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Some Thoughts on WordPress Theme Design

November 7th, 2007 | by Scott

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I know several people who are building niche and mini-sites using the WordPress platform as an easy CMS (content management system), so even though the points I want to make here are more directed towards WP as a blogging application for average bloggers rather than a CMS for web developers, I hope they’ll be of interest to all regardless of how they’re using WP.

First, I think WP is fantastic. That has to be said because it really is a simple install for anyone to perform and even the least technical user can have a site or blog up and running in minutes with it out of the box.

Its also highly stable with active continuing development and has a loyal user following of talented (some more than others) coders who supply endless numbers of additions, plugins, widgets and themes to the WP community.

Over the years I’ve paid high dollars for software and webwares that didn’t have half of the features and support levels that WP comes with, so at “Free” WP is an 11 on the 1 to 10 scale.

However, as with anything that’s widely used there’s never going to be out-of-the-box solutions to meet every specific need or desire of every individual user. I understand that and don’t even see it as a limitation in any way. As I see it, the open nature of the application and user following allows for these issues to be addressed easily and often distributed freely for others to benefit from, making it a hidden strength rather than limitation.

Still, one aspect of WP that I think could be more readily addressed “out of the box” but isn’t is with theme creations. For example, the default install of WP comes with 2 themes. They’re both fine looking, however neither is really suited to major customization nor serves well as starting points for developing a custom theme off of.

It would be nice if there were several plain (no graphics and only styled for layout structure, not design) themes–skeleton themes if you will–included with the default install or readily available for download from the WP web site that would serve as launch points for users to build a graphic theme from.

Its not that designing a WP theme is really that complicated, it isn’t. Then again, I have a decade of experience in web design and PHP coding…not every user of WP does, and the truth is to develop a theme from scratch you really do need to hack into both the HTML/CSS and the PHP scripting.

There are far more people out there with graphic skills and the ability to make basic HTML/CSS modifications than there are people who can do that plus hack the PHP. Those are the folks who would benefit most from some kind of skeleton layout themes being available.

Experienced users would also benefit too, basically in saved time from having these starting/launching point themes to build from. For example, I’ve long wanted to create a custom theme for this blog. One that really fits the nature of the site as well as highlights my Irish Clan connections. Its not that I don’t like the current theme, I really do, but it’s not absolutely perfect and a little limiting to some things I’d like to do with the blog.

While I have the ability to build a theme from scratch, and even have the graphic files I intend to use for the theme eventually… what I don’t have is the time to get it done. I first started working on my custom theme in June, 5 months ago, and still don’t have the main page completed. Not because its hard, but because I never have enough time to work on it. If I had started with a skeleton theme layout that I could basically “plug” my graphics into and not have to start from blank pages and worry about all of the PHP scripting being included in all the right places as I went along I’d have had it completed months ago.

Here’s the basic “skeleton” layout I’m working on for my theme:

It shouldn’t exactly be rocket science should it? It’s complex I know, in as far as the sidebar setup goes, but still not something that I feel should have taken me more than a few hours to accomplish. As it is I have close to 15 total hours invested and am still fighting with the basic coding for the 2 widgetized sidebar columns, which I’ve found to be a coding pain trying to use multiple widgetized sidebars.

Sure, if this were a commercial venture I’d have gotten it done already, or more likely paid someone else to do it for me. But its not really a commercial project, even though I do make a little money from my blog each month its still just my blog and I don’t have the free time available for the hassle that this custom theme creation has become, nor the desire to spend money paying someone else to work on it for me.

In my opinion, it would be an amazing and wonderful addition to WP if the developers were to visit the Dynamic Drive CSS Layouts pages and picked a few different layouts, 2 columns, 3 columns, fixed width, fluid width… and incorporated them into the default install as skeleton themes for users to build from.

I know this still wouldn’t address every user’s theme desires and my own desired layout in the image above wouldn’t be included I’m sure, but it would give users a lot more easy options to start from and I imagine wouldn’t take all that much effort from the developers since editing one’s own code is always easier than trying to edit someone else’s existing code.

Then again, maybe there’s a market out there for some “skeleton WP layouts” and some experienced theme designer is working on a package or web site for distribution right now? If so, I wish he or she would get in touch with me.

Until then, that’s how I think WP could further improve and expand itself as the top blogging platform available. Here’s to hoping a future release of WP will include more theme options that make customizing layouts a little easier on end users… and Happy Hump Day.

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Technorati Tags: Blogging, theme design, wordpress

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