Tumblelogs are a popular form of blogging, whether they take the traditional minimalistic form or not. When the amount of information is available the way it is online via blogs, strong and simple messages are all the more valuable. The popularity of Jason Kottke’s kottke.org and John Gruber’s Daring Fireball are two examples of this trend in action, despite the fact that their sites don’t fit the new accepted tumblelog design format.
Archive for the WordPress Theme Reviews Category
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This morning I received a notice from Vladimir Prelovac that he has just released his newest theme which he is calling Amazing Grace. Since he was nice enough to send me a note about it, I thought I could be nice enough to review it.
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When I first saw New Yorker I thought it was messy. After playing with it for a little bit, I don’t think that. I think there is some cool stuff going on. And it’s messy.
About the Designer/Creator
Score at a Glance
- Validation – 1/5
- Design – 3/5
- Flexibility – 2/5
- Usefulness – 2/5
The designer only identifies herself as miloIIIVII on her site, as well a professional graphic designer and web designer. Based in Munich, milo created this theme at least partly due to the rage over WordPress magazine themes as of late. So, one can’t help but be reminded of some of the recent giants in magazine themes when turning to this one. It doesn’t quite hold up to the competition, but there are some things worth mentioning. After all, you can pull something valuable out of almost any WordPress theme.
Validation is Hurtin’
Both CSS and XHTML checks came back pretty bad for this one, with more than 30 errors for each. Ouch.
Cascading Style Sheets
There aren’t any comments in the styles. That can be frustrating, especially when there are single lettered class names (as there are in this theme).
Markup
There was some bad technique in the markup, such as a
smalltag wrapping image. This is an example of an inline tag wrapping a block level element, which is bad.I also found some
divs called things like alignleft and alignright, which is poor practice. The classes should have names which denote thediv’s purpose and not the style of thediv. This is a dangerous combination of style and structure, which could be a nightmare for changing it up in the future.Template Files
This theme has all the files it should have, including a couple options for sidebars.
I Don’t Care for the Design
I just can’t stand that font. Wow I hate it.
There are definitely parts of this design that make me cringe. One of the big ones for me is pictured to the right, and that is the font used in a few different places throughout the theme: to denote the Featured post and head up the section for Flickr photos. But, like the caption say: I hate it.
I don’t want to get in the habit right away of pointing out everything I dislike about a theme, so I’ll move on to something I like. I like that milo tried something new with the menu. The menu drops down to a submenu of sorts when an item is clicked. (By the way, see the demo) The effect does work in Firefox and in Internet Explorer 6, although it breaks in 7. Interesting, since I always have more problems with 6 than I do 7.
The Favicon!
I almost forgot. The theme includes an animated GIF which is really flashy. I would suggest getting rid of it immediately (
favicon.gif) if you do plan on using this one.Work to Get it Customized
Javascript drives this dynamic box in the sidebar.
There isn&rsqou;t a whole lot that works out-of-the-box on this one. In fact there’s a long list of things to customize both on the theme’s page and in the documentation (although I do hand it to milo for having some sweet documentation). I don’t think I would ever want to go through and customize everything the way I would need to with this theme. There are lots of places that call individual lists from different categories, so the user has to go into the code and adjust the number to each one they want. This is probably too involved for the average user.
Oh, and I think it’s kind of funny that the designer’s Flickr photos are displayed by default, and you have to change the id number to make yours display. I wonder how many people will roll with her photos on their site before they realize they need to change it!
For these reasons I would say the potential utility for NewYorker isn’t high. I can’t see it being modified as heavily as some other magazine themes, mainly because there seems to be a steep curve to customizing things. This and the validation issues make me put this theme lower on the magazine theme list. But hey, I can’t be the only one with the opinion, right? Anyone else with feedback?
What do you think of this theme? And, if you use it, will you link it up so we can show off some users of this one?
Links for NewYorker
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Since I’ve decided to start reviewing a WordPress theme every day (rather, start doing it again) I find it necessary to break down my model and describe the criteria by which these themes will be “graded”. Here we go.
So you know…
Like the above says, there will now be a WordPress theme review every day. Keep an eye on them by subscribing or by watching the WordPress Theme Reviews category.
