Web Design Company, Hampshire UK

The guv’nor has decided that our website would be better served being based on wordpress than it’s current Joomla installation. This has meant searching through the vast number of designers that we wished to work with. We finally settled on a design which we feel really brings something new to our site.

The sheer volume of designs available for wordpress means that you are blessed as a developer. In other words, you pay a very small amount of money for a fantastic design that incorperates functionality with beauty.

When changing your template with WordPress it is very important that you are flexible with your approach. Each design and therefore template has it’s own ways of accessing the full potential. Usually there will be examples of just what the template can do that are included as pages within the navigation. If not just checkout the demo.

Here is the new site

You can see how we have used the the built-in functionality to make the site stand out. Take a look at the ‘Latest from our Blog’ section at the bottom of the ‘home page’. The simple combination of content with margins and an image, makes the site look professional and different.

On this page here

This is a page I am not so happy with.

Oh dear!

We had an idea to include vector portraits of ourselves as it seems to be the ‘in’ thing. Sadly I have ended up looking like I am made of rubber. Not so good.

Often, when making a website, it is best to use design influences that exist all around you rather than trying to re-invent the wheel. Over the last year, I have been introduced to many fantastic resources which will help you do just that.

You can also use these resources to see what designers are making now. Letting you know what up-to-date techniques to use and ensuring you are not left behind. I feel that sometimes, the comments that respond to the articles are just as important as the articles themselves, as they may point out shortfalls and mistakes in the article and save you lots of time.

My out and out favourites have t0 be:

tutsplus.com – They have number of sites specialising in web design and development. I especially like PSDTUTS and NETTUTS

csszengarden.com – To see just what can be done with design skill and CSS knowledge, check this out.

smashingmagazine.com – They are focused on design and web-development. Choosing to deliver useful information on the latest trends etc.

It is very important to not just stick to the same resources all of the time. Try finding the latest lists that other designers have put together, detailing their favourite content. A quick search of “most beautiful websites” resulted in finding this

sitesketch101.com/beautiful-websites

My old tutor once told me, “if it is in nature, it will go”. I think you can see that from the image above.

Joomla is a fantastic framework. It allows the user the flexibility to make use of and manipulate technologies which would otherwise take many months if not years to develop. The reason behind this is that it is open source.

Whilst using Joomla I have come across this nugget of information which allows greater adaptability whilst designing Joomla sites. Sometimes, Joomla extensions are only available as modules, this trick will enable you to use a module in a content position.

Step 1..

Navigate to the module menu and open the module that you would like to display. Click on the ‘position’ textbox and delete the text, now add in your position name, something like ‘mypos’ for example. Make it something memorable. Now save the module. You will now have created a new position name for your module.

Step 2..

Open the article that you would like to display the module in and paste this {loadposition mypos}. This is all you have to write, no other text is necessary. Need any help with this, please let me know.