WordPress is one of the best content management systems online. It provides users with a great platform to express their personal and business-related ideas. Millions of web designers and developers all around the world use WordPress for personal and business purposes.
One of the best things is that all the major search engines love WordPress, making it very SEO friendly. The code is simple, clean and user-friendly as well. However, as a beginner, you need to review some tips and tricks in order to design a WordPress site. This guide is great for those who want to improve their WordPress design.
Designing WordPress:
With a platform as good as WordPress, you don’t have to strain your mind too much to learn difficult code. Anyone with a knowledge of PHP or good design skills can immediately start using a WordPress site.
However, in order to really succeed at this task and create something extraordinary, you need to know a bit more than the average developer or designer
Luckily, there is ample amount of information available to guide you in achieving this goal. You should know more than tweaking a WordPress site to make little improvements. It will be even better if you get insights into what the core WordPress developers are doing. You need to stay on top of the WordPress game, because this platform is ever-changing and keeps evolving for enhanced user experience. Learn more about keeping your design fresh when everyone is using the same tools.
Reading up on relevant information:
First of all, you need to read about mastering the art of designing WordPress. You have to stay updated about the latest upgrades, latest platform changes, any security updates or some new reviews that can help you to change the basic design.
The best place to fuel your reading tank is on the WordPress blogs and forums. These places are fantastic and many other developers are present to share their thoughts with you. You can read up on latest development and go through any FAQs to save your time in design and not post a repeated thread (which moderators never like!)
Observe the theme trends:
Another way to improve WordPress web design skills is by constantly monitoring the ongoing theme trends. Themes are what makes a WordPress site look better than any other. When you select a theme and try it, make sure that you choose a theme which is good enough for long-term. It’s not very productive to try and fail to learn in WordPress design.
Go to the WordPress Theme Directory and take a good look. Download a few themes and try them on your website. If you find a theme which runs fast on your site, has all the elements your site requires and is also good value, then choose it and dissect it further for customization.
Learn WordPress CSS:
If you have already learnt web design, then you must be aware of CSS. If you are new, then you should know that it is used by web pages to keep information in order and show in the proper display format.
WordPress CSS is unique to the platform’s own style and thereby, you should learn WordPress CSS to determine fonts, font sizes, color, spacing, borders and location of HTML on a specific page amongst other things.
The CSS you use on static websites is the same you will use on WordPress, but before you start with that, you will have to find more about WordPress generated classes. This will enlighten you about theme-specific CSS in WordPress themes and plugins.
If you are still having trouble learning CSS, then the old drag-and-drop function will be your aide. It is not recommended by professional designers, so stick to the manual CSS coding if you want to be a better developer.
Learn about PHP:
In designing WordPress, you will need to learn about PHP code as well. Once you are past this stage, you can be very flexible with your knowledge of designing WordPress sites. PHP will familiarize you with the structure of WordPress, and you can use this information to build better themes and edit existing themes in a better way.
- PHP framework has better security features which make this language important in the web development world.
- It is a popular language and every other developer uses PHP nowadays.
- If you are having any trouble with the structure on your site, PHP will help you understand its structure and incorporate better changes.
Learn from the masters:
WordPress developers are more sought-after than other developers, so if you are one or want to be one, then take a look at these great resources recommended by the masters of WordPress coding:
WordPress Codex:
If you spend some good time reading and taking in all the details of WordPress at codex, there a chance that you will not have to go anywhere else for guidance. It also has a plethora of information on making changes and improving themes by using examples. You can amp up your developing and designing game by taking help from WordPress Codex.
Blueprint CSS:
This great CSS framework has the ability to reduce the time you spend over designing to give you “a solid CSS foundation to build your project on top of, with an easy-to-use grid, sensible typography, and even a stylesheet for printing.” Visit Blueprint CSS to get a better idea.
JQuery for designers:
JQuery is a great Javascript framework which is already in use on many amazing websites. It is very efficient in powering up the features on WordPress admin panel. You should learn how to apply JQuery functionality on your site by visiting Jquery for designers.
Net Tuts:
This is a very thorough and well-managed blog, loaded with tips and tricks on managing WordPress design. It has WordPress tutorials, PHP intros and a ton of instructions on implementing the functioning of numerous Javascript libraries.