Five Star System
Each category carries the potential for a score of “5”. The scores go as follows, not surprisingly:
- 5 – Excellent
- 4 – Not bad
- 3 – Eh
- 2 – Pretty bad
- 1 – Really poor
Grading Scale
Validation
As I’ve said before, valid markup is essential to a solid website, no matter whether it is a fortune 500 company’s page or a blog. In this case, obviously, we are dealing with blogs. And each one will be graded on how valid their markup is.
The W3C validation systems will be used (for CSS, XHTML, as well as its various usability tests) and can be a good early indication of the quality of a theme. However, this isnn’t the only way it will be graded on its validity. I will also pay attention to things like messy markup and lots of nested
divs, inline styles and the mixing of presentation with content. Oh, and I hope it goes without saying that each theme that is graded well on validation better be usingdivs and nottables.Design
Design is a tougher one to call. Obviously it is a bit subjective, but I will do my best to judge based on contemporary methods as well as popular trends (and what is old, tired, and outdated). Of course there will always be those who disagree with me, but then again comments are always welcome.
Flexibility
Themes will also be graded on their flexibility. This means a couple of things. First of all, can a theme stand it when I fill it full of content that isn’t like what is on the example site? In other words, can I use a number of sidebar widgets or only the ones designated? Is it easy to customize? Are there so many hacks I can’t navigate the code? Etc…
In order to rank high under flexibility, a theme must have a minimum number of theme files, such as
index.php,single.php,header.php, etc. It will also be great to see things likeauthor.phpandcategory.phptoo.Flexibility also has to do with different WordPress compatibilities (2.2/2.3, WPMU, etc).
Something to Build On
If this post seems a little sparse, that is a good thing. I want to be able to come back to this and update it, improve it, and perfect it so that theme reviews get better and better. I will be linking back to these explanations from each theme review, so please jump in and suggest anything that might make things clearer for the author/user/reader. Thanks!
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Two themes have been submitted recently, and I’m finally taking the time to get them up here. These are both great, powerful themes (otherwise I wouldn’t be posting about them).
myJournal Hypereal
Hypereal is running on top of the popular Sandbox, a theme for theme designers. Basically this means that this packs even more punch (for those that can use it) than the standard WordPress default theme functions can deliver. Three columns and many stylish gradients make this theme eye catching, and the little nooks and crannies definitely stand out: the icons on the left for quick navigation, the quote stylings, the meta icons, etc.
One negative I can see, is that this theme seems to operate as a fluid/fixed hybrid. In other words the theme looks fine when my browser is a certain width (between 960px and 1000px, I think) but not when it is any wider. This could be an easy fix, but it’s something to keep in mind if you do want to pick up this one.
Fontella
Fontella is a strikingly simple yet beautiful WordPress theme. I was impressed as soon as I saw it.
Worth highlighting: the image that displays the date of the post (viewable in the image above, lower right of posting area) is dynamic. This means it changes, although it looks like an image. And it’s a nice change-up from some of the boring date display images that I see being used a lot.
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My good friend Cory Miller (or should I say the infamous Cory Miller) has released a very attractive new WordPress theme.
This is one of his best designs, too. With two columns, widget ready, and impressively clean displays, this would be a great look for anyone looking to make a professional statement on the web. I’m a fan.
The post he wrote about the release has all the information about downloading it, and it is also acting as the support thread for the theme.
See more of Cory’s work on his portfolio site.
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Charity Ondriezek over at Design Adaptations has released a beautiful WordPress theme inspired by Blue October’s Foiled album, called Into the Ocean.
This theme sounds really cool, and I would suggest checking it out if you want a sophisticated theme. And if blue is your color.
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Hopefully that headline is more drastic than the situation really is. I’m referencing a new project from this site called the Wordpress Theme Generator. The Wordpress Theme Generator (pictured below) lets anyone choose specific colors and locations for the elements of a Wordpress theme (sidebar, menu, etc.) and generate their own theme. This theme can then be downloaded and uploaded to their Wordpress blog, ready for use.
This could either be a really good thing or a really bad thing.
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Silent Water’s review turned out well. But there are still things it can improve on.
- Validation: 4/5
- Look and Feel: 4/5
- Theme Completeness: 4/5
- Editability: 5/5
- Total: 17/20
