132 PART II • Designing and Developing WordPress Themes
OUTLINING THE THEME
The first thing you should do when you’re starting a new WordPress project is consider what
functionality you need from the theme. Simple blog designs usually aren’t very complicated —
you just start from the top and go from there — but if you want to build a newspaper-like site
using WordPress, you will have to consider other factors. One of the most obvious concerns is how
to make the site look customized because although we all love WordPress, one of the reasons for
developing your own themes is to make your site look the way you want, rather than just rely
on the default theme.Before starting to design and code a site, you need to figure out a few basics, outlined in the
following list:◾ The main website layout: What sections, pages, and major elements do you need to make
room for, and how will you populate these with content from WordPress? This usually
involves planning multiple loops and determining what template files are needed where.
◾ Sorting the content: This is usually all about what categories to choose and which parts of
the site are static enough to be Pages. Also, will there be a need for public tagging? If not,
you can use tagging for customizing post designs and similar tasks without having to
think of public tag archives.
◾ The small stuff: Will you need dynamic elements in this site, where you can drop poll
widgets and special promotions? These areas should probably be widgetized.
◾ Commenting: Most, but not all, modern websites with editorial content have comment-
ing functionality, so you need to decide whether to incorporate this into your project.
◾ Special functionality: Is there anything you need that WordPress can’t do out of the box?
If so, you need to figure out if there is a plugin that can help (or develop your own) or
perhaps even find an external service to integrate into the site.Knowing what you want to pull off is essential to outlining the perfect theme for a more
advanced project. When you have worked through these items, you can start mocking up,
doing paper sketches, playing around with code snippets, and whatever else is in your
workflow when creating fabulous websites.I’ve been developing WordPress sites on a professional basis since version 1.5, and I’ve been a
user since before that. My sites range from simple blogs to magazines to entirely different
functions. Later in this book, you’ll learn how to create completely different things using
WordPress, showing that it can be a framework as well as a CMS, but for now, all you need to
know is that I’m constantly trying to push it to do new things.When I start up a new project, I always consider what it needs to do and how I can meet those
needs: What types of content will be presented, and how will it be displayed to give the user
the best possible experience? The following three subsections outline my top three tips for
doing this. This approach likely won’t fit everyone or every project, but it will help you think
through your own approach.