Portfolio themes have always been highly influenced by the technical platforms the content is viewed on. Among the different theme categories, portfolios are probably the quickest to reflect new technological capabilities available. It is just fitting to consider what’s up around the corner at the end of 2012 as far as the Internet is concerned and how this will affect portfolio themes.
The main internet trend for 2013 and 2014 is the main streaming of mobile as an internet access device. It is strongly believed that smartphones and tablets will overtake desktops as the access device of choice. A lot of the conversions are expected to happen in developing countries where 3g is still the norm. A simple observation is to check what devices internet users use to upload content. More often than not it is through a handheld device, an iPhone, Android, or smartphone. To the user, it is all about convenience and accessibility. Designers and developers need to take note of this and need to consider creating themes that can handle images and multimedia content under these constraints.
The mobile effort should be done without sacrificing an emerging and equally important 4g LTE market. Designers should be cognizant of a significant growth of mobile and desktop users subscribing to internet connections much faster than a couple of years ago. Thus the access of devices to websites must be smart enough to be able to meet the seemingly opposite needs of these market segments. In a way, it is an expansion of responsive design into the backend of the website.
The emergence of new display technology such as Retina would be something to consider. Designers must be able to take multimedia content generated from any device and exploit the full capabilities of these next generation displays. Again, this should also be done in tandem with expected rapid growth in low capability areas.
Social media integration can not take a back burner as people are finding more and more ways to use this technology. Developers should take notice of the capabilities of Instagram or Pinterest and figure out how to incorporate such features into their themes. Their popularity is an indicator of sorts as to what people are viewing and how they are viewing it. It would be a pity to have a very beautiful portfolio website with very little traffic and only a handful of people enjoying it. Lastly, there is still much room to develop seamless integration with different resources available on the cloud – more exploration on how this can be utilized, maximized, and integrated into the ultimate WordPress portfolio theme.
We can’t wait to see what will emerge in 2013. Exciting times up ahead!
Below are some amazing not so typical WordPress websites to inspire you to think out of the box:
“Having the power to manage the content of your site and update it when you want gives you valuable autonomy and gives us more time with our colouring pens. We can provide simple elegant WordPress solutions to fully fledged e-commerce sites to get your online shop selling.” – co-founders Jay Bigford and Alister Wynn (eCommerce, Open Source, WordPress)
“This was my first venture into HTML5, and I took the opportunity to deck out Ashley’s photoblog with all sorts of CSS3 frills as well. One of the main challenges, was deciding on a colour scheme. Since each photo set could potentially have a dominant colour throughout, I came up with the idea of having the background colour change for each post (set).” – Matt Brett
“We have created a fully responsive masonry-style website for Crack Magazine, designed by Fiasco. Mobile and tablet users can now enjoy a comfortable reading experience that does CRACK’s editorial and imagery justice.” – DCOED (WordPress, CSS3, HTML, Responsive Design)
“We leverage WordPress to manage content and templating for the site. WordPress is also used to manage the content for our members-area site, and our blog, the Grindist,” explains Josh Campbell. “We picked WordPress for a number of reasons. First we wanted a stable, feature rich platform but without a large investment, that would be able to grow with our needs.
“We also wanted a clean management interface for our writers and editors so they can focus on creating great content.” There is a fantastic community surrounding WordPress and the guys ?at Grind feel that this reflects on the kind of collaborative community that they are all about.”
“WordPress is the best CMS for sites such as Rodesk, we’ve developed with it for quite some time,” explains Boex. “With a ton of plugins and extensions and a worldwide community of supportive developers it’s easy to work with and integrate quickly.”
It is a constant challenge for artists, photographers and creative professionals to promote their work and gain new clientele. Thankfully, the Internet provides an avenue where people can connect to other people wherever they are in the world in a very efficient manner. In order to take advantage of this infrastructure, artists who want their portfolio to stand out from the crowd need to put up well designed websites to effectively exhibit works of art and other creative output.
Origin Premium WordPress Theme is the latest theme from Elegant themes targeted at creative professionals. It is designed to be a showcase solution for creative work and it does so in a stunning way. This premium WordPress theme’s take on the grid layout is not uncommon. What makes it stand out is the attention to design details and concern for the user experience. The theme can give visitors an overall view of the portfolio, or it can also serve as a one page catalogue for whatever images, products or projects that need to be showcased.
