solo:techno

Recently in viewing RFQs (request for quotation) I saw a project that required installing no less than 20 Wordpress plugins! This is a recipe for disaster and I declined to bid on the project. Don’t get me wrong, plugins are a great way to expand the functionality of Wordpress (usually for free) without having to know how to write code. But like many things in the tech world that are free and user-friendly it usually comes at an unseen price.

When Wordpress displays peculiar behavior one of the first troubleshooting steps is to uninstall all plugins. Many times it is a plugin that is conflicting with the Wordpress base code or with another plugin. Wordpress plugins are nothing more than PHP code that can be installed in modular form. It’s the same as writing PHP functions and including them in the functions.php file in your theme. This is great when you have a single developer doing this but imagine having many developers writing functions for your site without being aware of what the others are doing. Occasionally someone is going to step on the code of someone else. There is also no qualification for writing and making a Wordpress plugin available so some are not written by the most qualified coders. And that’s when you will have problems.

Which brings me to another big drawback to Wordpress plugins – most are free and unsupported. Many developers release a plugin with good intentions: they see a need and want to contribute to the Wordpress community. However, they quickly realize that writing the plugin was only a small part of the work. Thorough documentation must be written on how to use the plugin. And no matter how well documented the plugin there will be people looking for support. Unfortunately those that seek out free software tend to be the people least qualified to use it. Faced with insurmountable support requests many developers simply abandon any further work on the plugin or the website and with it usually goes any existing documentation. Add to that the continuing development of the Wordpress framework which sometimes deprecates code and you may have a non-functioning plugin after a Wordpress update.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating the elimination of plugins on your Wordpress installation. Many plugins are useful, free and continue to be updated and supported by the developer. Here are some guidelines that I try to follow when evaluating a plugin for use:

1. How long has it been around? By going to the Wordpress.org Plugins section you can see the most popular plugins with a rating and how many times the plugin has been downloaded. Anything with a four-star rating is usually a safe bet if it has hundreds of thousands of downloads. Also look for the version number, anything 2.0 indicates that there has been a fair amount of development for the code. Also looking for the last update will indicate how much attention the developer gives to the plugin. A plugin with a good rating, significant downloads and recent updates indicates that it is a mature product in which many useful feature requests have been added and many of the bugs have been identified and fixed.

2. Visit the developer’s website which is listed on the Wordpress.org Plugins section. See how much information they offer. Is there a documentation and FAQ section? Does it appear to be up-to-date? Even better, is there a forum where you can post a question that can be answered by other users of the plugin?

3. Search Google for blog posts about the plugin. Many bloggers write about Wordpress plugins and their experience with them. Oftentimes this will give you an idea of whether the plugin performs as advertised and if there are any “gotchas” of which you should be aware.

If everything above looks good before you download and install the plugin ask yourself whether or not your website really needs that functionality. Many people just start loading up their site with all of the bells and whistles they can find. Remember more plugins also means a slower Wordpress site. To accomplish what you want with your website it all comes down to user experience. If your desired plugin meets all of the install criteria and contributes to user experience then consider it for use on your site.

Your logo is your brand. You want it to be easily recognized and associated with your company or organization the second that it is seen. Companies spend thousands of dollars having a logo designed and then publish design books that specify how the logo is to be used. These books obsess about the exact Pantone/hexadecimal color to be used, how closely it can be placed to text and images, how small it can be reduced, etc. Altering a logo is a very bad thing and any reputable designer won’t do it.

The Problem

I recently did a project where the client wanted their newly designed logo incorporated into a Wordpress theme. The logo was typical of what everyone seems to be doing these days: “web 2.0 style” logo reflecting off of a surface with lots of transparency and gradations. This image style works best if it is placed against a white or very, very light background. In this case the client’s theme background header was black. That was the first challenge.

The image of the logo with which I had been supplied was very large, roughly 900 x 500 pixels and it looked fine at that size. However, to fit in the new header design it had to be reduced to about 140 pixels. And that’s when it self-destructed. You simply can’t hold hairlines, fine gradations and transparencies when they are reduced too much. The resolution of monitors and printing equipment is just not fine enough. My client gave me permission to alter the logo and I was able to maintain it’s integrity by using Photoshop. But I was lucky, there are cases when no matter what you try a logo design will not look good when reduced.

The Solution

Logos are hard to design correctly, that’s why I shy away from them. A good logo designer is going to come up with a design that looks the same whether it is enlarged or reduced, displayed on a computer screen or printed on various media. A good logo design will start at a couple thousand dollars and go up from there depending on the reputation of the designer. However these days anyone who has a copy of Illustrator/Photoshop that can pump out a few designs that their friends think are cool bills themselves as a logo designer. Then they open an account on Elance and start bidding on projects for outrageously low prices.

The moral of the story is this: There’s more to a logo than low price and flashiness. Consider the following when commissioning a new logo design:

• Does the logo still look the same when reduced? Do any lines vanish? Do gradations maintain their integrity or look blotty?
• Conversely, does the logo look good when enlarged? Some logos do not look good when enlarged. You may not think this matters but what if you sponsored a company event and wanted some large banners to hang that included your logo?
• Does the logo look good in black and white? Your logo cannot always be printed in color. Consider photocopies, faxes, laserjet printers, training manuals or even t-shirts. Some colors do not translate well to black and white. For example, the color red turns black, and light blue cannot be seen by photocopiers and vanishes.
• Does the logo look good reversed (white on black background)? There may times when your logo may need to be placed on a dark background as in my client’s case above.

Keep those points in mind when you spec out the requirements for your new logo design and not only will you have a recognizable brand but you will make life easier for designers that have to work with your logo in the future.