I tend to spend a good amount of my time continuing to learn WordPress and improve the ways I go about coding themes. With the vast majority of my WordPress development being done for clients, it is important to me to keep a good relationship with them. I feel part of maintaining that relationship is to provide a seamless, simple, and easy solution to their website project. I refer to this as the “Don’t make me think” approach, which pairs nicely with “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”…

In most cases, clients spend most of their time adding/editing content in the editor. It is then important to keep things simple yet provide as much functionality as possible. If your clients or users are anything like mine, more than likely they don’t spend the vast majority of their time cleaning code in their favorite text editor and are probably not catching up on their RSS feed full of their favorite web related sites just before they go to bed at 2 am like the rest of us. Clients also get confused when they hear “It’s as simple as adding a class to the element” when trying to create the desired green glossy web 2.0 button. Usually this will lead you to a variety of blank stares as their idea of a class and elements is a room of kids and the periodic table.