Theme Wrangler’s Toolset

One of the things I love about my job, is that it sits at an intersection of product design and front-end development. This means I get to practise both, and my job is always interesting. Although I'm both a designer and front-end developer, my toolset is fairly small, and many of the apps are universally useful …

Embracing web-safe fonts

Before webfonts were widely available, designers relied on a relatively small number of web-safe fonts, i.e. fonts that come pre-installed with various operating systems, and thus most likely to be present on user’s devices. As a result the web was saturated with Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Georgia and Times New Roman. While these fonts are not …

From a marathon to a sprint

Developing and launching a theme on WordPress.com is a long, multi-step process that can take weeks, if not months in some cases. We would typically do it all alone, working in relative seclusion, sharing our progress only at certain points. This approach has a few drawbacks — it limits the potential for synergy, it makes …

Fixing the theme customization experience

Have you ever used Instagram? If you did, you’re probably familiar with the filters it offers, that let you change the look and feel of a photo instantly. It's very easy and satisfying - just swipe through available filters and apply with a tap. Under the hood, each of these filters is a combination of …

Reflections on theme retirements

For the past few weeks I’ve been gradually retiring themes from the WordPress.com showcase. Retirement may sound a bit dramatic, but it simply means a theme will be removed from our offerings, and new customers won’t be able to activate it on their sites. This way we can keep our theme collection fresh and make sure …

Evolution of a theme

On WordPress.com we have a showcase full of beautiful, diverse themes, but it has an ugly side as well, hidden from the public view. Behind the scenes we have Trac (our bug tracking system of choice) full of issues reported by our customers. Some of those issues are legitimate bugs. Oftentimes though, we receive reports …