Blog Exercises: Ingredients of a Well-Designed Site

I was asked by a student in my WordPress class recently what defined a “professional blog,” one that met all the criteria for a well-designed, well-formed site that met web standards. What a marvelous question! We brainstormed all the elements that make up a web standard site, and mixed in personal preferences of the students […]

Research on the WordPress, Web Development, and Web Design Job Market

In 2012 and 2013, I did extensive research for the grant program to develop and rewrite the Web Developer degree program at Clark College. This research included an analysis of current and future job opportunities for students graduating with that degree with a solid understanding of WordPress. Now that the program has completed its first […]

Blog Exercises: When Your Site Design Owns You

Yesterday a long-time client called me up in tears saying, “I can’t do this any more. My site design owns me, I don’t own it. It’s too confusing. It’s too much work!” Several years ago, she’d chosen a Magazine-style WordPress Theme. The structure was based upon the standard magazine-style, sticky posts for the slider/carousel at […]

How Much Do You Charge for Web Dev/Design Services?

As part of an ongoing annual survey for the social media industry, Mark Collier offers this year’s “How Much Does Social Media Cost Companies in 2012?” report on our industry. This is a significant survey and mostly matches the ones coming out of the WordPress 2011 State of the Word survey from self-employed respondents, WooTheme’s […]

Web Design for God’s Audience: Learning from Church Web Development

Part of my joy in being an advocate for WordPress is showcasing how WordPress is used around the world. In a fascinating discussion with Darren Hoyt, Interviews with Church Designers looks at web design and WordPress blogs from a unique perspective: Christian churches, specifically American Christian churches. Like me, Darren admits he didn’t understand the […]

Designing WordPress Themes For the Slowing Web

Jonathan Bailey of the Blog Herald wrote about Surfing the Slow Web, a summary of his recent experience trying to connect to the Internet as an evacuee from Hurricane Gustav. While most web designers are pushing the limits of heavy handed design towards high bandwidth, the world still doesn’t work that fast or wide. According […]

Stripped Down Naked to Honor Web Designers and Developers

In honor of April 9, 2008, as CSS Naked Day, my blog is going naked. I discussed this a few days ago with details on how to strip naked your blog if you would like to join in the celebrations. By going naked, my blog stands with thousands of others who recognize and honor the […]

Sandbox Design Competition Winners

This is a guest post from engtech of Internet Duct Tape. As a follow up to my post last Thursday, the Sandbox Design competition has completed and all the designs are available for download in one file (7 MB) or can be viewed on the live preview site. Congratulations to the winners! SandPress Moo Point […]

Sandbox Theme for WordPress Design Competition

This is a guest post from engtech of Internet Duct Tape. The Sandbox WordPress Design Competition has come to a close after two months. It was a resounding success. Live previews of the 46 new Sandbox designs will be available on August 5th, 2007. Over 31 people who participated in the competition. Some designers were […]

Could It Be? Your Blog Design Really Matters?

In Does Your Blog Design Matter?, Instigator Blog’s Ben Yoskovitz asks you if your blog design is as important to you as it should be: The beauty of blogging is that you can always change things, experiment and see what works. This holds true for copywriting, social networking and your blog design. You might start […]

Weekly Digest: Guest Blogging on Problogger, Prejudice, WordPress News and Contests, Blog Design, and Special Invitation to a Party

The Weekly Digest from Lorelle on WordPress this week features guest blogging on Problogger, some great feedback on some posts I’ve written recently, more wonderful reviews and recommendations of my new book (they are going fast – get your order in now!), and getting ready for WordCamp next month! Don’t forget, you can subscribe to […]

Is Your Blog Design Holding You Back?

In a guest post on ProBlogger, Wendy Piersall from eMoms at Home wrote Is Your Blog Template Holding You Back? In the first few months of blogging, there was SO much to learn. I figured that SEO was one of those battles I would tackle once I was “more established”. But after 9 months or […]

Should You Design Your Own Blog?

A while ago, a popular blogger, asked me to review his blog design for improvements. Just so you know, I do this for a living, and my review isn’t cheap. 😉 I gave him my review, pointing out the flaws, misalignments between identity and design, and improvements that would not just help his page ranking […]

Blogging Tips Book: Best Blog Design Elements

The following excerpt is from Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging by Lorelle on WordPress. The ideal blog design is one that: Downloads in less than 10 seconds. Never requires scrolling left or right or resizing the window. Limits up and down scrolling. Contains easy to find navigation. Features design elements in […]

Tips From Top Web Designers

Smashing Magazines’ 35 Designers x 5 Questions takes an amazing behind-the-scenes look at answering the most common issues and decisions facing web designers. The five questions were: 1 aspect of design you give the highest priority to. 1 most useful CSS-technique you use very often. 1 font you use in your projects very often. 1 […]