WordPress tools and frameworks
What I hate and love about the internet is that its changing all the time. I hate it because there is a never ending amount of material to learn every day. It changes at light speed, it seems, and no human can keep on top of it. What I love about it is that it changes all the time and that’s exciting. New products, new functionality, and we all want more. What I love about WordPress it that it has just the tools to keep me up to speed, even light speed. And if WP doesn’t do it, other frameworks or tools come along that will plug into WP that closes the gap.
Let me give you an example. For clients on a budget, I used to use the themes that are introduced through the WP dashboard within WP.org. There are many, but more than half are not even touched by a graphic designer, whose specialty is typography, color and layout. A lonely developer probably sat at his pc and knocked it out… He is the guy at the supermarket that wears two color plaids. So, you can’t trust that he is also the guy to provide you with your free theme.
Read MoreCompass: Before and After Website
If your website is three years old or even older, chances are you aren’t taking advantage of all the changes in the internet now available. Social networking buttons, forms, built in seo, clean formats, non-flash banner sliders and slide shows are just some of the new features you can get included in your revised website for much less investment than before.
My new client was ready to learn content management. He called me on a recommendation from a developer who was getting out of the web design business. His site needed substantial reorganization and redesign. Look at the old site and see if it looks like a site you’ve seen recently.
It is obvious to most people who know my client, that he does not look like the picture on this page. It was elongated to match the image on the right. Centered text, lines around boxes and a hidden menu are just a few of the glaring problems we identified and changed in the new site design.
Low Price, Three Options
Get extraordinary custom web design and consulting at competitive prices. We know that businesses and non-profits have to reckon with today’s economy and we are willing to work within your budget by offering WordPress CMS (content management) sites at 3 price points. We welcome small businesses, artisans and entrepreneurs to call us to see what we can do for them.
What do we do for you at the low end of the price range? We schedule an interview where I present an agreement that outlines what is expected by both parties to get the job done. Usually, the client provides the imagery, including logo, digital photographs and copy.
We decide together what pages you will need and how many. Any pages over 7 will require additional fee of $100 per page. Copy that you provide will be edited by us for search engine optimization and grammar. I can provide you with photographs and graphics including logo for an additional fee.
I provide you with two theme options after taking color, typography and style into consideration. We help you find a domain name or point the domain you have to our preferred host company. After carefully working out the IA (Information architecture) of your site, the text and pages are populated into the theme. Up to 5 Widgets are placed and configured. Up to 5 Plug-ins are installed. Up to 3 Slide shows are made. Up to 3 social network buttons are activated. Site owners are then able to make comments and changes to the layout.
Finally, we provide WP training and support for one month. Clients always feel comfortable calling with any questions. If you are not comfortable maintaining your own site, we charge $80 per hour, minimum one hour.
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Newfangled’s Message: Simple Design is Good Design
“Before you even start designing a page, keep in mind the following four principles. Remember, these are basic, underlying principles. They don’t close any aesthetic doors. They provide a stable foundation upon which there is much freedom to design something as unique as it need be. But they will result in a page that is simpler and more effective than much of what we’ve reviewed today.
Identify Your Audience
Properly identifying your audience is the most critical step to designing an effective website. Chances are, you think your audience is bigger that it actually is. Take time before any prototyping or design is done to create user persona—realistic personality profiles that represent a significant group of your website’s users. Without accurate persona, we’re much more prone to making guesses or assumptions about who our prospects are, and creating content based upon that mistake.