WordPress / WordPress/wordpress.org

UX Improvement: Move "Delete Menu" link to the top header to prevent accidental data loss in nav-menus.php

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Dominant language
PHP
Stars
163
Forks
221
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

🚨 The UX Problem

In the classic Menus admin screen (nav-menus.php), the "Supprimer le menu" (Delete Menu) link is positioned at the very bottom of the screen, directly adjacent to the "Save Menu" button.

When a developer or user expands a specific menu item to edit or remove it (as shown in the expanded "Contact" item), their focus is directed downward. Because of the close proximity and lack of visual separation, users frequently click "Delete Menu" under the mistaken impression that it will only delete the currently active/expanded menu item. This leads to frustrating, accidental deletion of the entire menu structure plus there is no confirmation message apears before it gets deleted.

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💡 Proposed Solution

To eliminate this UX friction and safeguard users from unintended data loss, I propose relocating the global "Delete Menu" action to the top header area of the menu card (the dark gray header containing the menu name, translation settings, and language selector).

  • Contextual Isolation: Moving this destructive, global action away from the individual item editing workflow makes its destructive scope clear.
  • Safer Layout: The primary action (Save) remains at the bottom, while the dangerous global action (Delete) is separated at the top-right.
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🛠️ Steps to Reproduce the Friction

  1. Navigate to Appearance > Menus (using the classic menu editor).
  2. Expand any menu item to edit its details.
  3. Scroll/look down to finish editing, and notice how easily the red "Delete Menu" link at the bottom can be mistaken for an item-level removal action.

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by locating the classic menu editor in nav-menus.php and inspect how the global "Delete Menu" link and bottom "Save Menu" action are rendered. Move the delete action into the menu card's top header, keeping its global scope visually distinct from menu-item controls, then verify the Appearance > Menus workflow and deletion behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
php
Domain
frontend, web-dev
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
64/100

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