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Older articles
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Post subject: Some Thoughts on Theme Design
 Posted: Aug 19, 2004 - 11:27 PM
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PostNuke is its own worst enemy. Some of the very things about it that I find to be appealing are also some of the things about it that most come across as thorns in my eye.
It is axiomatic that first impressions are important. First impressions are, indeed, important, but not nearly as important as lasting impressions.
The theme, itself, fills the crucial role of being the mechanism that effectuates the first impression of a PostNuke site. A nice theme can make a site with virtually no substance appear to be more impressive than a site filled with substance that endures the burden of a poorly crafted theme.
PostNuke is a CMS, also known as a Content Management System. PostNuke has many pluses, and more than just a few minuses. Yes, it does allow a site operator considerable control over managing content. However, it often does so at the sacrifice of efficiency and functionality.
This might, at first, appear to be a problematic statement, in light of the litany of modules and blocks that convey ever-increasing functionality upon the PostNuke site operator.
However, the crafting of blocks and modules rarely, if ever, seems to encompass theme design considerations into their engineering. How blocks and modules ultimately display information that they are tasked with conveying unto the site user often forces the theme designer into a quandary.
Multifaceted blocks can and do often present the theme designer with dilemma after dilemma after dilemma. Ideally, all of the information that any given block or module conveys unto the user would be modular, in the sense that the theme designer would be able to pick-and-choose any or all individual components of said information, and to display them in whatsoever manner the theme designer chooses.
The necessity to resort to Xanthia and/or Autotheme methodologies underscores a critical deficiency in the manner in which the core information display infrastructure is incorporated into PostNuke. I have no problem with anyone that wants to utilize Autothemes or Xanthia in their site. But, if one wants to not utilize such approaches in theme design, then their choices are more limited by default.
The problem is not so much in the fact that each block or menu is unique, and therefore, must, of supposed necessity, look differently, when all is said and done. The workings and mechanics of the blocks and modules is largely irrelevant. The average PostNuke web master cares little, if any, for HOW a given block or module works, in an internal sense. The user, however, is concerned with how the information from a given block or module is ultimately displayed. It is the display of information, then, which serves as the nexus of a site user's interactivity.
The current mentality of the predominant cross segment of block and module creators for PostNuke appears to be predicated upon the "take it or leave it" philosophy. By this, I simply am referring to how they take into account how their block or module will display the information which it conveys unto the end user.
For an unacquainted individual to descend into the world of PostNuke, the learning curves are both high and many. The less that a web master knows about PHP, the more that pity should be heaped upon them in towering masses of sympathy.
Apparently, a previously unknown Law of Mental Thermodynamics precludes theme designers from documenting in an efficient and legible way every last aspect of how their themes actually work. As long as they, the original theme designer, understands the internal workings of a theme they create, then that suffices for them.
The actual PostNuke universe, however, is substantially larger than just the original theme creator.
To the unacquainted, opening a theme.php file for a PostNuke theme for the very first time is tantamount to slapping them in the face with the Hoover Dam. Rather than coherency, legibility, and organization made manifest appearing before them, their eyes, instead, are normally treated to a hodgepodge of code-esque gibberish. What appears to be indecipherable crypts of encrypted cipher are what the gurus know as PHP code.
What an utterly magnificent and interesting world it would be, if only everything were done in such a mind-boggling shortsighted manner.
God forbid, apparently, that a newcomer actually be able to understand what each and every last section of a theme actually does. Otherwise, newfound knowledge might become the treasure trove of incalculable masses of converts to the PostNuke faith.
Instead of freeing the masses and empowering them, theme designers, with their laziness honed to a razor sharp edge, all-too-oft prefer, instead, to encumber, saddle, burden, and enslave the newcomer to PostNuke with their respective brands of undocumented theme handiwork.
Apparently, if the newcomer wants to mold an existing theme into something more to their own liking, they must become module and block surgeons, not to mention PHP specialists.
