Flexible content management platforms like the WordPress CMS have effectively simplified web design and web development for website owners.
This is great for entrepreneurial-minded people thinking of getting a website that they can easily manage by themselves.
Prior to “blogging” and the introduction of sophisticated content management systems, if you needed a site, you normally had to wait until both the web development and web design processes were fully completed. This process could take many weeks, sometimes even many months!
WordPress themes have changed all this. In this post, we look at what themes are, how themes save you money on web design costs, and how WP themes make it easy to customize your WP site.
Website Design Revolution
More website owners have been benefiting from a great change in web design that started many years ago. If you are a small business owner, you may want to learn about this, because it can save your business a lot of time and money on website development or website design costs.
In a nutshell, this is how things worked in “traditional” web design before a CMS application like WordPress came along:
First, you would discuss your requirements with a website developer or designer. Then, the actual “web design” itself would be decided upon. This involved spending time and money with someone with web design skills discussing things of the web site like the, colors, formats, visual elements, content, etc.
Every page of your website then had to be hand-coded with the elements and codes written into the content. All the pages were then assembled into a web site using hyperlinks and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with all other files needed to make your website work – script libraries, images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything had been tested and worked the way it was intended to (and looking the way the client had imagined it to look), was the site considered to be completed and ready for sign off.
Then, web design “templates” were introduced”. A web site template allows presentation elements of the website to be created separately from the page content. The development of ready-made templates helped make the process of building web sites faster and resulted in lowered costs of production. This also allowed website development agencies to service small businesses and clients with smaller budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more web development firms began choosing “template-based” websites, web templates started being designed that provided a range of customization settings, like the option to choose different colours, styles, layouts
As websites and web editing applications evolved, website templates also started to transform into website template ”systems”, letting users and web developers control the design elements of their website.
Then, WordPress came along and helped to start a new web revolution …
(WordPress – A Content Publishing Revolution)
To learn more about content management systems and the benefits of the WordPress CMS, see the tutorial below:
About WordPress Themes
A WordPress theme pushes the idea of a web template system one step further.
The WP theme system controls and integrates every aspect of your site’s design. It lets you add a “skin” to your site in a similar way that a website template system does but it also also gives you complete control over the management, presentation and customization aspects of all template features.
As WordPress puts it …
A WordPress Theme is a collection of files that work together to produce a graphical interface with an underlying unifying design for a weblog. These files are called template files. A Theme modifies the way the site is displayed, without modifying the underlying software. Themes may include customized template files, image files (*.jpg, *.gif), style sheets (*.css), custom Pages, as well as any necessary code files (*.php).
(source: WordPress.org)
As stated in the quote above, one of the unique and revolutionary features of a WordPress theme is that the way your web site looks to site visitors does not affect your site’s functionality and content management.
In plain English terms, what this means is that WP themes let you modify the look and feel of your site as much and as often as you like without affecting your site’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if you have set up your website for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the web site. All e-commerce features, plugin settings and product information will remain unaffected, but the site will look completely different.
This is huge! Why?
Because when your site is powered with WordPress, you no longer have to wait until your site’s web design is done. You can get your website built simply and get started with any WordPress theme you like, and completely modify the look, feel and design of your website in a few seconds, whenever you decide … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your site without needing any web design knowledge. Simply pick any WordPress theme you want, install it on your site and activate it. WordPress lets you change your web design and customize elements like headers, layout, typography and more in a few seconds …
Because WordPress is open source software, website design companies can design themes specifically for the WordPress CMS platform using the WordPress template system.
This means that loads of great WP themes can be downloaded by WP users. Themes are generally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License Definition, or they can be purchased as Premium (paid) WP themes.
The WordPress development team keeps a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of excellent WordPress themes for free …
(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)
As WordPress becomes more popular, more designers are now starting to develop themes for a wider audience of WordPress site owners.
WordPress themes range from professional-looking, to designs that are impressive and would easily cost hundreds to thousands of dollars to design. Surprisingly, most premium themes can be bought very cheaply, especially when compared to what you would have had to pay if a website designer had to develop it from scratch.
You can view several WP theme galleries containing various examples of great premium WP themes in this article:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits Of Using Themes
Here are just some of the benefits of choosing WordPress themes over choosing tools that require traditional web design:
Ready To Start Using In Minutes
Themes are very easy to install on your site. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the WordPress themes repository at WordPress.org) directly from your WP admin’s “Theme” section.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a growing online community of professional web designers who make thousands of excellent WordPress Themes available to users. And many of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent look across all the site’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your digital content. This means you can change themes as often as you need without affecting your underlying content.
- Many WordPress themes provide built-in functionality and settings that allow you to easily customize the theme’s style and design properties and create a unique look to suit your needs.
- Many WordPress themes are built using a framework that allows you to update themes to newer versions without losing any customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress lets you search, upload and install WordPress Themes automatically inside the admin panel.
- WordPress themes lets you save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on web design costs. Free WP themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are typically quite affordable.
About Responsive WP Theme Design
Many WordPress theme designers are now developing “responsive” WordPress themes.
A responsive theme enables a website to automatically resize to display smoothly over different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different devices (e.g. laptops, tablets, cell phones, etc.) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for different platforms. Users can scroll, read and display the site on most devices without having to resize anything, or requiring website owners to install additional browser elements.
Note: When purchasing WordPress themes, we strongly recommend choosing a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that the content and layout of your site works across all of your visitors’ devices, it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore probably complies with the latest standards of web design and web coding.
I hope this overview has helped you gain a better understanding of WP themes, what WP themes are, how WP themes help you save money, and how WP themes make customizing your web design easy.
To learn where to find great themes for your website or blog, go here:
***
"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum
***