![Jack-o-lantern carved with WordPress W.](https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/openlab-oer-working-group/files/2022/10/WordPressPumpkin.jpg)
Instructions and tips for doing a theme search:
- Go to the WordPress Themes Directory
- You can use the feature filter to narrow by specific criteria, although sometimes that can be too limiting, so play around with it
- Things to look for on individual theme info page:
- Last updated: Find something last updated within 1 year
- Active Installations: Look for something popular, ideally no less than 1,000 active installations.
- Ratings: Generally stick to at least 4 stars, although there could be exceptions. Sometimes if there aren’t many reviews they can be skewed for reasons unrelated to theme quality.
- Preview the theme to get a sense of what it looks like, although this isn’t a perfect tool. If the theme has its own site listed, check it out to see if there’s a demo. These are usually better than using the preview function.
Criteria for theme searching
Note: use your best judgement for the criteria below. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell based on a theme preview.
- Navigation (main menu) seems clear and easy to use
- Text is clear and easy to read
- Seems to integrate visual materials well
- Has good heading styles – clear and well-differentiated
- In the theme preview, look for the post called ‘Elements’, which contains examples of different styles.
- In ‘Tags’ section, includes custom header or custom logo
Share the link(s) to the theme(s) you selected by replying to this post as a comment.
Due: 11/17 (before next working group meeting)
I chose these because they are accessible and seem pretty straightforward (for now).
I liked Shift and Apex too! Yes, I stuck with accessibility as well.
ok, I have been looking for more robust and visual themes. Here are some I found
sort of cool, https://wordpress.org/themes/michelle/
Bold and Mag-like… https://wordpress.org/themes/cockatoo/
I am not sure if I am attaching this correctly, but I chose Period. I like the visual and setup:
https://demo.competethemes.com/?theme=period
I’ve never looked through many themes before and, wow, most of the ones I see here would not work for how I use the OpenLab! It’s hard to imagine something I’d prefer to Hemingway. I’m mainly looking for something that can handle a complicated menu but let me organize it to make it look clean and simple; my preference is for posts to appear in one column with at least a short preview. I found a few themes I might be up for experimenting with but none are hugely popular.
At first I was drawn towards themes that had bold typefaces/fonts and clean layouts, more modern looking, like the Twenty… series (which I believe Bree said were already available on the OpenLab). But then started to take a closer look at how the pages and templates were laid out and what would actually have better utility and usability in an educational context. So even though a theme like Kiyono is visually appealing, it may be better suited for a visual gallery presentation of images than the educational resources of a college course.
The Michelle theme seems to not to have a lot of installations so far, hopefully because it’s a fairly new theme, but it had a lot of appeal. It has easy navigability with a top level menu bar and leans into a very design forward presentation that transforms the standard blog format website into something more dynamic and less generic.
I looked at this link : https://wordpress.org/themes/blockmag/
as I thought it would be interesting for those interested in creating publications. I also very much liked the link below and would recommend it to interns in COMD to check out.
https://wordpress.org/themes/neve/