Topic: Theme in Development: Preview & Feedback?

Theme in Development: Preview & Feedback?

Marcella
Participant

@marcella1981

9 years, 5 months ago

I’ve been working on this theme for some time and hopefully will be able to sell as a premium theme with support.

There’s not much content on the site right now, but the site is there for now as a live preview of the build.

There’s also not much by way of explanation in terms of features.

When the theme is complete it will be available for sale and access to support.

For now, there’s about 40% of development to go yet, however I thought it’d be cool to post here and get some feedback which could shape the next dev cycle.

http://goo.gl/8boIsm

Viewing 20 replies - 1 through 20 (of 20 total)

Henry Wright
Moderator

@henrywright

9 years, 5 months ago

Hi @marcella1981

I really like how you’re doing subtle hover effects throughout, it makes for a rich feeling when navigating around. I also like the flat design style you’ve chosen.

One thing I struggled to read certain text because it was a bit small. Perhaps make the smallest text 10% bigger by default?

Overall the theme is very unique looking, I’ve not seen a theme that looks like this. Great job so far!

Marcella
Participant

@marcella1981

9 years, 5 months ago

@henrywright

Thanks for the constructive feedback, I will certainly look at increasing the font-size. I’m using px units for measurement right now and would be good to get over to rems.

So far the members and activity components are pretty much ready for a 1.0 release but would like to get groups and sites in their also, and decide on which plugins to ship with it.

Also, could you be a bit more specific. Which particular text do you propose is increased?

Henry Wright
Moderator

@henrywright

9 years, 5 months ago

Mainly the header and footer links/text and the ‘tutorials’ dropdown. The bit where it says “Over a number of videos I will take you through the basics of setting up a solid WordPress theme with…” is big enough I think so perhaps make everything that size.

Screenshot using FireFox:

Marcella
Participant

@marcella1981

9 years, 5 months ago

Thanks for pointing that out @henrywright

Henry Wright
Moderator

@henrywright

9 years, 5 months ago

I’m using px units for measurement right now and would be good to get over to rems.

Good idea. I’m amazed at how the use of relative units drastically improves visual appearance when using large (and small) devices. Everything scales so nicely. Probably a good idea to use vector images such as SVG as well.

Marcella
Participant

@marcella1981

9 years, 5 months ago

Yeah I think so, I’ve only ever created on theme using rems and the visual gains were pretty obvious.

I don’t have much reason to use SVG on this theme right now, but maybe in the future in custom templates.

Marcella
Participant

@marcella1981

9 years, 5 months ago

I’m also publishing a video series to the site right now about WordPress theme development.

Hope get some people to signup and join in, share their own tips and tricks.

Nantre

peter-hamilton
Participant

@peter-hamilton

9 years, 5 months ago

pretty cool theme, not 100% sure about the left bar which takes so much of the pages without adding much

But pretty cool mate.

P.H.
My Buddypress Theme

Marcella
Participant

@marcella1981

9 years, 5 months ago

That’s a really cool theme you implemented.

The left bar is also a menu in my theme, it doesn’t have anything in it now though.

Marcella
Participant

@marcella1981

9 years, 5 months ago

I’m wondering if it’s still worth building this theme.

It’s performant and has support for all of the members component and activity components features right now.

Anyone here see people using this theme for personal sites etc?

Henry Wright
Moderator

@henrywright

9 years, 5 months ago

To answer that question I think you’ve just got to put it out there. Making it available on the wp.org will attract far more attention than this forum topic 🙂

Marcella
Participant

@marcella1981

9 years, 5 months ago

For a BuddyPress theme, what’s the requirements to get on wp.org?

Marcella
Participant

@marcella1981

9 years, 5 months ago

Was sorta hoping to make some coin with this theme. wp.org wont do that for me.

Henry Wright
Moderator

@henrywright

9 years, 5 months ago

You’d just submit it as you would a normal WordPress theme, but specify that it provides support for BuddyPress. See some examples:

https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/buddypress

Henry Wright
Moderator

@henrywright

9 years, 5 months ago

Was sorta hoping to make some coin with this theme. wp.org wont do that for me.

Ah I see! Yeah, in that case you’ll need a different approach to advertising it.

Marcella
Participant

@marcella1981

9 years, 5 months ago

Yeah .org aint doing it for me in terms of BuddyPress themes. Be a good thing for buddypress.org to have though.

Henry Wright
Moderator

@henrywright

9 years, 5 months ago

Yep, new BP themes when released are very much welcome in my view (that goes for both free and premium)!

Marcella
Participant

@marcella1981

9 years, 5 months ago

Themes are such a hard sell. Probably will just submit it to Theme Forest.

danbp
Participant

@danbp

9 years, 5 months ago

No matter the theme or the marketplace, first thing to take in mind is how to respect the standart.

Getting started

Marcella
Participant

@marcella1981

9 years, 5 months ago

Thanks @danbp for the link.

I’ll be sure to prep with the guidelines depending on where this goes.