My report to you is on the differences between WordPress customs versus WordPress templates and themes. This can be an open debate later on which you would think is best to use However, I wanted to do a study on it as if to help answer a customer and clients questions about it when weighing the pros and cons to it all in order to know which way would be best to build a website. The reason for this study is because my boss wanted to know the differences between custom build versus templates and themes on WordPress and if they are any good to use. Therefore, I did my research and came up with a conclusion and a result by trying a few ideas for the site he wanted to have my help with. For this presentation I will show you the pros and the cons to all three areas. I’d like for you to be the judge on the content and tell me what you think of all three of these ways at the end.
Custom builds for a WordPress site.
If a customer's needs are to be met 100% a custom build could be the way to go when they are looking for a specific design and are very picky about what they want and desire to have shown on their site for personal or business needs. In other words, a custom build site is for those that have a very specific need that can not be set or accomplished by pre-built themes, or templated designs. A custom build can be very creative, original, one of a kind and useful for all sorts of creativity and resources to choose from. There are no limits to a custom build except to what you as a web designer or developer may know and understand to your available knowledge and skill level in the development or coding. A custom build site can also be very complicated to maintain and with all sorts of complex accommodations or be more sophisticated with complex features. A custom site also means that it will need frequent updates to maintain the site as necessary adjustments are needed. A custom build site can be more user and search friendly so that people know where and how to find it. The process can be hard and time consuming for some to accomplish and may turn out to be more expensive to do for both the builder and the customer or client. In the long run of things, however, you as the designer can keep it as a premade template to use for others.
Using WordPress Templates
This limits the creativity of the design to the customers and clients needs. However, it will be easier to know what the finished product or design will look like. Templates can reduce the amount of coding that is needed for development of the site and look much better too. Premade templates are the start of a cookie cutter design that you can edit and make adjustments to for the customer and clients needs. Templates can also come with its own theme in a variety of ways. Premade templates are helpful, easy to use and may ease the burdens of stress and costs to both the developer and the client. It can help improve the clarity and communication to both the designer and the client. The downside is that it takes the creative originality away and can become restrictive to what it was pre designed for. This means that the premade templates are helpful, easy to use and may ease the burdens of stress and costs to both the developer and the client. However, It can also mean that the outlook of the design may attract more attention to the audience that the client is reaching out towards but may be difficult to stand out from a crowd of other look-a-like websites.
Using WordPress Themes
WordPress themes are easy to use and cheap to buy online. Like templated designs there are a ton out there to use. Each theme comes with its own variety of layout packages to help fit with the customers and clients ideal look and feel which also means that it can come with a variety of limitations. It is common that the user can change the color, the background, the fonts and add functionality to their website fairly easily. However, it may come with some bug errors that will need to be maintained on the site.
Themes and templates can come with a word of caution. It is a bad idea to have a custom site and then try to use a template or theme on a custom built published site. What will happen is that each template can come with its own theme and thereby mess up the look and feel of the custom built site that was published. It will give you the option of keeping the written content or to delete the entire custom builds that were already in place. Thus creating a new design and accepting the theme that was uploaded to the site.
The Conclusion
When it comes to creating or developing a site for the user or an audience. The customers and clients are best met with great satisfaction based upon their personal or business needs. I have done a study by putting a question out to multiple groups on facebook about what is best in this situation. I have been told that some designers and developers like to have a mix of pre-made templates and themes and custom builds so that their clients can have the best result of a user-friendly, well developed and published site. I’d like to ask you for your feedback on which one you think is best and if you know something that you would like to add that I am missing from this subject?
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