WPwatercooler

EP16 – WordPress Web Trends for 2013 – WPwatercooler – January 7 2013

“WordPress Web Trends for 2013” we are joined with Suzette Franck, Elizabeth Shilling, Sé Reed, Steve Zehngut, Jon Brown, Dave Jesch, Chris Lema and out host Jason Tucker. Recording starts at 11:00am PST on Mondays.

Might be a little difficult to talk about…
Alex has nice hair. Pasadena WordPress Meetup 1/29th.
Talking about the latest and greatest in WordPress.
Jason brings up the revamp of working with Post Format UI.
Post formats is a way to add image, video,etc to posts.
Alex asks how many really use post formats with projects working on.
Steve discusses what it currently offers.
Jason mentions that your looking to do custom post type with post formats mix together.
Steve agrees he that he would want that.
Sé realizes that you can’t do that, expand post formats.
Sé asks, “Why not make your own custom post type?”
Steve explains how they work differently; post format is basically a display mechanism. It’s a different way to templating. You could use custom post types for the way he’s using them, but then you get extra tabs.
Se asks if you can do custom post types and custom formats for the custom post types?
You can do them now, Steve informs; can’t expand post formats. Post formats and post custom types are two different things. Chris would give a great explanation if he were here.

Sé brings up Chris’ blog post that sparked a conversation about WordPress as a web application platform.
Jason mentions how WordPress is being used more and more for an application environment.
Sé mentions how it’s funny they say you shouldn’t be doing something that you are already doing. Mentioned how Matt Mullenweg wants WordPress it move toward an application environment and app themes.

Steve brings it back to post formats. He compares it to Tumblr and based around content; what they are for. They are meant to change the display of the post within your theme. Post format can be applied to custom post types; like a custom post type event and a post format around that event would be image.
Alex adds that Tumblr eclipsed blog as a search term.
Sé suggests that maybe everyone figured out what blog already meant and are trying to figure out what Tumblr is.
Steve mentions that Tumblr is a competitor of WordPress.
Sé mentions how limited Tumblr is.
Steve agrees that it was a bold statement. WordPress is a platform and Tumblr is not.
Jason adds that you can’t open an ecommerce solution on Tumblr.
Sé mentions how all you can do is blog on Tumblr. It makes sense to say that Tumblr shouldn’t become a solution environment, whereas WordPress has been so much more than just even a content management
system.
Steve mentions that Tumblr is a more of a competitor for WordPress.com. Tumblr a better comparison to Tumblr is an Instagram.
Wes asks about making any money setting up Tumblr.
Sé mentions maybe for training.
Steve mentions how he uses it for his clients and how it may meet their needs; basically ease of use.
Jason suggests the possibility of making something in WordPress with Tumblr capabilites for clients and if that what Steve does?
Steve shares his solution.
Sé mentions the importance of post formats to compete with that.
Steve predicts that WordPress.com will be develop as an competitor for Tumblr and how Mullenweg has mentioned desire to move toward an ease of use of the dashboard.
Sé counters how WordPress is not complicated.
Steve disagrees and brings up various users, such as his mom.
Sé mentions how clients find WordPress easy.
Dave joins in about how people think tech is complicated, yet WordPress is not very difficult.
Steve mentions the grief using the WordPress dashboard for a newbie.
Wes shares his experience with clients and the difficulties for them to ‘get’ it.
Sé mentions using videos.
Suzette mentions WP Help.
Jeff jumps with words of wisdom regarding Tumblr and we have Tumblr Watercooler for a few. This is great insight for the core working on WordPress.com. For someone who wants to make a little community to post photo and words to; the phone app rocks.

Steve hopes for in 2013 an UI overhaul.
Jason hopes for mobile app reflect what can be done in the dashboard too.
Sé want mobile dev too.
Alex wants custom post types on mobile.
With XLMRPC, Steve can do it. He’s sending it to core.

Elizabeth mentions design.
Jason speaks about parallax; also how devs might not be very impressed with the types of design technologies, that customers would look at and think, wow, this is a really cool thing.
Alex questions if that adds value; whether it’s old or new or not. Does it help tell the story?
Dave shares how he helped a client with responsive design for a client with a small number of thier users are using mobile or tablets; in that case it wasn’t needed.

Elizabeth mentions how 3-dimensional design will be occurring more and more; specifically for mobile use. Header less of importance; whereas items will have higher significance. Importance of keeping your columns slim, citing Chris Lema; consideration of being mobile will be taken more in effect for design.
Sé mentions how everything is getting bigger it won’t matter.
Elizabeth responds how she won’t be carrying a tablet.
Wes brings up the importance people will start looking at their designs a lot more and designing around the content; call to action, images, videos. No need for bloated sites.
David adds, doesn’t help them convert.
Steve sums it up as being a UX issue more than an UI issue. Start thinking about is how do you use something on a mobile device versus how do you use it on the desktop.
Sé agrees and continues to question and why do you use it on a mobile device; illustrates the difference between use in your car looking how to get to a restaurant versus being at home looking at videos at night.
Alex adds what are these sites are going to be for, and laser focus the type of content we are going to show on mobile; are we going to display the whole site. This big ole long thing, or are we just going
to show the necessary bits?
Wes mentions Ethan Marcotte method, the thought of when redoing Boston Globe website; do they need this on mobile? Then questioning if they don’t need it on mobile, do they need it on the desktop in the first place. Wes states that someone may be viewing the site will sitting at home on their couch and how mobile doesn’t necessarily mean mobile, they are not out.
Sé clarifies it really just mean mobile device.
Wes continues how we are getting into the importance of content whether we need it is needed or not.
Dave shares how a lot of clients want all the bells and whistles just because you can; and maybe you shouldn’t.
Se shares past trend of all the things ‘needed’ on a site and now how there’s more importance on content; which may make for a better internet experience.

Elizabeth suggests using another accent color rather than orange.

Jason brings up the request for having content above the fold and what that means to mobile design/experience; especially in regards to navigation.
Wes mentions having menu at the bottom.
Sé mentions layout expectations that have developed over a short period of time; mentions how it might not be as important to follow the traditional format due to mobile.
Elizabeth suggests huge buttons on the screen to begin with to navigate to where you want to go.
Steve’s typing loud.
Sé shares her pet peeve; being looping back into the mobile site. Sé mentions how we are due for a change.

Jason announces that WordPress Watercooler will be streaming live from WordCamp Phoenix. Sé, Jason and Suzette will be speaking at WCP. There are 3 tracks in 3 days; OCWPWCPHX is coined by Sé.

Special Thanks to Elizabeth Shilling for the show notes. Visit her site at: http://www.orcawebperformance.com/

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One response to “EP16 – WordPress Web Trends for 2013 – WPwatercooler – January 7 2013”

  1. StephenPKane Avatar
    StephenPKane

    Who did the show notes write up? Posting them is brilliant and uber useful.

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