I’m a graphic designer (as you can hopefully tell!) and after working under the name Dot Design for over 2 years I felt I needed to change my approach to my website. Most graphic design agency websites are basically online portfolios with a few words about projects undertaken, as was mine before this new site.
So it was time for a change and I currently can’t speak too highly about WordPress, it’s a publishing platform that has enabled me to put together a site that can be quickly updated and also it allows me to keep a design blog. Traditionally Wordpress is blogging software but more and more people are using it because of its content management system.
After looking at several websites that use WordPress I realised that I wanted to make this site more of a conversation about my work, graphic design in general and related subjects. I wanted it to be more interactive, to ask questions and for people to leave their comments, rather than just a design portfolio site. One website that inspired my move from a static design portfolio to a WordPress powered version was David Airey’s. David uses his site almost as a forum for design discussion and conversation as well as a showcase of work and this works very well.
So, WordPress enables people of limited to no website knowledge to upload to, write and edit their site easily and simply, which leads me to a question. Are website developers worried about WordPress? Surely if people can put together a site so easily using this platform then is it taking work away from website developers? Or is it just a new area in which they can work, another string to their bow?
There are now many WordPress theme designers, one who is highly respected is Brian Gardener his site features a selection of themes that can be used to style WordPress sites and add functionality. You can also add different functionality to your WP site by using the hundreds of plugins available. The fact that WP is FREE and is so easy to use and add to etc, all suggests a higher uptake of WordPress based sites and a growing trend for this platform.
So what do you think? Is WordPress damaging your website development business because people can now add content and run a site themselves, or does it mean you can add WordPress development skills and services to your portfolio?
I’d be interested to know your thoughts and also the experiences of those already using the WordPress platform.
14 Comments
Wordpress is the best blogging software around no question.
It’s also really good as a CMS for certain types of sites but there is no way it can ever be suitable for all sites.
I’m a web designer and most of my clients don’t even know what Wordpress is and it would not suit most of their needs anyway.
I think the rise of software like Wordpress as well as being able to easily create pages and profiles on apps like Facebook is a different market. I don’t believe the majority of these users would ever have hired a web designer anyway. Businesses still will.
I think you make a good point about Wordpress skills being valuable though, I can imagine people requesting it in the next few years.
Wordpress is really good for Blogs and brochure sites that need a simple CMS, although in that case, maybe something custom built that you can reuse for several projects is the way to go. If you need a serious CMS to handle a lot of content and many users, and offers you scalability, and a lot of customization and flexibility then Drupal is probably the best option.
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Shaun, like you say I think that WordPress is quite an unknown platform but as it continues to grow this will change and the skills will become in great demand, thanks for your thoughts also.
Nicolas, I do think WordPress has it limitations like you say, I will look into Drupal as its new to me, thanks for your thoughts also.
I will be getting my comments CSS sorted out soon, so this doesn’t look like one big article and your comments standout as they should!
Cheers Gareth - Dot Design
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These are the same thoughts I had over a year ago when I first implemented my blog.
Once I realised how easy to update and successful the blog was in terms of site traffic, I re-designed the site to pare down the rest of the content so the bulk of the site content was on the blog.
I see many business websites doing this also and for a brochure website that doesn’t need reach features offered by Drupal, Wordpress (which is what I use also) is excellent.
WordPress is certainly nice to use, but it’s not y favourite software to skin: the nasty mixture of logic and structure really puts me off. Our content management system, Toucan CMS, is good in that respect - it allows ’skins’ to be separate (as far as possible) from the logic which inserts the content in to the page. For example, inserting the page title is just a matter of inserting {pagetitle} into the page. Mind you, I would say that. :D
I did use to love WordPress, though - the backend was beautifully simple and easy to use, but the thought of skinning it again puts shivers down my spine!
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Toucan CMS is our inhouse CMS, so you probably won’t get to use it unless it’s pirated, or you work for us ;) I’m not particularly code-minded either - luckily, I have people who are!
Sorry for any confusion.
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All the best, Gareth
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Good idea to move over to a blog format. I too am a designer, and I too recently moved from a flash based portfolio (that no one ever visited), to a blog with a portfolio, that while not heavily trafficked, still receives over 10 times the amount of hits I used to receive.
Best of luck to you with your blogging and design work.
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Nice Article
Useful blog. good luck.
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Thank you for the other comments!
Gareth