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Top Toolbar: block mover arrows not discoverable #77323

@robertbpugh

Description

@robertbpugh

Description

In Top Toolbar mode, users cannot discover the block mover (up/down arrow) controls. Instead, they copy and paste blocks to reorder content.

Evidence

Observed with multiple participants during recent usability testing:

  • Two of four participants never found the mover arrows and copy/pasted blocks to reorder.
  • The one participant who did find them only got there after significant trial and error.

The mover arrows are present in the detached top toolbar but are visually lost next to the other controls, especially on wide screens where the block context is far from the toolbar.

Step-by-step reproduction

  1. Enable Options, Top Toolbar in the editor.
  2. Add a few Paragraph blocks.
  3. Select a block and try to reorder it.
  4. Note that the up/down arrows are present in the toolbar but are not a prominent affordance, and there is no visual link back to the selected block.

Suggested direction

  • Promote the mover controls so they read as "reorder this block," not as generic toolbar icons.
  • Consider grouping block structure controls (mover, drag handle, block type switcher) more distinctly from formatting controls.
  • Evaluate whether the mover needs a stronger fallback (keyboard hint, tooltip, hover affordance) when the toolbar is detached from the block.

Related broader pattern: other block controls (e.g. Image caption) are also harder to find in Top Toolbar mode, suggesting a general discoverability gap with the detached toolbar rather than a block-specific issue.

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    Needs Design FeedbackNeeds general design feedback.[Feature] BlocksOverall functionality of blocks[Feature] Writing FlowBlock selection, navigation, splitting, merging, deletion...

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