The year 2021 ends soon and I thought that this Divi retrospective for the year 2021 would make a good summary to understand where this WordPress theme is so popular... Let's go back to some figures and highlights of the year that just passed... And let's imagine what Divi is planning for 2022...
1 - Slow down or cruise speed?
This is a question that some users ask themselves: Why doesn't Divi update as much as before? Indeed, one might think that ElegantThemes pedaled in the semolina for the last few months... Let's say that's what pessimists think. Optimists, on the other hand, think that Divi has reached its cruising speed.
And you are Optimistic Team or Team Pessimist ? What do you think about this?
That's right, Divi didn't launch many major updates this year 2021, let's see more closely:
| Years | Number of major updates |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 28 |
| 2019 | 12 |
| 2020 | 10 |
| 2021 | 7 |
Oh yes, it is clear from this picture that in 2021, Divi launched a new major release every two months, compared to more than 4 per month in 2018. That's a big gap!
Background: how to update the Divi theme?
What can this be due to?
I have no official answers, but here are the probable reasons I think:
- In 2018, Divi was far from like today's Divi. There were still many features missing. The developers then had a lot of work to do to keep up with all the evolution deadlines. This will have resulted in nearly 28 major MAJs!
- End 2018 appeared the new WordPress editor named Gutenberg : a lot of work then for all major WordPress actors, including Divi. In September 2018, Divi made itself compatible with Gutenberg.
- In 2019, big construction site again, because it's the turn of the WooCommerce Builder and Theme Builder to make their appearance. Divi is starting to look like the Divi we know today... But it was a lot of work for the dev team: about 12 major updates that year.
- 2020, slight slowing of the pace. Did the Covid crisis go through that? Not sure, the bulk of the building had been completed the year before, so Tranquillou-bilou !
- In 2021, only 7 major updates... Why? I think this year was based on performance and UX. A lot of work on this side, I guess. Again, with the bulk of the construction being carried out in previous years, it is normal for Divi to slow down its development when the delay is filled.
But above all, 2021 is the year of great changes for WordPress! A first major update of WordPress in July 2021 (v5.8) started to introduce the full edition of the site (named FSE). And another "big" update of WordPress (v5.9) was planned for December 2021. It will finally be postponed until January 2022. I clearly believe that ElegantThemes is walking on eggs. They might have anticipated some updates but WordPress getting late, Divi too... And worse, because the ESF is a feature that clearly encroaches on the platforms of Divi and his Theme Builder. ElegantThemes must then find a solution to reinvent itself or at best remain competitive.
In short, we'll see how this takes shape in 2022... We will certainly discuss it...
2 - The evolution of Divi in 7 key dates
Let's stay on the facts before we anticipate and speculate on what 2022 will be done. Here's the evolution of Divi this year... Maybe you missed it.
January 2021: Visual Builder Performance
Major update to improve the UX design side of a site with Visual Builder. Divi dramatically improves the performance of its Visual Builder. We're talking about administration and not visitors... No new features this time, so you probably missed...
February 2021: Global colors
Introduction of a new functionality, not least: global colour management. Very, very interesting functionality that improves your site creator productivity and color consistency in the design of your sites.
In short: you create colors that are dynamic (synchronized). If one day, the rose you use no longer likes, you can change it with this beautiful purple! The modification will occur throughout the site, in case you use them. This is a bit the kind of feature that is found in graphic design software (Affinity Designer, Sketch, Illustrator...).
Discover the official announcement here.
August 2021: Divi & Core Web Vitals performance
Pas d'ajout de fonctionnalités ce mois-ci mais une grosse avancée en termes de performance. Le thème Divi et ses builders améliorent leur code pour augmenter la performance of your Divi sitesAnd this time, visitor side!
Divi introduces the conditional loading of the code, Only if the modules are used on your page. As a result, the loading time is drastically reduced and allows your sites to pass the tests favorably Core Web Vitals Page Speeds Insights. All other good practices must be put in place on your site (image weight, quality hosting, etc.).
This update probably went unnoticed for two reasons:
- The MAJ came out this summer, when the cicadas sang under the pine trees.
- It did not offer any new visible features.
