A common misconception is that in order to make a website accessible you have to abstain from using JavaScript or Flash. Almost every time I hold a workshop on Web standards and accessibility there is at least one participant who believes that accessibility limits what they can do on the Web by telling them to stay away from anything that isn't pure HTML.
Posted in Accessibility, JavaScript.
Grab the full WordPress Themes Bundle for only $80, plus your chance to win an iPad with WPBundle. The special offer is only available until July 4th 2010 and could even win you a brand new 16GB Wi-Fi iPad.
Back our project & Pre-Order to enter. Not only will you be helping support our project, but you’ll be grabbing the Bundle at only $80. That works out currently at less than $10 per theme. This is a special pre-order price and is only available until July 4th 2010.
Anybody who wants to be a part of the project and buys the Bundle at this price will also be among the list of potential winners for the iPad 16GB Wi-FI. Only backers who pledge $80 for the Bundle or more are eligible.
On top of this there are multiple rewards available for anybody backing the project, read about the rewards on the KickStarter page. Learn more about WPBundle or just Enter the Competition.
The model we are giving away is the iPad 16GB Wi-Fi. Anyone who is on, or joins the list of backers will be in with a chance of winning. If the project on KickStarter gets 100% funding or more, we’ll look through the list of backers on July 4th 2010 at 7:07 EDT, and chose one lucky person at Random. This lucky winner will then receive an iPad with their WPBundle as it becomes available, or we could even arrange to have it delivered earlier.
We will record a video screencast of the selection just to make it fair, and we’ll ask if possible for the winner to send us a picture of them with the iPad when it arrives at their home.
As we need the project to reach 100% funding before we can pick a winner we need as many pre-orders as possible to make your 80$ pledge count, we’d love it if you could help by tweeting about this offer or sharing the URL: www.wpbundle.com/ipad/ with a small few people who you think might actually be interested in the offer.
Lately, while I’ve been busy coding themes for WPBundle, I’ve had to make a few judgment calls. One of the main ones for me is how I wanted to handle the “Theme Options” people have come to know, and quite frankly, expect.
Every theme these days has theme options, and there are a ton of guides on creating theme options. So now instead of it being about actually having the Options page, it’s turned into how many options can you squeeze into your theme.
But I see a problem with this. Not only are people resorting to creating custom pages so they can have 10+ tabs on the single page just so they can fit all the options, but they are creating redundant options. Sometimes I think Theme Developers are completely forgetting how huge the Plugin Directory on WordPress is. So when you are creating your theme, is there really a need to have an option to put “Stat Tracking” code? If the user actually wants that option, they can do a quick Plugin search and find over 300 stat plugins.
The point I am trying to make is, why confuse people? By creating these “custom” option pages, not only can you end up confusing the user by giving them a completely different environment, but you end up overwhelming them with options they may have no clue about. So instead of cluttering up the options that really need to be easily changed, with something that has been done hundreds of times in a Plugin, just give them the basics.
I think if someone is really interested in customizing their theme, they will probably already have some knowledge on how to do it. Or just let them ask in the Support forums; that’s what they are for right?
One of the theme’s I’m working on right now only has two options on the Theme Options page (which could really even be one.) So instead of spending an hour rummaging through 100+ different inputs, checkboxes, dropdowns, they can start adding their content almost instantly.
Less is more.
As an important player in the Web software space, WordPress wields a powerful influence in the marketplace. When you’re in a position of such importance, it is your responsibility to purvey accurate information and to refrain from projecting ideologies and agendas on a market that is likely to take anything you say at face value.
My work with Thesis has placed me in a similar position, and I understand how much you can affect the psyche of your customers/users with just a few choice words. It’s powerful; it’s amazing; but most of all, it’s humbling.
As far as I’m concerned, being a figurehead in the market doesn’t mean that you get to be rich, famous, adored, and influential; instead, it means that you always have to hold yourself to a higher standard than everyone else. In other words, you have to do a better, more responsible job because thousands—perhaps millions—of people are dependent upon the solutions that you claim to provide.
Wielding such an awesome responsibility means that there is no room for ideologies, agendas, or anything else.
Solutions are what matters. You can check the rest of that crap at the door.