Origin is beautiful eye candy but catching a potential client’s eye is one thing, converting him or her into a loyal customer is another. This portfolio styled theme has what it takes to deliver both. This responsive theme serves as that portal where the the target clientele can go beyond admiring the work and actually connect with the creative professional and eventually work together.
If you haven’t seen Origin Premium WordPress Theme in action, head on over to Elegant Themes and take it for a spin. You’ll be glad you did.
More Features:
- Responsive design
- ePanel Theme Options
- Large collection of shortcodes
- Premade Page Templates
- Perpetual Updates
- Secure and Valid Code
- Browser Compatibility
- Complete Localization
- Five Unique Colors
- Unparalleled Support
Origin Premium WordPress Theme includes top-notch tech support provided by Elegant themes’ support staff to help you setup your site and get it running in no time.
Origin Theme: $39 | Demo & Download
Nick Roach has done it again! Origin Premium WordPress Theme is the latest WordPress theme released by Elegant Themes and it is indeed stunning. This grid-based theme is quite impressive both visually and function-wise. You can tell that every design element has been carefully thought of and meticulously designed details have been scattered all throughout the theme if you care to spot them.
Origin is a gorgeous portfolio-styled theme but it is also engaging and fun to navigate around. It’s like going on a treasure hunt where you expect to find some hidden treasure as you explore every item on every page. The overall experience is one of delight and surprise. Customization is quick and easy. This theme comes with 5 deliciously combined preset color schemes that immediately engage your eye. These pre made color schemes are good to go right out of the box but you can also create your own color palette based on your own branding preferences.
This premium WordPress theme comes with several built in page templates like an image gallery page, an advanced search page, a portfolio page with several display options, a blog feed page, a contact page, a secure member login page, and a sitemap for those concerned about content showing up in bot crawls and searches. There are also tons of shortcodes giving you more customization and functionality options.
Origin Premium WordPress Theme uses CSS media queries and AJAX infinite scrolling features to ensure that your website will display and function beautifully and intuitively no matter the screen size and device. If you are considering an upgrade to your own site or doing a project for a client, Origin has infinite possibilities and potential for turning your site from good to great.
More Features:
- Responsive design
- ePanel Theme Options
- Large collection of shortcodes
- Premade Page Templates
- Perpetual Updates
- Secure and Valid Code
- Browser Compatibility
- Complete Localization
- Five Unique Colors
- Unparalleled Support
Origin Premium WordPress Theme includes top-notch tech support provided by Elegant themes’ support staff to help you setup your site and get it running in no time.
Preview the Origin Theme
eCommerce has been around since the late 1990s and has been a steadily growing phenomenon over the last few years. As the Internet continues to grow in coverage and in technology, so will the number of consumers who utilize eCommerce tools as their main means of purchasing goods and services over the Internet. In a recent marketing study commissioned by Google, it was found out that 80% of shoppers today do preliminary research online before they actually do their purchase. In light of the rising dominance of eCommerce, here are some trends to watch out for in the next 12 months:
1. Mobile
In a previous article we mentioned that 2013 is likely the year mobile devices will take over. An analysis of 35000 Shopify stores predicts that 1 out of 4 eShoppers this Christmas will do so from a mobile device and this will grow to 43% next year. With 5 Billion mobile phone subscribers expected to convert to smartphones and other handheld devices, developers need to pay attention to truly responsive design with the use of flexible images. Developer also need to put focus on eCommerce engine optimizations for 3G networks found in developing countries where the bulk of smartphone conversions are expected to happen.
2. Shopify
Providers specializing in eCommerce infrastructure are gaining headway. One of the leaders is Shopify, providing its users with easily customizable and highly functional hosted web stores. For a monthly fee starting from $29, one can enjoy estore services without much hassle. WordPress theme developers need to deliver powerful themes with great eCommerce functionalities that are easy to use and available to the WordPress market at a competitive price.
3. Social Media and Viral Marketing
We cannot neglect the way social media has shaped the way people interact and experience the web. Facebook, Twitter and Youtube have taken traditional word of mouth marketing to the next level enabling the emergence of the viral marketing phenomenon. With the continued popularity of Pinterest, Google+, and the recent premium ad services on Facebook, shoppers can easily share and appreciate product details as never before. Product features and price comparisons can be shared to thousands of consumers all in a matter of seconds. New WordPress eCommerce themes should be integrated with various social media tools as well as simple and easy to understand statistics and analytics tools that can provide usage information and statistical data as to how their businesses are doing in light of their social media efforts.
