Suggested change

Allow setting the initial option for choosing a page as static “Homepage” when the site is set to show the latest posts as the homepage.

Context

We want to empower site authors to not need the Customizer to build their site quickly and easily from Calypso.

We want to make sure they can learn via hints in the UI, and be empowered to make changes themselves.

The Issue

In the default state, WordPress.com sites show the blog feed as the homepage.

The following is what shows up in Site > Pages area in Calypso:

Item A on the screenshot takes you to the front-end of the site. As a user, I might assume that this takes me somewhere I can change this behavior and set an actual landing page as the homepage, — but it doesn’t.

If I want to change this… where do I go?

Answer A: Create a new page, and call it “Home”? Nope.
Answer B: Click on that icon A on the screenshot? Nope.
Answer C: Click on the three dots on the page I added to my site, and look for an option to “Set as homepage”, and use that to change this? Nope:

Question/Request

If not just placing the controls into the Pages contextual menu — even in the default state — suggest making at least a usability change.

Could we link to the appropriate section in the Customizer right here? Using the wording “Front page is showing your latest posts” to provide the link. Similar to what we have in My Home for editing menus.

Props @davipontesblog for starting this idea.

I don’t think this will solve all the confusion about having posts in the homepage or a static page, and this might not be an issue in the future as having posts in your homepage might rely entirely on static pages with a Posts block, but, for now, it could save a lot of headache and churn (“I wanted a website, not a blog!” said a frustrated user every once in a while in chat).

Thanks for considering!