Sometimes you don’t know where you’ll end up when you set out to develop a new piece of software or a new website.
In many ways the development of the Shifter Theme System and the design of PixelsAndSuch happened for the exact same reasons: because we were completely frustrated with other wordpress templates. We developed what we believe is the first “theme system” for wordpress and built PixelsAndSuch with it. How this came about illustrates our frustrations with standard wordpress templates and illuminates the power of Shifter.
The problem with wordpress templates is that most of them are simply some designer’s vision of a blog. The second you start trying to do anything other than blog with your wordpress site, you realize the limitations of this approach. You know you are experiencing exactly what we did when you want to add a new feature to your wordpress website – for example you need an additional header item at the top, or you want to switch from a two-column layout to a three-column one (this is pretty basic stuff when you think about it). What happens is that you search through template after template, install one, aren’t satisfied, and conclude it won’t work either. Only to do it again and again until you eventually settle on something you really don’t like.
With Shifter we’ve eliminated this. Our theme system is built from the ground up based on functionality, but in a way that gives you the ability to use one of our prepackaged skins (think of a skin like a template), or if you know css, make or modify your own skins. With Shifter you can easily customize your site to be the way you want (not the way some designer wanted it) and take advantage of thousands of wordpress plugins without having to do the “wordpress template dance.”
PixelsAndSuch is a feature site for Shifter. It is completely built on the Shifter 1.7 Theme System. We modified one of the prepackaged skins to customize the site. You’ll notice that the layout is clean, functional, and easy to navigate. It has search engine friendly links (SEF), is ready for advertisements, and demonstrates the use of embedded flash throughout the site. The thing that makes it so unique is that if we want to make major changes to the structure of PixelsAndSuch, we can do it with the click of a button. And although we like the design of the website for a photography website like this, Shifter allows us to change the skin with the click of another button. In the future we can expand the website without worrying that our template is going to limit us. That is the power of Shifter.
Take a look at PixelsAndSuch and when you’re ready to transform your wordpress site, take a look at Shifter. It changed everything for PixelsAndSuch and can change everything for your wordpress website.
Tags: Photography
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