Making first WordPress theme – advice please

  • Hi guys,

    I’ve designed WordPress themes in the past for clients. Whilst I have some time on my hands, I want to release a theme to the public for free.

    I’d like some advice though as this is my first theme I’ll be releasing.

    What do users expect from a theme? Are there any add-ons I should include in the theme? Should I just integrate the theme into WordPress or do users expect enhancements to the code (I feel the SEO could be better)?

    Presently the design I am using will require font replacement techniques. Should this be by default or some code that the user can activate only if they wish?

    Appreciate any advice.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • Hi,
    I admire you for giving back to the community!

    IMHO, if what I’m reading around this forum recently is any indication, most people looking for themes are novice users, and just want something that will work with minimal fuss. That would mean not a whole lot of deviation from normally-structured pages. To me a theme is more for the look, and less for fancy functionality, which a user can add with plugins and such.

    Though better SEO would be great, I imagine your typical user will just install All-In-One-SEO anyway.

    Themes that require complex Javascript libraries will be more likely to conflict with plugins, so that’s a consideration. You will hear it if people have trouble with their fave plugins that use JQuery, Mootools, stuff like that.

    As long as your theme is widget-ready, it will be easy for someone to customize sidebars, for instance. You could just include some of the more obvious choices for those who don’t use the widgets, such as Recent Comments, Categories, Archives, and Links.

    I have finally began making sites with font replacement techniques myself, and for me, if I’ve covered True Type and also the silly EOD files that IE uses, I consider myself good to go. There would be backlash, I suppose, if no IE support.

    Thanks, Dave

    commenting from the frequent topics here, that i am aware of, i would like to see in a theme:
    header customization (upload) from within the dashboard –
    a set of page templates with/without sidebars, photo page, image slider … –
    if it has magazine style multi post areas on the front page, pagination tested and working –
    neccessary documentation for any features include –
    horizontal (drop-down) menues for pages and/or categories –
    translation ready –
    ad ready (not really my first priority, but for many users this seems important)

    ps: font replacement yes, if it improves the appearance, installed as default with opt-out

    Thread Starter noospheric

    (@noospheric)

    There’s plenty to think about there.

    I think for the minute I am just going to concentrate on minimal fuss, get some people using it (I’m going to set up my own blog and use it myself too), and hopefully get some good feedback about how it can be improved.

    Thanks for the feedback.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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