Read the official article here.
September 2021: conditional options
La MAJ de septembre introduit les conditions d'affichages basées sur :
- Le statut : rôle utilisateur...
- L'interaction du visiteur : a-t-il déjà acheté ou visité telle ou telle page
- The device : computer, mobile, tablet
- Publication type: display or hide according to category for example
Ces conditions se trouvent dans l'onglet Advances most modules, lines or sections of the Visual Builder. Maybe you missed them.
Discover Nich Roach's explanations about the conditions.
October 2021: Builder Theme at the Frontend
La MAJ d'octobre introduit le fait de pouvoir éditer les éléments du Theme Builder directement depuis le Visual Builder en front-end, du moment où ils ont été créé en amont depuis le Theme Builder... Bon, OK, je vous ai un peu perdu, là 😉
En fait, vous pouvez maintenant modifier quelque chose dans votre Header ou votre Footer, directement depuis la mise en page éditée avec le Visual Builder plutôt que de vous rendre à l'onglet Divi > Theme Builder...
Still not clear enough? Lisez l'annonce officielle.
Early November 2021: improving the icons of Divi
Finally, an update that improves the design of your sites: Divi adds icons from Font AwesomeIt was time! Before, we had to hack to add some icons in Footer For example. Now the module Follow us on social networks is much more complete and a module Icon was added to the list of Divi modules.
End November 2021: new WooCommerce modules
Deux mises à jour dans le même mois : cette fois-ci 8 nouveaux modules dans le Visual Builder ! Divi se dote davantage de modules pour WooCommerce et c'est une bonne nouvelle !
3 - What new things, Divi, for 2022?
Je ne suis pas devin malheureusement ! Et ElegantThemes ne tient pas de Road Map officielle, ce qui nous laisse dans l'ignorance la plus totale. On ne peut qu'espérer et spéculer...
Au départ, je pensais qu'ElegantThemes se mettrait à jour pour être compatible with the WordPress ESF which is coming soon. But apparently he is Technically impossible for this to happen, si j'ai bien compris.
So, soon, there will be two types of themes in the WordPress landscape :
- Classics Themes: comme Divi, Astra, Neve, Ocean WP... Bref, tous les thèmes que l'on connait aujourd'hui !
- Blocks Themes: all new generation themes compatible with the ESF (such as Twenty Twenty Two, the next default theme of WordPress 5.9).
Donc voici les questions que je vous pose (et que je me pose à moi-même, et dont je n'ai pas les réponses) :
1 - Est-ce qu'ElegantThemes n'a pas fait beaucoup de mises à jour de Divi en 2021, car le thème et ses builders sont suffisamment aboutis ? Ou bien est-ce qu'un autre thème est en train d'être développé, une sorte de cousin de Divi (comme Extra), qui serait, quant à lui compatible avec le FSE de WordPress ?
2 - Et si Divi devait introduire de nouvelles fonctionnalités en 2022, quelles seraient-elles selon vous ?
Personnellement, je pense qu'il y a assez de fonctionnalités et que l'intérêt serait maintenant de développer de nouveaux modules pour Divi et d'en dépoussiérer certains autres. C'est d'ailleurs la tendance qu'a l'air de prendre Divi si on en croit les dernières mises à jour de cette année.
Et vous, quels sont vos présages ? Qu'aimeriez-vous voir dans Divi en 2022 ?
Moi je dirais que j’aimerais bien plus de fonctionnalités (par exemple certaines de divi supreme) et avoir un formulaire de contact intégré plus efficace……….
Oui bonne idée
Bonjour,
tout d’abord merci pour cet article de synthèse.
En ce qui concerne les évolutions, je souhaite également un travail de fond sur les modules en espérant que l’équipe de Divi ne joue pas trop à laisser trop de place aux modules payants. Non que je sois radin (quoique… je vis en Auvergne et j’adore l’Écosse) mais parce que ces modules sont trop soumis à des aléas de continuité dans le temps de leurs développeurs dans le Market place Divi.
D’accord également avec « bonnet » sur la nécessité de vraiment bosser sur le formulaire !
Oui Philippe je pense qu’il vont améliorer les modules, enfin j’espère !