PLUGINS FOR DESIGNERS by codyL
Saturday, January 29, 2011

INTRODUCING My name is codyL.
I work as a web strategist/designer/internet marketing expert for businesses. I use WordPress primarily for my CMS of choice. This is a talk about Plugins for Designers. codyL.com Saturday, January 29, 2011

DESIGNING WITH WORDPRESS Some of
the Topics I’d like to touch on: What are the reasons we design for WordPress? Focus on making WordPress t your design. Leverage Plugins effectively for site content and design enhancement KEEP IT SIMPLE & STRAIGHT-FORWARD! codyL.com Saturday, January 29, 2011

PLUG-INS TO BE COVERED Some
of the Plug-ins we will cover will be: Contact Form 7 Lightbox 2 Facebook Comments for WordPress WP e-Commerce Plugin Tweet Meme Re-Tweet Button codyL.com Saturday, January 29, 2011

WHY I DESIGN FOR WORDPRESS
Simplest answer: Flexibility. Designing for WordPress goes hand in hand with using Plugins that help enhance the ability of your content and user-experience. codyL.com Saturday, January 29, 2011

MAKE WORDPRESS FIT YOUR DESIGN
Why does every site have to look just like every other WordPress free theme? Design your website for it’s most effective impact while pushing the strength of WordPress and it’s Plugins. codyL.com Saturday, January 29, 2011

LEVERAGE PLUG-INS Use Plugins to
enhance user-experience. Design your website with Plugin functionality in mind by knowing well which Plugins work best for your site’s content and maximum effect. codyL.com Saturday, January 29, 2011

COVERING PLUGINS Now onto Plugins.
We will cover some interesting Plugins that will be simple to implement and will enhance user-experience. So let’s take a look at a few design case studies and look at Plugins in that environment. codyL.com Saturday, January 29, 2011

DESIGN CASE STUDY GUSTOCOMPLETE.COM Saturday,
January 29, 2011

ESTIMATE FORM PLUGIN USED: Contact
Form 7 METHOD FOR ENHANCEMENT: Custom CSS to match design style OUTCOME: Correctly styled contact form to work within design framework to establish consistent user- experience. codyL.com Saturday, January 29, 2011

DESIGN CASE STUDY THOMPSONFUNERALCHAPEL.COM Saturday,
January 29, 2011

WEBSITE GALLERY PLUGIN USED: Lightbox
2 METHOD: Easy integration to enhance image viewing. OUTCOME: Ready to use out of the box formatting allows this Plugin to work with most designs easily. codyL.com Saturday, January 29, 2011

DESIGN CASE STUDY CROSSFITFURY.COM Saturday,
January 29, 2011

ARTICLE COMMENTS PLUGIN USED: Facebook
Comments for WordPress METHOD: Integrating with care into company’s current Facebook page. OUTCOME: More user interaction and easier comment posting for community members. codyL.com Saturday, January 29, 2011

DESIGN CASE STUDY WALTSBBQ.COM Saturday,
January 29, 2011

SHOPPING CART PLUGIN USED: WP
e-Commerce Plugin METHOD: Shopping Cart for websites with the need to sell product online. OUTCOME: Easy to use and easy to format Plugin that displays products clearly and works within current CSS model. codyL.com Saturday, January 29, 2011

DESIGN CASE STUDY VISTA-WEALTH.COM Saturday,
January 29, 2011

RE-TWEETING ARTICLES PLUGIN USED: Tweet
Meme Re-Tweet Button METHOD: Using CSS to place social icon in place of each article. OUTCOME: Placing an inline social network share bar to easily re-distribute content. codyL.com Saturday, January 29, 2011

CONCLUSION Plugins should be used
to enhance and not overcomplicate. If you can use WordPress to t your design and use plugins to help enhance content and user experience. Do not over complicate it! Keep it simple and you’ll be happy. Props to @andrewryno for his help on development. codyL.com Saturday, January 29, 2011