Creating Websites in WordPress: Home

From Smashing Magazine, http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/10-principles-of-effective-web-design/

1. Don’t make users think
2. Don’t squander users’ patience
3. Manage to focus users’ attention
4. Strive for feature exposure
5. Make use of effective writing
6. Strive for simplicity
7. Don’t be afraid of whitespace
8. Communicate effectively with a “visible language”
9. Conventions are our friends
10. Test early and test often

Some things to remember about WordPress:

• Started as blogging software in 2003
  • Post-centric
  • If you want to use it as a website you'll need to identify your home page
• Open source with a robust user community, https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/
• Has been used successfully as a Content Management System
  • Examples: http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/examples-wordpress-11121165

• Choose a responsive theme (lets your pages change size to fit the screen)
• Plan out the information you want to display (a storyboard or outline will work well)
• Always think of your users
  • File sizes and types may be hard for some users to access
  • Don't ignore accessibility, http://www.w3schools.com/website/web_wai.asp
    • Remember “Alt”
    • Don’t use small fonts (Don’t force visitors to enlarge your text every time they visit your site)
    • Choose the best letter and line spacing
    • Avoid fancy fonts (no italics, sans serif is easier to read)
    • Avoid poor color contrasts