PLUGINS FOR DESIGNERS

by codyL

Saturday, January 29, 2011

I work as a web strategist/designer/internet marketing expert for

businesses. I use WordPress primarily for my CMS of choice.

This is a talk about Plugins for Designers.

INTRODUCING

My name is codyL.

codyL.com

Saturday, January 29, 2011

DESIGNING WITH WORDPRESS

What are the reasons we design for WordPress?

Focus on making WordPress !t your design.

Leverage Plugins effectively for site content and design

enhancement

KEEP IT SIMPLE & STRAIGHT-FORWARD!

Some of the Topics I’d like to touch on:

codyL.com

Saturday, January 29, 2011

PLUG-INS TO BE COVERED

Contact Form 7

Lightbox 2

Facebook Comments for WordPress

WP e-Commerce Plugin

Tweet Meme Re-Tweet Button

Some of the Plug-ins we will cover will be:

codyL.com

Saturday, January 29, 2011

WHY I DESIGN FOR WORDPRESS

Simplest answer: Flexibility.

Designing for WordPress goes hand in hand with using Plugins that

help enhance the ability of your content and user-experience.

codyL.com

Saturday, January 29, 2011

MAKE WORDPRESS FIT YOUR DESIGN

Why does every site have to look just like every other

WordPress free theme?

Design your website for it’s most effective impact while pushing

the strength of WordPress and it’s Plugins.

codyL.com

Saturday, January 29, 2011

LEVERAGE PLUG-INS

Use Plugins to enhance user-experience.

Design your website with Plugin functionality in mind by

knowing well which Plugins work best for your site’s content and

maximum effect.

codyL.com

Saturday, January 29, 2011

COVERING PLUGINS

Now onto Plugins.

We will cover some interesting Plugins that will be simple to

implement and will enhance user-experience.

So let’s take a look at a few design case studies and look at Plugins

in that environment.

codyL.com

Saturday, January 29, 2011

DESIGN CASE STUDY

GUSTOCOMPLETE.COM

Saturday, January 29, 2011

PLUGIN USED:

Contact Form 7

METHOD FOR ENHANCEMENT:

Custom CSS to match design style

OUTCOME:

Correctly styled contact form to work within design framework to establish consistent user-experience.

ESTIMATE FORM

codyL.com

Saturday, January 29, 2011

DESIGN CASE STUDY

THOMPSONFUNERALCHAPEL.COM

Saturday, January 29, 2011

PLUGIN USED:

Lightbox 2

METHOD:

Easy integration to enhance image viewing.

OUTCOME:

Ready to use out of the box formatting allows this Plugin to work with most designs easily.

WEBSITE GALLERY

codyL.com

Saturday, January 29, 2011

DESIGN CASE STUDY

CROSSFITFURY.COM

Saturday, January 29, 2011

PLUGIN USED:

Facebook Comments for WordPress

METHOD:

Integrating with care into company’s current Facebook page.

OUTCOME:

More user interaction and easier comment posting for community members.

ARTICLE COMMENTS

codyL.com

Saturday, January 29, 2011

DESIGN CASE STUDY

WALTSBBQ.COM

Saturday, January 29, 2011

PLUGIN USED:

WP e-Commerce Plugin

METHOD:

Shopping Cart for websites with the need to sell product online.

OUTCOME:

Easy to use and easy to format Plugin that displays products clearly and works within current CSS model.

SHOPPING CART

codyL.com

Saturday, January 29, 2011

DESIGN CASE STUDY

VISTA-WEALTH.COM

Saturday, January 29, 2011

PLUGIN USED:

Tweet Meme Re-Tweet Button

METHOD:

Using CSS to place social icon in place of each article.

OUTCOME:

Placing an inline social network share bar to easily re-distribute content.

RE-TWEETING ARTICLES

codyL.com

Saturday, January 29, 2011

CONCLUSION

Plugins should be used to enhance and not overcomplicate.

If you can use WordPress to !t your design and use plugins to help

enhance content and user experience. Do not over complicate it!

Keep it simple and you’ll be happy.

Props to @andrewryno for his help on development.

codyL.com

Saturday, January 29, 2011