4. Google Shopping
Google has just completed converting Google shopping into a fully paid listing service of products and services. This means only stores who subscribe to Google’s pay per conversion scheme get in the list. WordPress eCommerce themes should be able to support various shopping and payment options while taking note of client demands to integrate the Google shopping system into their websites. Developers must be able to figure out how to generate price comparisons using regular Google search results and integrate these as they design and develop their WordPress themes.
eCommerce has a bright future ahead as the shopping experience becomes more and more digital. WordPress authors and developers have the unique opportunity to create the themes that addresses these developing trends that will make website owners choose WordPress as the eCommerce CMS of choice.
Nimble Premium WordPress Theme is a well balanced theme in a lot of aspects. The theme’s demo displays a combination of colors that is pleasing and attractive to the eyes. Its styling is bold but still effectively leaves makes clever use of white space giving the eyes a place to rest strategically. The overall design is balanced and looks beautiful on large monitors as well as on smartphone displays. It is indeed aptly called “Nimble” as it is flexible enough to adapt to various types of websites.
Nimble’s homepage is deliberately section giving it that clearly defined look. Each section has its own color scheme, effectively transitioning users from one section to the next as they scroll through the page. The top section contains a beautiful, full width slider for showcasing attention grabbing works and taglines. Clicking on a slide takes you to a page that contains details of the featured work or post. This section transitions into another section which can be used to give a bird’s eye view introduction about important information such as the company, mission, vision, product/service summaries or other types of information. This is further enhanced by call to action buttons at the bottom of the boxes that take you to pages where you find more exhaustive descriptions. There is also a section that can be used for special quotes, taglines or announcements. The next sections can be configured to contain recent news and updates, recent blog posts, recent portfolio additions, and even a price table to complete the whole layout. All these customizations can be easily handled via the ePanel Theme Options feature included in all Elegant Themes WordPress themes.
Nimble’s responsive design is quick and impressive. Images and content quickly resize to the width of your browser or the screen size of your handheld device. This means that your visitors can expect a pleasant browsing experience all the time.
More Features:
- Responsive design
- ePanel Theme Options
- Large collection of shortcodes
- Premade Page Templates
- Perpetual Updates
- Secure and Valid Code
- Browser Compatibility
- Complete Localization
- Five Unique Colors
- Unparalleled Support
Nimble Premium WordPress Theme includes top-notch tech support provided by Elegant themes’ support staff to help you setup your site and get it running in no time.
Nimble Theme: $39 | Demo & Download
Bring out the bubbly because she just said “Yes!” But wait! Walking down the aisle isn’t that simple nowadays what with all the preparations and planning that has to be done. One of the most challenging things you’ll ever go through in life is to plan a wedding. But what if you had a tool that could help you address all the logistical challenges that go with it? A simple solution is to create a website just for the event that way you can manage certain aspects of the wedding wherever you are.
Many times, coordination and information dissemination can be a challenge as you plan your wedding or even somebody else’s. Just Married Premium WordPress theme is a theme indispensable during wedding preparation activities. This premium WordPress theme is an effective means of communicating the progress of wedding preparation, invitations, attendance, as well as bookings and gift registry. It is also perfect for wedding organizers as they coordinate activities that may be logistically challenging to accomplish.
Just Married allows you to manage information relevant to the wedding. With the theme’s built-in templates, you can post all the information about the ceremony, sponsors, bridesmaids, groomsmen, and the entourage that guests might want to know. You can also post information about the bride and the groom’s story and how the story continues along. Confirming guest attendance is also much easier with Just Married’s RSVP feature. With this feature, guests can fill out the RSVP form to confirm attendance making it easier for the bride and the groom keep track of their budget. The theme also allows you to connect to the couple’s bridal registry pages to their stores of choice making it convenient for guests, whether local or international, to give gifts to the couple. Out of town guests can take advantage of the accommodations feature to book hotel rooms at group discounts set-up with partner hotels.
This premium WordPress theme’s responsive design allows guests to visit the site while on the go. This is perfect for friends and family travelling to the event. Planning a wedding need not be such a stressful activity if you have the right tools.
