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I’m doing some work for a client, taking a very pretty design (from the designer), and porting it to WordPress.
I can’t say for sure, but it doesn’t “feel” like the designer has a lot of WordPress experience:
- The header image is huge. “Evocative” I think is the right word, but contains no information. It’s just a landscape photo.
- I’m writing a lot of custom code, at least two custom pages so far.
- Some of the content on the site is going to have to be modified by a web or WordPress programmer, because I’m having to hard-code to match the design.
Which is precisely what the client is trying to get away from!
I can see why some designers might not like WordPress. Designing for WordPress requires keeping certain constraints in mind.
But there’s another reason…
WordPress frees the website owner from being held hostage by the designer or web programmer. I hear from small business owners all the time: “I just want to change my hours on my website, but I don’t know how and it’s too expensive.”
Invariably, these business owners have beautiful, unique websites, custom designed, just for them.
On this job, I’m not communicating much with the designer; we’re going back and forth through the client. In my experience, this is the usual case. Technically, it’s a nightmare, so there has to be some sort of social dynamic at work. Most likely, it’s just “business as usual.”
Expect a case study in the future. I like the design quite a bit, it is very attractive. I’ll suggest a few relatively minor design changes to the client once I have the site complete and invoiced. The trick is keeping the overall “feel” of the site, while allowing him full access to all the content (so he won’t need any programmers).
Here’s a couple of questions for you:
- If you’re a designer, how do you deal with WordPress constraints?
- If you’re a developer, how to do you deal with designers that don’t understand WordPress?
- If you just like to use WordPress and you’re not overly concerned with design, you can join me in that corner over there where they send the incorrigible…
No dog in this fight.
.-= Ralph´s last blog ..Taking advantage of loopholes, a post to piss you off. =-.
Ralph, your dog is in the right fight. You’re finding your groove. And it’s good.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Super or Total? Money Talks But Cache Rules =-.
Can’t wait for the case study Dave – you know I love seeing how other people go about their work.
I’m becoming a fan of the “palm off the design work to a real designer” work model. My strengths lay in coding and bringing things to life as well.
.-= Josh Kohlbach´s last blog ..Bluehost Adds New CPU & Memory Protection Features =-.
Josh, the key seems to be finding who is WordPress-friendly.
WordPress has a lot of detractors. I’m pretty sure a friend is paralyzed with indecision because his techie friends all tell him “WordPress sucks” but none of them will build his website for him.
I could easily build the website, but I’m not going to go against his other friends. Better to smile and nod.
I have a couple of pretty good designers handy, one is WP capable, the other (Dori) is WP friendly. It helps a lot.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Does Google Think You’re a Dirty Rotten Spammer? (Hint: link anchors matter) =-.
This is where a true CMS (rather than a blogging platform) like Drupal comes into it’s own. It gives the client the ability to change or add data as easily as WP, but allows the developer the flexibility to design the site properly.
I don’t consider either Drupal or WordPress “true CMS.”
Drupal is also what results when developers design. Designers should design. Form and function are coupled.
Just installed Drupal 7.
I have no further comments on the matter until I use the interface for a while and examine the source code.
Here is my take on it. I design around wordpress. You can do almost anything you want when you do it this way, almost. I could see how converting one person’s design to wordpress could be tough though, especially not being able to communicate directly with him/her.
I would also like to disagree with Mike. With minor tweaking, wordpress can be transformed into a standard website. I used to use drupal, and honestly will probably never use it for another site ever again. But I do see your point, drupal has an easier learning curve.
.-= Patrick Toerner´s last blog ..Picking a Product to Promote on Your Minisite =-.
I disagree on the learning. Drupal doesn’t have a clear separation between user and admin roles. Can be really confusing. Much rather teach a non-tech person WP than Drupal.
I go back to Drupal 2005 time frame though. Maybe Drupal 7 is easier.
The issue with WP is what constitutes a “standard website?”
If you’re willing to sacrifice end user convenience, it’s easy to hand roll a theme. WP is just a set of php-driven database APIs serving HTML.
