Create way to highlight major editor-facing changes in the block editor

[mrwweb]

What problem does this address?

WordPress 6.2 introduced two major changes that moved the locations of frequently used features:

1. The image block newly required editors to click a button in the block's toolbar to add the caption field
2. Numerous style settings were moved to a sidebar tab that is hidden by default (i.e. "Find the controls you want when you need them" in the 6.2 announcement post)

I received numerous comments from clients and colleagues that these changes were confusing even to experienced users. I certainly got tripped up by the caption change, and I read the Make blogs pretty religiously…

I even spotted a confused blogger two weeks after the 6.2 release suddenly wondering where his ability to add captions went: "Also, I’m not sure why it won’t let me put captions under the image…"

What is your proposed solution?

Many other tools will highlight new features with a fairly standardized pattern: A prominent, outlined or glowing dot appears the first time the user encounters the new feature. A tool tip is either immediately visible or appears after the dot is clicked. Clicking the dot dismisses it forever. Here is a very crude mockup:

This feels closely related to different from:

• Consider adding a rotating Tips area to the block sidebar  #16594
• Implement a 'Whats new' section for the block editor #22241.

Avoiding Overuse

Introducing this feature would like need some clear editorial standards and a definition of when to use this. My initial thought would be that this is used for any new button or UI component for a new or moved feature. This would not include things like adding Font Size support to a new block (it would only apply to introducing the Font Size feature the first time around). Thinking_ back past the last few releases, this would include things like the Margin and Padding features, new Group block types (row and stack), etc.