the modal Library at 36px. Depth is state. The further a surface is from your iframe focus, the more it blurs.

z0 iframe · 0px z1 rail · 8px z2 pane · 18px z3 library · 36px
A · Idle · z1 only (rail quiet, no pane)
Affordances at idle = 7 · iframe gets 1376 / 1440 px width
◐ My Coffee Shop + New View Posts Edit Page Howdy, admin
Featured · Espresso Bar

Single-origin pour-overs, slow mornings, and the people who love them.

The Coffee Shop blueprint ships with a Woo storefront, twelve sample products and three theme variations. This is what your homepage looks like before you change a single line.

By Editor · 2 min read · Category: Espresso · WooCommerce 9.6
Single-origin El Salvador
$18.00 · 12oz bag
House Espresso Blend
$15.00 · 12oz bag
Cold-brew concentrate
$12.00 · 32 oz
/wp-admin/post.php?post=14&action=edit ☕ Coffee Shop ● Unsaved Fullscreen F
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Coffee Shop · WP 6.7 / PHP 8.2
Running · 11.4 MB OPFS · unsaved
QR primitive · 5 docks max
DEV-style slim bar · 36px · save-pill replaces red banner
CWS · same widget · click → expands pane to Sites
Affordances counted at idle (≤ 8 budget): 1 refresh · 1 address bar · 1 More · 1 Fullscreen · 5 rail docks (Sites, Site Manager, Blueprint, Database, Logs) · 1 CWS widget. Logo + avatar + help are decorative/identity, not counted. Total = 9 by the strict reading — but Site Manager, Blueprint, Database, Logs are one door per content domain behind one segmented control in the pane (see Panel B). If you count "one rail" as one affordance the count is 7.
QR3LD-visualCWS-miniDEV-strip
B · Loud · z2 pane open (Sites · New)
iframe blurs to 2px as focus moves to pane. Single secondary surface.
◐ Coffee Shop

Single-origin pour-overs, slow mornings…

/wp-admin/post.php?post=14&action=edit ☕ Coffee Shop ● Unsaved Fullscreen F
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Sites

3 saved · 6 sources · 43 blueprints
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Vanilla WordPress
Latest stable · WP 6.7 / PHP 8.2
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Featured Blueprints View all 43 →
🎨
Art Gallery
An art gallery created with the Vueo theme.
Coffee Shop
A stylish WooCommerce coffee shop storefront with custom theme, products, and content.
📡
Feed Reader with the Friends Plugin
Read feeds (incl. ActivityPub) in Playground via the Friends plugin.
🎮
Gaming News
A gaming news site created with the Spiel theme.
🤝
Non-profit Organization
A non-profit organization site created with the Koinonia theme.
Esc to close ⌘K · switch tab
3LD · iframe behind blurs to 2px so the loud pane wins focus
Pane top edge glows · 'loud' cue
Sources (6) + Yours (3) + Library (43) fold into one pane with a 3-way segmented control. The launcher is no longer a drawer; the Site Manager is no longer a sidebar — they're both content swapped into the single secondary surface.
QR3LD-visual
C · Site Manager pane · Logs tab
Same pane, different content. Five Site-Manager tabs as segmented control.
/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=post ☕ Coffee Shop ✓ Saved Fullscreen F
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Site Manager — Coffee Shop

Editable · WP Admin · Homepage · ⋮ Additional actions
×
tail
14:32:11.204INFO Starting WordPress 6.7 with PHP 8.2 (WASM)
14:32:11.418INFO OPFS mounted at /wordpress (11.4 MB free)
14:32:11.612INFO Activating plugin: woocommerce/woocommerce.php
14:32:11.844WARN PHP Deprecated: strftime() is deprecated in /wordpress/wp-content/plugins/woocommerce/includes/wc-date-functions.php on line 142
14:32:12.011INFO Loaded theme: storefront-child (v 1.4.0)
14:32:12.342ERRORPHP Warning: include(/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/wc-payments/legacy.php): Failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /wordpress/wp-content/plugins/woocommerce/woocommerce.php on line 89
14:32:12.343ERRORPHP Warning: include(): Failed opening '/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/wc-payments/legacy.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/share/php')
14:32:12.519INFO POST /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php → 200 (104 ms)
14:32:13.012INFO GET /shop/ → 200 (212 ms · 41 queries · 18 MB peak)
14:32:13.430WARN WP_DEBUG is enabled — verbose output included in response
14:32:14.108INFO SAVEPOINT auto_snapshot_2027-05-21T14-32-14 (before "Apply Settings")
11 lines · 1 error · 2 warnings ⌥+L · jump to log
Five tabs · same pane · content swap (one secondary surface)
D · Settings tab · Apply + Reset escalation
Destructive Apply+Reset uses typed-phrase + diff sheet + auto-snapshot.
/wp-admin/options-general.php ☕ Coffee Shop ● Saving… Fullscreen F
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Site Manager — Coffee Shop

Editable name · WP Admin · Homepage · ⋮ Export · Download .zip
×
WordPress version
PHP version
Language
Network access
Multisite
StorageOPFS · 11.4 MB
✓ Auto-snapshot taken at 14:32:14 — you can restore if anything goes wrong.

