This is the 16th episode of our "Thinking the Unthinkable" series and I think we have come up with our catchiest title ever... “Is browser interoperability a threat to page building?" - truly inspirational!
Remember the good old days when no two browsers renders anything in the same way? You don't? You're lucky!
It used to be the case that all of the browsers went their own way. The result was a spaghetti of code, with little variations for each of the browsers.
This was a waste of our time, but it also held back the innovation with HTML and particularly CSS, for a decade or more.
Thankfully though, that's behind us, and the browser vendors seems to be speaking the same language. This means that in the future the browsers will do so much more, with far less complexity.
How much of a threat are browsers to Page Builders? Find out today on the podcast…
So you've been building websites for a while now and you've got really good at it. You don't really touch the code, but that's okay, because the tool that you're using promised that you would never have to. Erm... how's that working out in reality? I'm guessing that if this question resonates with you, you'll be interested in the podcast today. Is it possible to have tools which really allow you to create good, working websites with none, zero, nada, ziltch, no code at all? We talk about whether true no code is possible, if it's something to be desired and the reliance you develop for a specific tool. Oh, and of course there's AI coming for your job as well! If you're creating WordPress websites with the assistance of tools, this podcast is for you.
It's the 7th in our “Thinking the Unthinkable” series where we attempt to rationalise controversial views on WordPress and web design? Today’s topic is… Designing in the browser is for amateurs. David thought this topic was about whether to use design software rather than jump in with a page builder or start amending a template. Nathan thought it was about how design tools are increasingly online and work in the browser leaving us not having to install software for our computer operating systems. We will cover both because more recently graphical tools that work in the browser are also capable of spitting out HTML code too. Please feel free to leave us a comment at the bottom of the post!
So, there's no denying that WordPress Page Builders have taken the community by storm over the last decade. Whether you use them or not, they're popular, and dare I say it, used on more WordPress sites than site not using a Page Builder? But, as the title of this episode says, are they the scourge of the internet? We chat about this topic from a whole variety of different angles. Do they typically add bloat to the HTML that we output? Do they offer clients a poor, and inconsistent, experience? Are they difficult to scale up for larger projects? Do they keep up with the technologies that modern browsers are introducing? Do they devalue our profession? There's a lot there, right? And there's a lot more in the podcast to get your teeth into. Check it out.
With all these no code options, do you find your clients are becoming experts and no longer needing you? We try (and fail) to talk about this today and end up going on about JAMStack instead! It's a serious point though. Page Builders and Gutenberg have opened up the website creation process to a whole new audience, and it brings into question what we do as WordPress web developers / builders that make us worthwhile. What can you say to the client to make you seem like value for money in a time when 'affordability' is more important than ever, and when many of the tasks that used to be 'out of scope' for non-technical users, is not possible in an easy-to-use interface? Go listen...
So if you've kept up with the latest developments in WordPress then you'll have heard the words / phrases 'Gutenberg', 'FSE', 'Block Themes', 'Blocks' and a lot more. You'll also likely have heard of our guest on the podcast today, Rich Tabor. He's been in the WordPress space for many years working in the theme space, but now he's shifted over to all the 'new things', and is making waves. He's got some monumental projects on the go (see the links on the WP Builds post for this episode), and is on the podcast today to talk about where WordPress is at right now and what he's hoping for in the future. It's a lovely interview with a very thoughtful guest, and if you're trying out the 'new WordPress things', or are just looking for a reason why you should, then this episode is for you!
On the podcast today we have Raitis Sevelis from Visual Composer, and he's here today to talk about the how you should use your WordPress page builder with pride and explain to your clients the many benefits that it brings to your workflow. There was a time when page builders first came around that they were somewhat spurned in the community. Not by all, and not for long. They were doing things in a new way, and sometimes new hurts. Gone were many of the technical barriers to creating sites. No more need to be wrangling template files and inserting shortcodes here there and everywhere. Page builders allowed a whole new audience to come to WordPress and build site for themselves as well as for their clients. Raitis thinks that sometimes we hide our page builder skills a little; assume that clients will think that less of us for using them. He has the opinion that we ought to be talking about how we use them more with our clients, and explaining how their use us making websites faster, cheaper and more easy for non-technical users to maintain and amend.
There are so many tools that you open up each day to do your job as a WordPress website builder or developer. In fact, I'd go as far as say that if you actually counted up the tools that you use each month, it's going to be way more that you think. There's graphics to create, template to conjure up, themes and plugins to discover and implement, emails to send, ways of getting client content... Honestly, the list just goes on and on. Inspired by suggestions from the WP Builds Facebook Group, we decided to put together a podcast highlighting some of the resources you use. There's some real gems in here... honestly, so go check out the podcast today to find out more...
This is the WordPress.org page builders i.e. Beaver Builder, Elementor, Divi, Oxygen, Brizy etc, against Wix, Weebly, Squarespace etc. In this debate we're talking about building a standard brochure sites that may need a blog or a shopping cart. So it's not about building out a complex, bespoke site that has masses of unique features. It's about something that's simple and can be done with the native features in the Page Builders. We debate the pros of using both types of page builders and learn some truths along the way...
This weeks WordPress news - Covering The Week Commencing 2nd March 2020
Times have changed... It used to be that creating websites was really tedious. It took hours to get anything to go where you wanted it. Along came WordPress themes and life got a little easier, well sometimes, and then we got Page Builders with their rows and modules. Now you can get templates for just about anything and can have sites built in a matter of hours, but should we do it this way? Should we be using other people's templates or should we be doing all this from the group up? Perhaps there is a middle way? Tweaking what you find so that the internet does not all look the same! Join us to find out what we think...
Today we learn about how how to make your WordPress website load as fast as possible. On the face of it, this is easy to do, but there's quite a lot going on when a website loads, and so there are many steps that you need to take a look at if you want to squeeze every ounce of speed out of it. Jan Koch talks us through the work that he's done trying to do all of that. There's likely some new content in here even if you're a seasoned optimiser, so stay tuned and I hope that you enjoy this episode.
