The Non-designer's Guide to WordPress (Making Your Site Awesome)
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19-Oct-2014 -
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Transcript of The Non-designer's Guide to WordPress (Making Your Site Awesome)
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”
- Steve jobs
You’re Already On Your Way • WordPress works pretty damn well
“out of the box” • Don’t let your theme & widgets
get in the way of that • Good site design should emphasize
your content, not itself
But…
“Everybody thinks they have good taste and a sense of humor but they couldn't possibly all have good taste.”
- When Harry Met Sally
Good taste is subjective.
Good design: not so much.
Photo: emiliokuffer on Flickr
Look Around. Get Inspired. • Pay attention to what you like about other sites • Find & Follow creative curators on the web
and via social channels (like fastcodesign.com) • Listen to recommendations from designers • Apply what you learn
Start by making your site your own.
Photo: LeonMMelissa on Flickr
Color
Color • The easiest way to make any site stand out • Mix pairs of unusual colors or pick one dominant
color for emphasis • A little goes a long way,
even monochromatic tones can be powerful
Hex Colors • Annotation for the combination of Red, Green, and
Blue color values (RGB) • HEX values are specified as 3 pairs of two-digit
numbers, starting with a # sign
Typography
Type Tips • Web fonts (@fontface) now allow you to use
a variety of different fonts • Perfect way to add a
unique touch to any design • Don’t use too many • Be careful when mixing
Photos
Show Don’t Just Tell • Great photos are another powerful way to make
your design stand out • Create rules for formatting and be
consistent (rounded corners, specific width, right-aligned, etc.)
• Always credit sources. Don’t steal!
Page Templates
Use Different Page Templates • Built into many themes • Creates variety, • Can enhance different
types of content
Theme Customizer • Introduced in WordPress 3.4 • Make changes, preview them in realtime,
before going live • More options to as theme
developers further integrate it into updates
Premium Theme
Frameworks
Plugins
Plugins • Choose plugins that add functionality
but allow control over their style/design • Take advantage of those controls to tie into
your site’s style whenever possible
Sidebar
Triage Your Sidebar Often • Only include what you NEED to • Avoid too many third-party widgets (Facebook,
Twitter, Flickr), can slow page load times • Limit # & size of ads unless
you are making lots of money • Animated anything = annoying
:(
:)
Default widgets usually need tweaking
Consider consolidation
Other Bits & Pieces • Create & usa a favicon • Use built-in text formatting for posts & pages
(H1, H2, blockquote, etc.) • Less is ALWAYS better.
Simplicty is never a bad choice.
“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
- Antoine de Saint Exupéry
Photo: Tsahi Levent-Levi on Flickr
Mykl Roventine myklroventine.com @myklroventine
Thank you!
Headshot: Glimpses of Soul Photography