More and more people are going to coding bootcamp to learn how to create and program WordPress themes. It’s the #1 blogging platform in the world, and has been for several years. It’s not surprising that there are so many themes and templates available for both personal and commercial use.
Not all themes are equal. Some are outright visually unappealing, while others may have UX problems despite looking nice. Until you learn how to code yourself and create your own perfect WordPress theme, you will have to find a template that suits your current needs as much as possible.
Factors that Make a Good Theme
Your own website/blog needs – You should always start with your own needs. What kind of color scheme or UI design would be a good match for your blog? If you are blogging about political issues, you will want a theme that is designed for good readability.
ColorLib.com provides some great examples of “WordPress newspaper themes”.
If you want to run a fashion or beauty blog, visual elements will be an important aspect of the design.
TemplateMonster offers a wide selection of fashion themes (paid). SMThemes.com has a nice list of free fashion templates.
For food or restaurant related blogs, you should look for themes that feature an integrated recipe building module as well as the ability to add galleries so that you can show off plenty of food arrangements.
AThemes.com is an excellent source of food-related themes. Foodie Pro in particular is a good choice, with its clean and minimalist design, good responsiveness, widgetized home and recipe pages, and wide range of typography options.
User-experience – The UX design of a theme is another essential element you will need with the ideal template. The UX element refers to how a user will interact with a webpage. You could have best looking blog in the world, but it will not do you any good if it was designed without user-experience in mind.
A good UX design will include the following:
- A minimized need for typing
- Information organized into small chunks
- Clarity
- Simple navigation
- Seamless experience
- Intelligent search function
The content itself plays a role in the UX. Your blog should be able to provide users with actual VALUE if you want it to be successful.
User-interface – The UX can be summarized as a conglomeration of functions focused on the optimization of a site or blog for enjoyable use. The UI, on the other hand, is the “look and feel”, or the presentation of that conglomeration. You put all of the elements of a user-experience design and present it all in the form of the user-interface. You must select a theme that does this effectively.
Responsiveness – You must not forget about responsiveness when choosing your WordPress theme. A huge portion of all website visits come from tablets and mobile devices these days. A cheap, generic theme might just be designed for PC screens. One way to find out whether or not a theme is responsive is to run it through Google’s mobile-friendliness test.
So, if you put all of these factors together, you will end up with the “perfect” WordPress theme.
If we could just recommend one right now it would be the X Theme. It’s available in multiple versions, including “Integrity”, which is a good choice for a general purpose blog; “Ethos”, which has a nice virtual magazine look; “Renew” for the flat design lovers, and more. On top of that, it comes with a variety of plugins, navigation options, responsive technology, over 600 Google fonts for typography, etc.
Of course, your own personal taste is a consideration as well. If the X Theme and its variant aren’t for you, here are some Premium alternatives and Free alternatives.