Particularly striking, I find, is that theme designers will often go to great pains to craft immaculate looking themes, but when the veil is lifted and the theme.php file is actually opened, a poorly documented neo-Neanderthal sits center stage, reveling in all of its now-truncated and diminished grandeur.
They say that beauty is only skin deep. True beauty, it has been said and oft repeated, lies much, much deeper.
Fool's gold shines as brightly as the real thing, but its value is considerably below that of the real McCoy.
Instead of teaching men to fish, the current cadre of theme designers appears all-too-content to feed the population of men one fish at a time.
If one has to go through Hell to learn how to become the master of their own website's theme destiny, then little wonder that so many opt out, preferring to dine on the steak grown in other, greener pastures, than to wait in line for PostNuke's fish dinner.
Capability and usability are two very distinct things. PostNuke has far more capability ingrained into it than it does usability. Nowhere is this more true, I feel, than at the level of theme design.
For the time being, I am content to fish from the shores of Lake PostNuke. It doesn't taker one very long to realize and to grasp, however, that these waters have more than one dead zone in them.
I have yet to discover a decent theme tutorial for PostNuke themes. The ones that I have seen written are written far above the level of understanding that a rank amateur to the PostNuke ranks understands.
And they wonder why Johnny can't read.
Maybe it's because their handwriting is too damned sloppy!
- GlueBeard -
Disclaimer: This posting is not directed at anyone individual in particular, nor at anyone on this site, per se. Rather, I just felt like posting on this subject today, and of all of the sites that I could have chosen to post it on, I simply chose this one. Nothing more, and nothing less. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Aug 19, 2004 - 11:32 PM
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| NOTE: I would have edited it for typos, of which there are several, but I don't possess that level of access in this forum. |
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mars |
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Post subject:
Posted: Aug 19, 2004 - 11:50 PM
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Site Admin
Joined: Aug 15, 2004
Posts: 4277
Status: Offline
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Errr...
You aren't logged in?
If you were you could edit.  |
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mars |
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Post subject:
Posted: Aug 19, 2004 - 11:51 PM
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Site Admin
Joined: Aug 15, 2004
Posts: 4277
Status: Offline
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| Uploading a revised version really soon too. |
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mars |
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Post subject:
Posted: Aug 20, 2004 - 12:49 AM
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Site Admin
Joined: Aug 15, 2004
Posts: 4277
Status: Offline
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And you really do have a great grasp of theme layout and design.
I hope you stick around a bunch. |
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GlueBeard |
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Post subject:
Posted: Aug 20, 2004 - 05:34 AM
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Pirate Critic
Joined: Aug 18, 2004
Posts: 347
Location: The Isle of GlueBeard
Status: Offline
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mars wrote:
Errr...
You aren't logged in?
If you were you could edit.
Damned technicalities!
Actually, I thought that I was logged in.
Well, I am logged in now, but since I posted it as a Guest, I still can't edit it. Hahahahaha! Woe is me, eh? |
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GlueBeard |
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Post subject:
Posted: Aug 21, 2004 - 04:40 AM
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Pirate Critic
Joined: Aug 18, 2004
Posts: 347
Location: The Isle of GlueBeard
Status: Offline
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| There......It's edited now. Thanks much. |
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GlueBeard |
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Post subject:
Posted: Aug 25, 2004 - 07:55 PM
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Pirate Critic
Joined: Aug 18, 2004
Posts: 347
Location: The Isle of GlueBeard
Status: Offline
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One of the most common maladies of websites, and particularly with regard to web sites that sit astride of Content Management Systems (CMS) such as PostNuke, but not limited thereto, is that of information overload.
Many things can contribute to information overload, where presentation to the site visitor is concerned. The sheer amount of information is one of them. Another is the methodologies of choice by which said information is organized, of which there can, and often are, more than a single one employed on a given web site at any given moment. Yet, another, is the degree to which various component parts of a web site compete with one another, which can, if uncontrolled or unrestrained, can result in an increase in negative chaotic effect.
