In this article, I cover a number of patterns that crop up in my own WordPress client work, and in what I hear from others, both clients and other developers, about the shape and outcomes of their WordPress projects.
These patterns are, specifically, negative: consistent signs that either a developer or a client, or even an idea, may not be well-positioned to succeed as a WordPress client project.
This article’s structured into three parts:
- Developer warning signs: signs that the developer lacks important knowledge
- Client warning signs: potential signs of trouble behavior
- Project warning signs: signs that a project idea itself may not be well-conceived
I really hope this is of general use to people—both WordPress developers and people looking for WordPress development help—as they look to make 2017 a year in which more WordPress projects are a success for all involved. (That could even be a good New Year’s Resolution for all of us, if you’re still looking for one!)
I also hope that this article, which is rather critical throughout because of its structure, doesn’t feel unduly so to people. None of these principles are hard-and-fast: successful WordPress projects have existed that have contained each one of these “warning signs”—though probably not all of them all together. These signs are, instead, consistent trends that I’ve seen both executing and witnessing a number of successful and unsuccessful WordPress projects over the years.
Your thinking is a little bit narrow. Design is not only about : html, css ,php . You must know good knowledge of typography and color theory. So if you start to give advice , You must be aware of full of shit .
SKALAK25, same with your use of the English language: “you must know a good knowledge” of the language you’re using, or else you, too, must be “aware of full shit”.
Just came across this post via link from a more recent post from you. What a treasure of insight. Thanks.
Well done. I’ve worked with website clients for 20 years now and have developed a finely-tuned radar for likely-to-be-troublesome clients! Just recently acquired Client A, who is annoying in the most classic ways. I decided to work with her anyway, partly because she has a good budget and is quite willing to pay me fairly for my time. She referred me to Client B, who, interestingly, is a delight to work with in the most classic ways. Here’s the comparison: CLIENT A: Fought fiercely against my “I work only with one point person” rule. Consults her clueless Board members on entirely inappropriate level of decisions for website. (Would “sic” them on me directly if I allowed such horrors.) Instructs me on exactly how to design and lay out the website, with laughably little actual knowledge of best practices (example: all menu items should be Calls to Action.) Almost totally incapable of providing any content whatsoever, and requires me to enter all content. Actually believes that it is efficient to copy emails to more than one person. CLIENT B: From the beginning, respected my advice on almost everything. Has content already prepared, and a colleague to enter it. Has a general… Read more »
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Great post! I’ve been developing WP sites for about 6 years now off and on before that i was dev’ing with Drupal. While I love WP, I hate the admin stuff or course its much more nimble than Drupal. Does that make sense. 🙂 For me, it just seems so time consuming. I realize it is what it is. I like to add and I have this happen a few times. You start with a scope of the project then mid phase the client starts adding or reworking how they want things. Most of the time Im building the theme from scratch, then when these ‘reworking’s’ come into play, I almost always feel my code is getting muddy. Case in point, I was handed comps from a designer who know nothing of how WP works. Many of her comps were simply just a bit out of scope of how WP works (i.e, several co-authors, several cats with their own blogs, manual post archiving). It was bit of a nightmare for me because it was the first time I had to really wrangle WP in a way that I hadn’t done before. I tried to educate them along about the mishaps… Read more »
Amazing Post.
I’ve said to a client (Agency) “if you only read one web related post in 2017, READ THIS!
Thanks so much, Andrew! 🙂
Great post.
I have been and worked with just about every last one of these people and situations at this point.
A lot of lessons hard won here, and I hope maybe a couple of developers and clients find your post and maybe learn them the easy way.
It is especially nice to have my thoughts on builders stated so well. I have worked on projects in the past that included them, but some time ago I began just declining projects at the first mention of them. I state that I’m just not interested in working with a builder theme or plugin. So far precisely one client has opted to dump the builder app to retain me, and I’m okay with that.
I would add not continuing to learn, or incurious to the developer side. When working with another developer, I would prefer to work with one who has a limited experience and hunger to progress over one who has more experience and has lost that drive.
Definitely +1 on “Incurious.” I don’t know if I’ll add that to the piece itself, but it’s absolutely true that a huge part of a developer’s job is always to be learning.