Make the X Close buttons target size larger

[afercia]

Description

See conversation on https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/63243

Recent changes in https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/61331 and other PRs standardized the size of various X Close buttons to the small variant, which is 24 by 24 pixels.

While standardizing is good, unnecessarily reducing the target size isn't.

Whenever possible, given the constraints ofd the layout and containers where the buttons live, the target size should be as large as possible.

Additionally, the 24px size is inconsistent with other buttons that may be displayed close to the X button. A few examples where I used background colors to illustrate the inconsistency:

In the Styles panel header: 3 buttons use the compact size (32 pixels) and the X button uses the small size (24 pixels):

Similarly, in the PLugins panel, one button is compact and the X button is small:

A good point was made on https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/63243#issuecomment-2422641020 that these buttons should be horizontally aligned with other controls in the UI so that the right padding of the containers should be adjusted. In the screenshot below, observe that besides the inconsistent size, the container right padding is inconsistent as well:

Additionally: all the other X close buttons e.g. within modal dialogs should be at least compact (32 by 32 pixels).

It is worth reminding that the WCAG Target Size (Minimum) requires a size of at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels. That's the minimum though. There's no reason not to make these buttons bigger, when possible. The editor should aim to provide the best possible experience and not be limited to meet the minimum requirements.

Step-by-step reproduction instructions

• Open the Styles panel.
• Observe the size of the buttons in the panel header is inconsistent and the X close button is the only one that is small.
• Install and activate a plugin that adds a plugins panel e.g. Yoast SEO.
• Open the plugin panel and observe the 'Pin / Unpin' button is compact, while the X close button is small.
• Open the main inserter and observe the X close button is small. Observe there is enough space to make it compact.
• Same for the List View panel and other instances across the editor.
• Open a modal dialog e.g. the 'Rename blockone and observe the X close button issmall. Observe there is enough space to make itcompact`.
• Same for other modal dialogs e.g. the Keyboard shortcuts one or the Preferences one.

Screenshots, screen recording, code snippet

No response

Environment info

No response

Please confirm that you have searched existing issues in the repo.

• [x] Yes

Please confirm that you have tested with all plugins deactivated except Gutenberg.

• [x] Yes

[afercia]

Quickly looking at a few buttons instances in the codenase, it appears there's some room for some CSS clean-up. For example, the X close button of the tabs panel uses the small variant. That should be sufficient to render the button with the 24 pixels size but there's still some CSS overriding in place, which I assume it's a leftover and should be removed. See below, where the $icon-size variable is 24 pixels:

https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/blob/75e336606c8edcc8e557760b8407935c59eb4d44/packages/editor/src/components/sidebar/style.scss#L1-L8

[t-hamano]

This close button appears to have been changed to a small size by #61331.

https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/61331/files#diff-c2b4b3fd0242f8ea3fab899322d819626b990004cfa592f949967217bed13e71R305

cc @WordPress/gutenberg-design

[jameskoster]

I agree the buttons should be the same size, as should the spacing between them and the horizontal padding of their containers. This consistency would make alignment much simpler to achieve and in most cases the default meaning we can remove some ad hoc styling.