This post is primarily directed at you web designers out there. Not so much the “Graphic Designers”, but the all-encompassing designers who not only come up with the initial look, but also create the guts of the website itself. Last night, after I was finished with work, I was googling around and found a video titled “Is WordPress killing web design”. Quite an interesting perspective on web design in relation to WordPress.
For me, it was a no-brainer. The answer was clear as day – “kinda”. There is never going to be an absolute answer to any question like this, but we can all definitely agree that CMS systems have definitely changed the face of the internet. As designers & implementers, there is generally an all-around feeling of being under appreciated and/or not receiving credit where credit is due. We must, however, remember that our jobs as designers are to simply build systems for people, and improve them in all ways possible for our employers.
Regardless of how much we attempt to deny it, the matter at hand is personal pride in creating something from the ground up. If you start with a graphical concept, it’s simply a matter of modifying css & code within WordPress to attain the vision. With this being true, we can see that the real problem comes down to the bells and whistles (and how fickle your client is). WordPress is great for creating a website where you know the client may want to change page content now & again and/or post blogs on occasion. I’d almost say it’s ideal for that purpose. The hurdle of the situation is when your client says something like “I want a search engine so when they click on this thing it changes this list based on what they pick, then loads this image into that box”. I am talking of course about ajax requests & database actions.
Now while it’s possible to have php support & ajax functionality work great within WordPress, you suddenly have a new dimension of complexity to the site. Are you going to spend the extra time to make the search form into a plugin with a shortcode? What if they decided they wanted to change the layout of the search form down the road? The extra difficulty presented in these situation has to do with the conveniences of modular adaptability vs native coding. In the video above, one of the best points mentioned is that sometimes it’s simpler to build an entirely custom CMS than it is to hack the hell out of wordpress. I actually tend to agree, yet with the simplicity of SEO optimization and social aggregation built in to WordPress, I can’t help feel wanting.
In my personal opinion, WordPress *can* destroy a web designer if they are in web design for the wrong reasons. If you actually use WordPress as a creative tool rather than a means to an end, it can become invaluable, but if you are after immediate gratification and/or only monetary result, you’re a schmuck.
