Why do marketing people think they are web designers?
17 December 2013, 02:48 PM
#32
Just reading this thread and I'm so glad I don't work in this area any more... That said, it's just a whole new set of problems, oddly enough all down to people not understanding how systems and processes work which I guess is the same old problem! 
17 December 2013, 05:08 PM
#34
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17 December 2013, 06:08 PM
#35
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Wordpress themes can be fantastic. I put this one together for a bag of wood, probably took an evening and a bit.
There still some blanks to fill, but all the same.
www.blaiseintrees.com
I'm looking for a Drupal themer right now, if anyone has Omega experience give me a shout. Will pay more than a bag of wood, but nothing silly.
By visiting the above link you agree to cookies and stuff like that, alright?
There still some blanks to fill, but all the same.
www.blaiseintrees.com
I'm looking for a Drupal themer right now, if anyone has Omega experience give me a shout. Will pay more than a bag of wood, but nothing silly.
By visiting the above link you agree to cookies and stuff like that, alright?
Last edited by JackClark; 17 December 2013 at 11:31 PM.
17 December 2013, 08:04 PM
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Wordpress themes can be fantastic. I put this one together for a bag of wood, probably took an evening and a bit.
There still some blanks to fill, but all the same.
www.blaiseintrees.com
I'm looking for a Drupal themer right now, if anyone has Omega experience give me a shout. Will pay more than a bag of wood, but nothing silly.
There still some blanks to fill, but all the same.
www.blaiseintrees.com
I'm looking for a Drupal themer right now, if anyone has Omega experience give me a shout. Will pay more than a bag of wood, but nothing silly.
A ton of CSS and JS files.
No need for that many HTTP requests, combine & minify.
Last edited by ScoobyNoob79; 17 December 2013 at 08:06 PM.
17 December 2013, 08:36 PM
#38
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Got a client who wants a nice simple CMS driven responsive website building. Met with them, but their marketing person (consultant) wasn't able to attend at the last minute. Anyway talked over some ideas and went away and did some designs.
Presented these with the rationale behind them to client/marketing consultant and a design was settled upon albeit with a few suggested tweaks.
All goood, happy days!
HoweverI then get an email from said marketing consultant saying she has changed her mind and we need this that and the other. I explain that her ideas won't really work in a repsonsive design, but she tells me not many people use mobile devices especially phones for viewing websites so forget about 'your silly responsive nonsense'
Now she has sent a full design through...... done in Powerpoint! OMG!!!
I have just told them to find a new web monkey as they already have a 'deisgner' in their marketing consutant!
Presented these with the rationale behind them to client/marketing consultant and a design was settled upon albeit with a few suggested tweaks.
All goood, happy days!
HoweverI then get an email from said marketing consultant saying she has changed her mind and we need this that and the other. I explain that her ideas won't really work in a repsonsive design, but she tells me not many people use mobile devices especially phones for viewing websites so forget about 'your silly responsive nonsense'
Now she has sent a full design through...... done in Powerpoint!
OMG!!!I have just told them to find a new web monkey as they already have a 'deisgner' in their marketing consutant!
let the experts do what the experts do, I do as I'm told by my web designer, my accountant and my doctor. Oh and the wife 
as she is an expert in fcukin everything.
17 December 2013, 09:02 PM
#39
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If they paid a builder to build a house I don't think they'd attempt to get involved, they'd feel out of their depth, whereas the misconception with design is anyone can do it.
17 December 2013, 11:24 PM
#41
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Drupal has a lovely tick box for that. Yes premium theme, I'm sure it does drive you crazy, bottom of the List for me. 1 more article being top on that site.
17 December 2013, 11:25 PM
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17 December 2013, 11:37 PM
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Minification, caching, image optimisation etc..
Improves user experience, is better for SEO(Google takes load time seriously in it's algorithm), a fast seamless site also improves conversions.
If for whatever reason the user has a slower connection, or the server is having a bad day, that site may load just a little too slow for the vistitor so they move onto the next site.
Lost customer.
That site is making 101 HTTP requests, the slowest being over 30 seconds, that's just ridiculous!
If you're just letting your CMS manage load time, i.e Drupal, then you're doing it wrong anyway.
Hell, you could even just configure the site to run via gzip, one command, all set.
Scott
Last edited by ScoobyNoob79; 17 December 2013 at 11:39 PM.
17 December 2013, 11:39 PM
#44
Anyone here takes a few psd files and turn them into a website for me? If so send us an email kenny.cullen@virgin.net
17 December 2013, 11:41 PM
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Anyone here takes a few psd files and turn them into a website for me? If so send us an email kenny.cullen@virgin.net
Scott
17 December 2013, 11:52 PM
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Anyone here takes a few psd files and turn them into a website for me? If so send us an email kenny.cullen@virgin.net
18 December 2013, 10:14 AM
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Jack, give the wp-minify plugin a try, that'll help out part of the way with your shopping list of css/js files - unfortunately WordPress is going to be like that on most 'modern' (read: full of shiny/slidey/all-singing-all-dancing) themes due to the way we have to enqueue files, and then plugins do the same!