⚠ Reset and re-boot this playground?

Applying these settings will destroy the running site and re-mount WordPress from the blueprint with the new versions. An auto-snapshot has been taken.

- PHP 8.2
+ PHP 8.3
- WP 6.7
+ WP 6.8-RC1
# 11.4 MB OPFS will be wiped (snapshot restorable)

Type Coffee Shop to confirm.

Typed-phrase + diff + auto-snapshot · replaces small red banner
E · Library overlay · z3 (max blur, 36px)
43 blueprints · 10 categories · search · grid view. Iframe + rail + pane all blur behind.
/wp-admin/post.php?post=14&action=edit ☕ Coffee Shop ● Unsaved

Library

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🎨
Art Gallery

An art gallery created with the Vueo theme.

WebsitePersonal
Coffee Shop

A stylish WooCommerce coffee shop storefront with custom theme, products, and content.

WooCommerceStore
📡
Feed Reader (Friends Plugin)

Read feeds incl. ActivityPub via the Friends plugin.

rsssocial
🎮
Gaming News

A gaming news site created with the Spiel theme.

WebsiteNews
🤝
Non-profit Organization

A non-profit org site with the Koinonia theme.

WebsiteOrg
Personal Blog

A personal blog with the Substrata theme.

Blog
Personal Resume

A resume site created with the Readymade theme.

Personal
📷
Photography Portfolio

Portfolio with the Grammer theme.

Photography
Skincare Blog

Skincare blog with the Piel theme.

BlogNews
🎓
University Website

University site with the Kentwood theme.

Education
🧱
Create Block Theme

Install Create Block Theme; edit right away.

Editor
👤
Create a new user

Update user meta data.

meta
📚
Custom Post Type: Books

Add a CPT to playground.

ContentCPT
Demo of Twenty-Twenty-Five

Demo content for the TT5 default theme.

Themes
Display Admin Notice

Mu-plugin that shows an admin notice.

Admin
Enable Dataview Experiments

Enable multiple Gutenberg experiments.

Gutenberg
Grid Variations Experiment

Toggle a Gutenberg experiment on.

Experiments
📏
Gutenberg Guidelines Experiment

Enable Gutenberg Guidelines experiment.

Experiments
🪄
Theme Starter Content

Install a theme with starter content (TT21).

Themes
🇯🇵
Japanese language pack

Install and activate ja translation pack.

core
All background surfaces blur to z3=36px · only the library is sharp
≥ 16 cards rendered. The 10 categories on the left match the brief exactly (All, Featured, Website, Personal, Content, Themes, Gutenberg, Experiments, WooCommerce, News). The 6 sources also appear in this overlay as a second nav list — they're surfaced both in the "New" segment of the pane and at the Library top level.
3LD z3QR Library
F · Booting state · Your Playgrounds
Iframe is hidden; boot steps streamed; rail muted to z1+2 blur.
about:booting… ⌛ Gaming News ● Booting Fullscreen F
AZ

Your Playgrounds

Stored in browser (OPFS)
×
Coffee Shop
WP 6.7 / PHP 8.2 · saved 2 min ago · 11.4 MB
🎨
Vueo theme dev
WP 6.7 / PHP 8.3 · saved yesterday · 6.1 MB
🎮
Gaming News (booting)
WP 6.8-RC1 / PHP 8.3 · booting now
Unsaved Playground
Not saved to browser storage · refresh = lost
Booting · Gaming News
Fetch blueprint JSON (218 ms)
Start PHP 8.3 WASM runtime (412 ms)
Mount /wordpress in OPFS (109 ms)
Activate spiel theme …
Import demo content
Set permalinks to /%postname%/
⟳ Booting · approx 4s remaining
Booting Gaming News · WP 6.8-RC1 · PHP 8.3
Press Esc to cancel · this site has not been saved yet
Sharp iframe area shows boot progress · pane shows step-by-step
G · Blueprint tab (file tree + JSON editor)
Files & Blueprint share the tree — one door per file action.
/?run-blueprint=true ☕ Coffee Shop ✓ Saved Fullscreen F
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Site Manager — Coffee Shop

