WordPress is amazing. It caters to _so_ many people for _so_ many purposes in _so_ many contexts. There is seemingly no limit on what we can create with WordPress! On the flip side, this can be overwhelming to users who just want something simple and easy to use. Free and purchased themes have dozens of ways to customize them, which is a double-edged sword. Now site owners can customize their site in SO many ways without knowing how to code! That’s great… for some. Others experience “overchoice” (aka “choice overload”) that overwhelms, and can lead to “cognitive dissonance” or mental discomfort.
I don’t know about you, but I have plenty of clients that I’ve created WordPress powered websites for that are self-declared “not very tech-savvy”, or very busy–definitely too busy to have to learn something new, or have a high turnover rate of employees/volunteers/interns/etc–with varying levels of technical abilities and/or comfort with the web–that will be managing the site. Most of these clients fit into the latter scenario and simply become frustrated with their website, or abandon it altogether.
Being both a UX designer and a front-end developer, I decided to take this UX challenge into my own hands. With WordPress being open source–as well as the WordPress community being so open and helpful–we have the ability to really truly customize a user’s experience for visitors… but ALSO for the user experience for site owners & writers. Want to know how I do this? Well… I guess you’ll have to attend this talk to find out!