1. WordPress as Custom CMS
Jason Paul
@iAmJasonPaul

2. About Jason Paul
 Designer/Partner at Trasaterrawith EwaOrzech in Dumbo.
We focus on Branding, Design &Digital Strategy
http://trasaterra.com
 Designing websites since 1998
 Sometimes blogger at http://jasonpaul.net
 Built first WordPress theme for a client in early 2010 (pre-3.0)
 Built a lot of sites on WordPress for clients since then

3. Why WordPress as Custom
CMS?
 It’s easy to use! (for content managers)
 Client’s have heard of it. Client’s want to use it.
 Designers/Developers can make it do a lot with low overhead costs.
 Has WordPress won the CMS “war”?
 Clients seeking to transition from other CMS platforms
(Drupal, EE, Joomla)
 More and more functions and plugins available for WordPress

4. Custom WordPress:
Philosophy
 It’s all about the client experience on the dashboard
(user experience – UX)
 Understand the client’s website needs
 Don’t assume just because WordPress is “easy” that out-of-the-box is right for your
client
 Customize the dashboard to facilitate precise interactions for:
 E-commerce
 Portfolios
 Catalogs
 Case-Studies
 Galleries
 Multisites with Microsites

5. How We Create Sites that will run
on WordPress
 Wireframe
 http://www.balsamiq.com/
 Design (branding)
 http://trasaterra.com
 Develop (WordPress)
 Theme Framework
 Functions
 Plugins

6. Pick a Good Theme
Framework
 I prefer a framework with a good grid and as little stylistic design as possible.
 Always child theme!
 Theme frameworks I use and like:
 Twenty Ten – An oldie but a goodie. Very well documented. (Responsive
Twenty Ten and Twenty Till Noon are great child themes to build responsive
sites off of a Twenty Ten parent)
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/twentyten
 Yoko – A pretty good, free, responsive theme with 1140 grid
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/yoko
 Fluid by Themefit – a really great premium responsive framework
http://themefit.com/responsive-wordpress-themes/

7. Functions: Custom Post
Types
 WordPress comes with two native post types: posts and pages
 Custom Post Types help organize the dashboard for your clients
 Examples of Custom Post Type tabs I create a lot:
 Products
 Work (or Portfolio)
 Case Studies
 Team

8. Functions: Taxonomies
 Categories and Tags are the native taxonomies that come with the
native WP Post Type Posts
(Categories are hierarchical and tags are non hierarchical – both useful for Custom Post
types!)
 Example of how taxonomies could be used for custom post types
 Custom Post Type: Work
• Taxonomies name for work = Filter (hierarchical)
• Term names for Filter could be:
Consumer, Healthcare, Commercial, Featured
• (Term names operate just like category or tag names)

9. Plugins: Advanced Custom
Fields
 http://www.advancedcustomfields.com/
 My vote for WordPress MVP. If you’re serious about WordPress as a
CMS for client work you need this plugin!
 Allows flexible design of dashboard custom fields
 You create an experience your client will use
 Replaces the need for many additional WordPressplugins such as
sliders by allowing easier integration directly with jQueryplugins
 IMO you can’t really claim WordPress as a full CMS unless you are
using a plugin like this

10. Plugins: Advanced Post Types
Order
 http://www.nsp-code.com/premium-plugins/wordpress-
plugins/advanced-post-types-order/
 Intuitive drag and drop re-ordering of your Custom Post Type Posts
and Taxonomies

11. Plugin: Previous and Next Post
in Same Taxonomy
 http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/previous-and-next-post-in-same-
taxonomy/
 Page click through to posts within taxonomies
 Once you start using Custom Post Types and Taxonomies in
conjunction you are going to be glad Bill Erickson created this plugin

12. Plugin: Gravity Forms
 http://www.gravityforms.com/
 The best WordPress form creator for developers to create forms

13. Plugin: Cart66 (e-commerce)
 http://cart66.com/
 Doesn’t get in the way of your theme
 Comprehensive e-commerce dashboard
 Integrates with Gravity Forms (caveat: this integration may be too
involved for some clients…leave it to the developer!)
 WordPress can be used for a great e-commerce site.
 (Developing E-commerce requires a lot of administrative work.
Get ready to to put in a lot more time than you planned for)

14. Networks: Multisite
 Useful for spinning off microsites without involving the “main-site”
 Sometimes multisite is a better solution than Custom Post Types
(I’ve learned the hard way)
 Creating microsites with Multisite can sometimes be easier
 It’s subtractive: just delete code that you don’t need
 It’s lightweight: just use posts, pages, categories and tags
 Multisites are disposable (which can take the pressure off!)

15. A Few Sites We Designed and
Developed on WordPress
 http://bfflco.com/
Custom Post Types, Taxonomies, E-commerce, ACF
 http://www.artnews.com/
Taxonomies, E-commerce, Multisite
 http://iondesign.com/
Custom Post Types, Taxonomies, ACF
 http://colinpatrickinteriors.com/
Custom Post Types, ACF
 http://phoebejonas.com/
Custom Post Types, Taxonomies, ACF, E-commerce, Gravity Forms

16. Demo

17. That’s it for Now!
 Any questions?

18. Thank You for Your Time!
 Jason Paul
 Twitter: @iAmJasonPaul
 Design Studio: Trasaterra.com
 Blog: jasonpaul.net