Chaos is in an eternal struggle with order, and nowhere does this manifest itself in a more recognizable manner than with the way information is organized or disorganized on web sites.
Order can be instilled in a variety of ways. First and foremost, of course, lies in the web master being possessing of sufficient self-discipline to restrain himself or herself in the first place from placing too much information on any given web page, or on any given section, segment, portion, or area of a given web page.
On far too many web sites, the various core component parts and the various core concepts, themselves, are at war with one another, resulting in the site visitor being greeting by a virtual cacophony of disharmony.
Contrary to traditional and contemporary practice, however, not all of a site's features and/or information need be present or linked to off of the front page.
For the web master, it can often be very difficult trying to pick and choose from between various things that you want to display prominently on your website. This, in fact, is a never-ending struggle, one which even I, myself, continually go through, and which I all-too-often allow myself to lose.
Layout is a crucial ally of any web master or theme designer in combating this monstrosity of an enemy. How you choose to lay the information receptacles of your site out on your web pages DOES, indeed, matter, and it matters a great deal, in fact.
The entire space of any given web page is your canvas, and whether you realize it or not, your web site is a work of art. It might be a good work of art, or it might be a bad work of art, but it is a work of art, nonetheless. Thus, it can greatly behoove the theme designer or web master to treat their web site as such, and design their individual web pages, accordingly.
Particularly notorious for over-reliance upon a generic approach to theme crafting are PostNuke, PHP-Nuke, and other CMS type web sites. Generic, in this instance, does not refer to a plain or bland looking design, necessarily. Rather, by generic, as used in this present instance, I simply am referring to how lack of proper attention is given to the individual information receptacles, in favor of a quick and easy approach of "theming" the entire site.
While I, myself, do not presently use AutoThemes for my PostNuke web site, AutoThemes is a good example, I feel, of an attempt to break out of the traditional mold of PostNuke websites, as far as look and feel are concerned. Yet, that said, most of the web sites that I have seen that use AutoThemes still suffer from a reliance upon the same old "quick and easy" approach to thematics. In such instances, beauty is revealed to only be skin deep, because once you get past the front page, the gaping holes in such deficient theme handiwork becomes rather self-evident.
Thoroughly themed sites, then, what one might term the "total package," is the exception, rather than the rule, for AutoTheme and non-AutoTheme PostNuke sites alike. Rare, indeed, is it that one encounters a PostNuke web site that has been totally transformed from its humble thematic beginnings of the default themes included with the PostNuke software.
One of the core problems with information saturation is that, often times, a site visitor will simply overlook, quite inadvertently, something that they are either actively looking for, or something which they might have an interest in, if only it stood out and grabbed their attention.
Yet, due to the nonstop assailing of the human senses with seemingly vast masses of data and options, the crucial information necessary to convey unto the site visitor, in order to retain their attention and their interest in the site as a whole, are diminished. Congratulations, thus, go out to the thousands upon thousands of web masters who lose visitors to their respective sites due to such. Congratulations, indeed!
Color schemes, timely use of text, border effects, geometric variety, and a range of other such core concepts are all integral weapons in the ceaseless fight against the Borg-like persistence of information overload.
The great objective, however, is not for your web site's information to assimilate the site's visitors or users. Rather, it is the inverse of that, which is for the site visitor or regular user to assimilate the information.
If the visitor or user are unable to assimilate the information that your site acts as a repository for, then both you - the web master - and they - the visitor or user - lose.
In a twist of intense irony, most web masters address the problem of low user base by heaping on more and more and more reams of information and features. This only compounds, rather than fixes, the core problem at hand.
More, thus, is not always better, and, in fact, it normally is not better.
It is less of a question of HOW MUCH information that you present to your web site's users as it is a question of HOW you choose to present that very same information to them.
Since no one is a worse offender of this than I am, your situation, then, as a web master, has to be better than mine. So, take heart in that, and go and beat some sense back into the design of both your web site as a whole, and the individual web pages that collectively comprise the whole. |
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