jasonhowmans

Hey Fledgling, Sounds like an interesting project! I've got quite a bit of experience with pushing the boundaries with wordpress so I'll have a go at answering some of your Q's... 1. Can I build a page like this just using templates or do I need to use wp Multisite? There certainly should be no need for multi-site functionality from what you said... There are plugins that allow you to style different posts differently etc. But I'd imaging you want something more diverse than that. What i would do personally is pull out the content using raw php, and just use wordpress for the backend stuff. A lot of people are starting to do this with more functional sites like this one due to the limitations with using the wordpress 'loop'. 2. How do I restrict the visibility of such a page to other users? Again this might mean some bespoke php & mysql code. I've never came across any plugins that do this type of thing, but from the amount out there, i'll be surprised if no one has built anything like this before. 3. Obviously, I see that all users can create posts within wordpress and these can be password protected, but I want it to look like a page on my website and not the standard wordpress "add new post" page. Are there plugins available to customise the layout or will I need to change the templates? Check this out: http://bit.ly/MkoQD... You've certainly got a lot of work ahead of you my friend! But from what I've done in the past this isn't massively difficult depending on how different you want it to look. 4. Also, as I intend to have lots of users creating their own personal blogs (in addition to other static pages and a general comments blog for everyone) is Multisite the best thing, or Buddypress, or should I just crack on with standard wp? I still think a custom front-end will benefit you a massive amount. The amount of functionality you're looking for probably can be achieved using only plugins. But in the end you will be left with an extremely bloated platform. And with this being a community website, speed and load times are arguably more important than anything else (read this for more info about why load times are so important: http://bit.ly/cChncY). As I said this is a really bespoke project by the sound of things, so don't be afraid to get your hands dirty with front end code. And I think despite the complexity of the project, wordpress is still a damn good choice for a cms (google "wordpress cms", the plugin might be useful to you). Enjoy! Jase PS. I've +1'd you for your bravery with taking on a project like this, I wish you luck!

Yeah that would be really cool... Maybe look into making it more like a wizard than just a series of options? A step-based experience might be less confusing and make for a nicer experience. I have a jquery obsession, so let me know if you want a hand with anything you get stuck with! Jase

Nice little tool there mate! From using it, I do have a feature suggestion -- it would be great for the button to update when a setting is changed rather than having to press a generate button. I know this probably sounds picky but i've used these generators before and you learn to expect some kind of feedback every time you change an attribute. Another nice feature might be to grey out or disable the generate button until a setting has been changed, then brighten the button back up to signal it needs to be pressed. I'll be checking back on this in the future, nice work!

Hi Jones, A nice looking website! I can't imagine you're not converting because of any big design issues, and I'm guessing it can be down to a couple of small things: 1. Your call to action methods are limited and out of the way This is a big deal - people want to use the least amount of energy to get in touch with you. So it won't hurt putting an email link, or even a link to your contact page nice and big on the homepage. You'll be surprised at how much of a difference it makes just adding a button saying "talk to us" in a visible location on your homepage. Get into your customers shoes on this one, if they cant find an effortless method of contact within a few seconds, then the back button will mean a lot less effort on their part! 2. Who are you targeting? This isn't as likely but is as important as the last point. If you're targeting the wrong group of users then although they might pay a visit to your website, they might not stick around and pursue their visit any further. If you use website analytics, pay close attention to the 'Bounce Rate' and the amount of time people spend on your website. If the amount of time they spend there is low, the odds are you could be targeting the wrong group of customers. It's obvious a lot of work has gone into the website from a visitors point of view, and it certainly looks professional! Good luck with getting conversions. And bear in mind if the website is relatively new, anomalies do happen and can work themselves out . Cheers Jason

Very original design there mate! One issue I'm seeing is on the Music page - the left side bar appears really busy at first glance, and it takes a couple of seconds to make any sense of whats going on with the music players etc. I think if you have a play with the spacing on there a bit it will look great. As this post is more about design I won't go into the code side of things, but from a users point of view it looks like it will do it's job well! Cheers Jase

Hows it going Tingo, From a design point of view there arent really any big problems with the design. There is something much bigger concerning me about this website, it's something which I am very disappointed the people who commented before me didnt mention... It isn't very clear what the website is for!! This should slap the user in the face from the second they land on the page, even if it means putting "We make templates and extensions" in ginormous copy on your front page. From a strategic standpoint this is arguably more important than the design its self -- I promise you, re-think your homepage copy and you will sell more templates! But back onto the design, I think swiped who commented above me has a good point about merging those two 'sidebars' into one. The design does feel a bit squished at the moment, and giving the content area some breathing space might help the design move forward. Good luck with it mate! Jase

Hey Joseph, Overall I'm liking it! There's a good sense of content structure and i think you've got the colouring down. One thing I will point out is something I used to be guilty of myself, and that's the lack of padding/spacing on certain elements. An example being the top call to action bar, and the main body text could use a bit of attention in terms of line-height. Give those small details a bit of attention and this design will be a winner!

Hi ayoungh, I would recommend taking a look at 960 grid system (960.gs) or blueprint (www.blueprintcss.org). These are both css frameworks and allow for lighter, more stable html&css layouts. From your post, I think these are as close as you'll come to pre-coded html templates. Another good idea is to use 'snippets' of code (link) to store reusable blocks of html. Good Luck! Jase