Features:
- RSVP Module
- jQuery Image Lightbox
- Auto Image Resizing
- Cross Browser Compatible
- jQuery Image / Video Lightbox
- Font-face custom font
- Powerful Admin Options
This theme includes documentation, video tutorials, as well as access to an AfterCare Forum for theme support. Check out Just Married Premium WordPress Theme today.
Just Married Theme: $49 | Demo & Download
The evolution of HTML from the time it was introduced years ago to the HTML5 we know today is a technical geek lover’s journey. This article is not about that but just in case you are interested to know how it all came to be here are some interesting resources for you to check out. For those who want a more comprehensive history of HTML5, you can read all about it here – Dive into HTML5 by Mark Pilgrim. For those who just want a quick overview, check out this cool infographic The History of HTML5 published by Mashable. If you are really want to get into the technical stuff, you can go straight to the source right here – W3C.
What’s so Cool About HTML5
According to PCMag:
HTML5 was designed to provide a comprehensive application development platform for Web pages that eliminates the need to install third-party browser plug-ins such as Java and Flash. HTML5 provides support for 2D graphics, document editing, drag and drop, browser history management, audio and video playback and local file storage.
Simply put, HTML5 is composed of a set of rules that tell computers how to interpret code to display websites. It’s the 5th version of a set of instructions, governed by specific rules, that tells your browser how to execute these commands to display a specific design. It is the language of the web. HTML5 includes the following updates:
HTML5 introduces a number of APIs that help in creating Web applications. These can be used together with the new elements introduced for applications:
- Media elements (
video and audio) have APIs for controlling playback, syncronising multiple media elements, and timed text tracks (e.g. subtitles).
- An API for form constraint validation (e.g. the
setCustomValidity() method).
- An API for commands that the user can invoke (used together with the
command element among others).
- An API that enables offline Web applications, with an application cache.
- An API that allows a Web application to register itself for certain protocols or media types, using
registerProtocolHandler() and registerContentHandler().
- Editing API in combination with a new global
contenteditable attribute.
- Drag and drop API in combination with a
draggable attribute.
- An API that exposes the components of the document’s URL and allows scripts to navigate, redirect and reload (the
Location interface).
- An API that exposes the session history and allows scripts to update the document’s URL without actually navigating, so that applications don’t need to abuse the fragment component for “Ajax-style” navigation (the History interface).
- An API for base64 conversion (
atob() and btoa() methods).
- An API to schedule timer-based callbacks (
setTimeout() and setInterval()).
- An API to prompt the user (
alert(), confirm(), prompt(), showModalDialog()).
- An API for printing the document (
print()).
- An API for handling search providers (
AddSearchProvider() and IsSearchProviderInstalled()).
- The
Window object has been defined.
WHATWG HTML has further APIs that are not in HTML5 but are separate specifications at the W3C:
- An API for microdata.
- An API for immediate-mode bitmap graphics (the
2d context for the canvas element).
- An API for cross-document messaging and channel messaging (
postMessage() and MessageChannel).
- An API for runnings scripts in the background (
Worker and SharedWorker).
- An API for client-side storage (
localStorage and sessionStorage).
- An API for bidirectional client-server communication (
WebSocket).
- An API for server-to-client data push (
EventSource).
source: W3C
How Does this Affect WordPress Developers?
The HTML5 standard features make it easier to develop faster, interactive, and more semantically correct web pages, eliminating the need for functions that require JavaScript and Flash. WordPress designers, authors, and developers can take advantage of HTML5 enhancements on these 6 key elements: video, application cache, canvas for images, geolocation, worker threads, and notification. No doubt, HTML5 has bridged the divide between desktop and mobile and so far it is the best way to create mobile-friendly websites on a variety of devices.
What Trends do We Expect See in 2013
- The rise of the baked, boilerplate, bare bones or blank HTML5 Themes
- HTML5 will be supported by all new WordPress themes
- More single dynamic pages websites with animation features
- WordPress themes running on HTML5 compatible smart phones
- Responsive design
- Simple and clean themes (no to options-overload, yes to feature-specific themes)
HTML5 is still a work-in-progress and its adoption into more and more WordPress themes will continue as more and more users turn towards the mobile web. We can continue to expect more power, more speed, and more capabilities from it in the future as this technology continues to mature.
Best Theme (v1.1) A Beautiful, Responsive Theme for WordPress Sites Make sure to check out our official post on the Best Theme for updates on recent and future releases! Take some time to check out the Best Theme demo …