The trick is building a site where you as the developer can walk away from it and the user can take charge. Sadly, for the site I’m working on, the designer calls for 4 different menu bars. One is of course standard with Thesis theme, and i have that handled. Allowing the end-user to configure the other three would require hacking the Thesis theme core files, which isn’t that difficult, but once again, you bind the user into an unsupported platform. That is, it’s gonna break when Pearson updates Thesis.
Speaking of which, Pearson changed the core APIs for page handling. Not good. He should have that nailed by now, but I have a pretty good hunch he’s going to modify them more at 2.0. Because he hasn’t really got it right yet.
It’s funny, for all Thesis relies on a set of callbacks at the top level, everything under the initial layer of hooks is totally procedurally-driven. Which is too bad, it would be easier to build the whole API with callbacks.
I am “lucky” in that I can wear bot the designer and programmer cap, so never had this problem before.
Almost everything can be done on a site by having a good knowledge of CSS and by slicing a design correctly. Let me knwo if there’s anything I can do to help (like reviewing the design and dev site :))
.-= Tom´s last blog ..It’s official: your website speed is now a ranking factor in Google’s algorithm =-.
Tom, I’m working my way toward design. I understand the basic language of the grid (960 rules), but I don’t use Photoshop or similar packages to create the graphical elements.
Given a screenshot, I reproduce pretty much anything.
If the Adobe tools were’t so expensive, I’d just go buy CS whatever. Doesn’t seem worth it at the moment.
Photoshop is definitely worth it.
I’ve used all sorts of free tools, but i keep going back to PS because it’s just fit for purpose and (once you’re used to it) easier to use.
.-= Josh Kohlbach´s last blog ..1 Technical Reason Why You Shouldn’t Load Full Posts On Your Home Page In WordPress =-.
I’m torn between being a designer-y person and sitting over in the corner being incorrigible. Tends to vary dependent on mood!
I think you’re right though; if the site’s going to be using WordPress there have to be different design conventions in place to normal ‘Make me a website’ requests. The less coding knowledge the client has to have to update, the better everything works for everyone (sure you can charge for it, but do you really want to be bugged every time your client wants to adjust something and it’ll take five minutes?).
That’s the whole point: I don’t want to maintain his web site! I want to “turn the keys over” and have him “drive away.”
(It’s never 5 minutes either, it’s a disruption of work.)
Yea I got the goal, it was more of a general end question really. I know of at least two people that would go ahead and keep helping too (and not even charge for it) – little silly.
You’re right of course, it always ends up eating more than 5 mins.
3. Because I do that too. Which is why I prefer WP over everything: easiest for training website owners!
You help, they do the work continually. Lol though I guess its the same thing according to my definition!
Do love WP though, its relatively easy to get to grips with.
I can see why some designers are not fond of WordPress but when you get to know the CMS you can be very flexible with it. Whats more is that it offers a huge advantage to clients as they can perform updates themselves easily. It is also very flexible and easy to add features through plugins.
.-= John McDougal´s last blog ..Are you a dentist in the Reading area? =-.
Around here (Silicon Valley) I think it’s partly cultural: if it’s not built on Ruby on Rails, it ain’t sh*t.
This may related to the fact that RoR work is still being done onshore. That is, you can actually get a job in San Fran if you have RoR skills. Not so much with PHP.
WordPress isn’t cutting edge any more either, therefore, not interesting. Also, WordPress has “a lot of security issues.”
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Super or Total? Money Talks But Cache Rules =-.
Heh, yup.
Changing the hours and rates on anyone’s website shouldn’t take 2 hours.
.-= Deacon´s last blog ..Dispatches from the Spice Mines =-.
Is this where I ask you how you custom added the header for your thesis theme? I want. LOL. No this is where I point out that you make a really valid point about wordpress and its usability. I have never known html and all that (I am learning quickly though) so wordpress is basically a way for the masses to be able to have their own site – which is good but I never considered the problems from the other side of the fence, thank god I aint there.
.-= Alex´s last blog ..Dude! Where’s my Drive? =-.