Comments on: Ryan Sullivan

By: chzumbrunnen

chzumbrunnen — Sun, 09 Nov 2014 22:14:38 +0000

As easy it seems for us, to edit, order and even style content, it’s not all that intuitive for a non-tech user. Simplicity is key. But as for now there are parts of the site that are edited in the posts and pages area in the backend but some themes have special widgets on the home page that need to be edited in the widgets area which is not all that intuitive. The customizer makes it way easier – if themes make use of it. Still there is no easy way to order content in blocks, which in my opinion is one of the most searched features. Of course there are visual composers which do sometimes a good job in offering an intuitive interface but – if you change the theme and have all the shortcodes left that don’t work anymore it’s awful.

I guess frontend editing is one possible solution, although none of the existing and even announced tools are perfect and I find instead of too many individual solutions, there should be a more “official” way to have more layout and design possibilities per post or page. The post editor is already getting better all the time (preview of galleries and embed content etc.)

So, I’d use the magic wand to create an easy layout and style editor that doesn’t interfere with WordPress best practices and is extremely dummy save to use.

By: chzumbrunnen

chzumbrunnen — Sun, 09 Nov 2014 22:14:00 +0000

So, I’d use the magic wand to create an easy layout and style editor that doesn’t interfere with WordPress best practices and is extremely dummy save to use.

By: Matt Cromwell

Matt Cromwell — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 21:48:00 +0000

Themes don’t leverage the Customizer well or at all! I think the Customizer is the future-proof, portable way to do theme customizations “the WP Way”. It also makes you make better decisions for “decisions not options” rather than bulk uploading 1,00,000 options that force your user to drown in radio buttons.

Keep the theme super simple, with very flexible and organized customizations options and infinitely child themeable and I’m happy.

By: David Green

David Green — Sun, 19 Oct 2014 22:39:00 +0000

It has to be theme developers prioritizing convincing a customer to buy their theme and not on how well that theme will perform for the customer. At its worst this takes the form of low quality code and a lack of attention to detail. It’s to the point I’m sure there have been times I’ve spent more hours fixing a theme a client had on their site than a developer put into creating the theme in the first place.

I understand the need to sell as many themes as possible, but it results in businesses installing a theme and trusting it to be a helping hand in building their business while the theme sabotages their on-site SEO and the performance of their site.

Thankfully it looks like Flagship is taking the right approach with their themes and demanding a high level of quality of themselves. The initial theme investment is larger than usual, but if the themes are coded as well as I’ve heard they will be then the payoff from the investment should be much larger and give their customers a competitive advantage.

There’s nothing wrong with having a beautiful looking theme, but there’s been enough putting lipstick on a pig in the WordPress theme market.

By: Greg Daniels

Greg Daniels — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 05:00:00 +0000

The number one problem with themes for me is the lack of thorough documentation. Sure, some themes come with a tutorial for how to recreate the demo site, or basic installation and minor configuration. Most themes don’t come with a usability walkthrough that is simple enough to pass on to clients.

Themes, as a general rule, should come as “out of the box” as possible. While we do make up for that in maintenance costs (Thank you Troy for that nugget of wisdom!), it would be a welcomed addition to any theme package and would aid the client in better managing the site on their own.