18 December 2013, 10:52 AM
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Jack, give the wp-minify plugin a try, that'll help out part of the way with your shopping list of css/js files - unfortunately WordPress is going to be like that on most 'modern' (read: full of shiny/slidey/all-singing-all-dancing) themes due to the way we have to enqueue files, and then plugins do the same!
For example, the theme uses a ton of jQuery plugins, so instead of loading them all seperately throw them all in one JS file, then any custom JS and function calls in another, so then all you'd have for instance would be:
jquery.js
plugins.js
application.js
Same with the CSS, either throw it all in one file or use a little PHP that will combine and minify at runtime.
18 December 2013, 01:24 PM
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plugins.js would only work like that if you wrote your own built-in plugins, the whole point of the enqueue system is that if a file is needed, it's added, if it already exists from another plugin/the theme itself (if they enqueue and not just link in header.php) then it won't re-add it. If you have a file that includes all of the common JS libraries/frameworks, WordPress will still enqueue them as soon as a plugin requires it, as it won't know it's already included.
18 December 2013, 01:39 PM
#50
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plugins.js would only work like that if you wrote your own built-in plugins, the whole point of the enqueue system is that if a file is needed, it's added, if it already exists from another plugin/the theme itself (if they enqueue and not just link in header.php) then it won't re-add it. If you have a file that includes all of the common JS libraries/frameworks, WordPress will still enqueue them as soon as a plugin requires it, as it won't know it's already included.
Same with the CSS, i.e: framework.css, tables.css, buttons,css etc... Pointless loading them all individually, minify them and load then as one file, a single HTTP request.
You can then go further and use gzip compression if your server supports it and if on a dedicated server put Varnish infront of the web server to cache.
18 December 2013, 04:09 PM
#51
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Jack, give the wp-minify plugin a try, that'll help out part of the way with your shopping list of css/js files - unfortunately WordPress is going to be like that on most 'modern' (read: full of shiny/slidey/all-singing-all-dancing) themes due to the way we have to enqueue files, and then plugins do the same!
18 December 2013, 04:19 PM
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Jack, also if your server supports gzip add a .htaccess file to the root and add this:
# Gzip files
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
AddType x-font/otf .otf
AddType x-font/ttf .ttf
AddType x-font/eot .eot
AddType x-font/woff .woff
AddType image/x-icon .ico
AddType image/png .png
Speed everything up no end.
# Gzip files
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
AddType x-font/otf .otf
AddType x-font/ttf .ttf
AddType x-font/eot .eot
AddType x-font/woff .woff
AddType image/x-icon .ico
AddType image/png .png
Speed everything up no end.
Last edited by ScoobyNoob79; 18 December 2013 at 04:22 PM.
18 December 2013, 07:54 PM
#53
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Plugin was an example name, it could have been jquery-libs.js, I didnt mean the JS that gets enqueued from ACTUAL WP plugins, I mean't the JS the author has included from JQUERY plugins, i.e: jquery-validation, masonry, etc...
Same with the CSS, i.e: framework.css, tables.css, buttons,css etc... Pointless loading them all individually, minify them and load then as one file, a single HTTP request.
You can then go further and use gzip compression if your server supports it and if on a dedicated server put Varnish infront of the web server to cache.
Same with the CSS, i.e: framework.css, tables.css, buttons,css etc... Pointless loading them all individually, minify them and load then as one file, a single HTTP request.
You can then go further and use gzip compression if your server supports it and if on a dedicated server put Varnish infront of the web server to cache.
Have heard good things about varnish but personally run nginx instead, currently running just under 1k WordPress based websites across multiple servers and it seems to handle it well enough
18 December 2013, 08:05 PM
#54
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I get exactly the same things, if not more often as I'm a graphic designer. As I'm not a web designer by any means, i take absolutely nothing to do with it, at most I'll create some low-res jpgs lol. Very irritating to be told by some marketing consultant to move/change/edit things as they know best 
There are far too many bad web designers out there nowadays. Really like the Blaise in trees site
There are far too many bad web designers out there nowadays. Really like the Blaise in trees site
18 December 2013, 08:20 PM
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Oh I agree (partly anyways) with that then, I tend to load jquery from Google now, much simpler to keep it up-to-date, apart from that, most of it I already do, there's nothing worse than inheriting a site/being asked to work on a site that has multiple CSS files, finding that 1 class can be a royal pita!
Have heard good things about varnish but personally run nginx instead, currently running just under 1k WordPress based websites across multiple servers and it seems to handle it well enough
Have heard good things about varnish but personally run nginx instead, currently running just under 1k WordPress based websites across multiple servers and it seems to handle it well enough
Although, I always include a version for offline use and make a check in the header.
I don't mind the CSS files being seperate from a development point of view, so long as the files are named accordingly but they MUST be combined/minified for production.
For example, my own CSS open source framework has styles like scaffolding.css, icons.css, buttons.css, plugins.css, application.css but once the site is run all those automatically get minified and compressed via PHP into a single file, minified.css.php
As for finding a class, use dev tools in chrome