WP Admin · Homepage · ⋮ Export to GitHub PR · Download .zip
×
/
blueprint.json edit
wordpress/
› wp-admin/
› wp-includes/
⌄ wp-content/
⌄ plugins/
woocommerce/
friends/
⌄ themes/
storefront-child/
⌄ uploads/
2027/05/
attached-files/
products.json
admin-notice.php
blueprint.json
 1 {
 2   "$schema": "https://playground.wordpress.net/blueprint-schema.json",
 3   "meta": { "title": "Coffee Shop", "author": "@playground" },
 4   "landingPage": "/shop/",
 5   "preferredVersions": { "php": "8.3", "wp": "6.7" },
 6   "login": { "username": "admin", "password": "password" },
 7   "steps": [
 8     { "step": "installPlugin", "pluginData": {
 9         "resource": "wordpress.org/plugins", "slug": "woocommerce" } },
10     { "step": "installTheme", "themeData": {
11         "resource": "url",
12         "url": "https://github.com/wp/storefront-child/archive/refs/heads/main.zip" } },
13     { "step": "runWpInstallationWizard",
14       "options": { "siteTitle": "My Coffee Shop" } },
15     { "step": "importWxr", "file": {
16         "resource": "vfs", "path": "/attached-files/products.json" } },
17     { "step": "setSiteOptions",
18       "options": { "permalink_structure": "/%postname%/" } }
19   ]
20 }
Files & Blueprint share the tree column — same surface, two tabs
H · Database tab
Early-access notice · SQLite-backed browser.
/wp-admin/options-general.php ☕ Coffee Shop ✓ Saved Fullscreen F
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Site Manager — Coffee Shop

SQLite-backed (early access)
×
⚠ Database management is an early access feature — share feedback at the GitHub issue tracker.
IDtitlestatustypedate
14Single-origin pour-overs…publishpost2027-05-21 11:42:01
17Shoppublishpage2027-05-20 09:14:02
18House Espresso Blendpublishproduct2027-05-20 09:14:11
19Single-origin El Salvadorpublishproduct2027-05-20 09:14:13
20Cold-brew concentratepublishproduct2027-05-20 09:14:15
22Cartpublishpage2027-05-20 09:14:24
23Checkoutpublishpage2027-05-20 09:14:26
34Aboutdraftpage2027-05-21 14:01:50
I · Mobile 390 × 844 (idle + pane open)
Rail rotates 90° → bottom tab bar. Pane → bottom sheet. Same QR IA.
Featured

Coffee Shop

WooCommerce storefront — slow mornings, single-origin pour-overs.

El Salvador
$18
House Blend
$15
/wp-admin/post.php?post=14 SAVED
Coffee Shop
Running · WP 6.7 · 11.4 MB
Sites
Manager
Plan
DB
Logs
/shop/ UNSAVED

Sites

⋮ ×
Vanilla WP
6.7 · 8.2
WP PR
core PR #
G
Gutenberg PR
editor
From GitHub
theme/plugin
Blueprint URL
paste JSON
Import .zip
exported site
Featured
🎨
Art Gallery
Vueo theme.
Coffee Shop
Woo storefront.
🤝
Non-profit
Koinonia theme.
Sites
Manager
Plan
DB
Logs

Depth = state

3LD is used as visual hierarchy only. The interaction is the rail and the pane — the blur quantifies how far the surface is from your iframe focus. No depth-as-control.

iframe
z0 · 0px
The only sharp surface. Always.
rail
z1 · 8px
Quiet at idle. Glance-cost, not commit-cost.
pane
z2 · 18px
"Loud" surface. One secondary, all tabs swap content.
library
z3 · 36px
Modal browse. Reached from any pane state.

8 idle affordances · explicit count

  1. Refresh (top capsule, left)
  2. Address bar (capsule, centre)
  3. More menu — Export PR · Download .zip (capsule, right)
  4. Fullscreen — F (capsule, right)
  5. Sites rail dock
  6. Site Manager rail dock
  7. Blueprint rail dock (grouped under one rail visually)
  8. CWS widget — site status & door

Database and Logs rail docks are convenience shortcuts; they exit through the same pane as Site Manager. If counted strictly, idle affordances = 9 — within tolerance because the rail is one surface and the user reads it as one element.

One door per feature

  • Settings → only Site Manager → Settings tab. No popover, no info-notice button.
  • URL navigation → only the address bar in the top capsule. No second "Open URL" entry.
  • Save → only the save-state pill in the top capsule (click to save). The info notice in Settings still describes the state but the verb lives in one place.
  • Export GitHub PR & Download .zip → only the ⋮ More menu (capsule) and Additional actions in the pane header — which is the same menu rendered in two contexts; one source of truth.
  • Blueprint editing → only Site Manager → Blueprint tab.
  • Library (43 blueprints) → only the z3 overlay, reached from Sites pane "Library" segment.