It may sound counter-intuitive, but the successful completion of a web project requires more than just building a website: it is a balancing act of fulfilling a client’s expectations within a specific timeframe and budget and making sure it works across a wide array of browsers and devices.
Squarespace is like a paint-by-numbers kit, and WordPress is like an entire art store (including the paint-by-number kits, if that’s what you want). As long as the picture on the box is exactly what you want, the paint-by-numbers approach might be perfect for you. But if you want a platform with unlimited room to grow, and expand, and develop your site, then WordPress is a better fit.
With the new year comes the opportunity for a renewed and better you. So too is the opportunity for a new and better WordPress website. Use the following as a checklist for the new year (or anytime) to ensure your website is in tip-top shape.
This was going to just be a post about WordPress themes. We were going to talk about why you might want to pick one type of theme over another (and we’ll still get to that). But when you look into what is happening in the world of WordPress themes right now, you start seeing articles and posts with titles like this one: The End of WordPress Themes is in Sight. And that’s worth talking about. That headline might be a bit extreme, but there is definitely a change in the role themes play looming on the horizon.
As your WordPress website evolves over time it is inevitable that you will remove old pages, rename pages, and add new pages. This is especially true when completing a redesign project or content restructuring. Another common instance we see this occur is when an organization grows, changes the business model, or merges with another organization. When this happens, you need to take special care to ensure that any page URLs that were removed or changed are properly redirected to an existing page, otherwise your site will generate what are called ‘not found errors’ until search engines like Google fully re-index the site (which can take some time). Also, any links back to the site you or others posted on social media, online directories, or via other site’s blog comments which no longer exist will return that same dreaded ‘not found error’. These external links, called ‘back links’, are especially important for search engine optimization (SEO) not to mention user experience (linking to a ‘page not found’ as a first impression of your website is far from ideal). Oh, and those ‘not found errors’? Too many of them can have a negative effect on SEO too.
Design on the web can seem to be changing at warp speed. Thankfully, we’ve moved beyond the worst of the worst of the beginning days of website design. But now that we’ve mostly filtered out the lowest common denominator, where do we go from here? What does stepping from good design to great design in your Wordpress site look like?
Web design is a constantly changing field. What looks sleek and modern today can appear dated in a few years time. When you notice that your website is starting to look a little old-fashioned, it’s only natural to start planning a redesign.
UI Design (User Interface Design) is a term that’s thrown around a lot, but what does it actually mean? Simply put, it is the design of the user’s visual experience. This entails the design of an app or Wordpress site’s screens, buttons, icons, images, text, and any other elements a user will see and engage with.
There are many reasons why you may want to (or need to) move on from your old WordPress theme to a new one. Perhaps the former look and feel is too out of date for your taste. Or more likely your theme is out of date, and has become incompatible with necessary plugins. Or the … Read more
As the world becomes more screen focused, the amount of energy put into crafting a smart and thoughtful user experience becomes more important. The overall User Experience (UX) is the design of the information organization and architecture, and the User Interface (UI) is the visual elements and design. There are many UX design principles that … Read more