Mel Choyce

  • Twenty Twenty-One Available for Download

    Twenty Twenty-One Available for Download

    I had the privilege of designing this year’s WordPress default theme, Twenty Twenty-One, which was released yesterday alongside WordPress 5.6. I started working on the initial concepts for the theme back in July, so seeing it finally launched is fantastic.

    Thanks to my amazing team of co-contributors: my co-lead Carolina Nymark, who spearheaded development of the theme, our theme wrangler Jessica Lyschik, and our supporting team including Beth Soderberg, Ellen Bauer, and Jonathan Desrosiers (go Sox!). Special thanks to Ari Stathopoulos, Kjell Reigstad, Allan Cole, Jeff Ong, Justin Ahinon, Rolf Siebers, Simon Resok, Guido Offermans, Kishan Jasani, Kelly Choyce-Dwan, and dozens of others for their numerous contributions to the theme, to Sarah Ricker and Enrique Sanchez for their guidance and help in making this theme WCAG 2.1 AAA-compatible, and to Josepha Haden and Chloé Bringmann, who always rallied up support when we needed it.

    Keep an eye on this space for a full breakdown of the design process sometime soon.

    mel

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  • Ratings

    Ratings

    I was thinking about WordPress themes this morning, and how hard it is to find a good theme. There are tons of themes that look great, but once I install them, I either have no idea how to set up the theme to look like the demo, or I’m presented with so many customization options that I say “whelp, nevermind!” and go try to find another one.

    In theory, ratings are supposed to help you find better themes, but they’re so open to interpretation that you really only end up getting unfocused opinions. I like this, therefore, five stars. I hate Gutenberg, therefore, zero stars. It’s not really helpful.

    What if theme ratings were more granular? For example:

    Aesthetics
    ☆☆☆☆☆

    Setup
    ☆☆☆☆☆
    ◻ Someone set it up for me

    Works as intended
    ☆☆☆☆☆
    Did you encounter any bugs?:

    Has the features I need
    ☆☆☆☆☆
    Elaborate:

    Helpful support
    ☆☆☆☆☆
    ◻ I haven’t contact support

    Optional Comments:

    Every person using a theme is, of course, biased — so in some ways the ratings would still be arbitrary — but by providing some semblance of categorization, we might at least help people think about the theme experience.

    You might be saying (because I am also thinking) — “oh, but Mel, it’s already hard to get people to fill out ratings. By adding more questions, wouldn’t it make it even harder?”

    Partially, yes. Someone’s gonna look at that form and be like “nah, pass.” But for some, the additional structure might make them more likely to review. I hate being presented with a single star rating field and a comment field because it feels so unstructured, I never know what to say. Since my name is always included, I feel like I need to have a smart response or else someone’s going to come along and be like, “wow, Mel’s an idiot.” Having a guided form like the above helps me at least rationalize how I feel about something, and by breaking it down into specifics, I feel like I can provide a more accurate rating.

    Anyway, just random a Sunday morning afternoon thought.

    mel

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  • Behind the Scenes of Twenty Seventeen

    It’s a wrap! After months of work and over 100 individual contributors, Twenty Seventeen, the new default theme for WordPress, shipped yesterday in WordPress 4.7 “Vaughan”:

    WordPress 4.7 “Vaughan”

    Twenty Seventeen was the first default WordPress theme I’ve had the pleasure of working on. I wanted to talk a little bit about the design and history of theme, and how we got to where it is now.

    The design that would eventually become Twenty Seventeen went through a couple iterations. At its earliest, it was a one-page restaurant theme that we didn’t feel comfortable tackling yet at Automattic. Once we figured out a good way to do multi-page homepages, I brought it back up and it was suggested I turn it into a business theme. This theme would eventually become Lodestar, a yet-to-be-launched theme on WordPress.com.

    Another couple rounds of iteration to introduce a more interesting grid, sharper typographic system, and the idea of video headers brought us to where Twenty Seventeen is today.

    The coolest part of Twenty Seventeen wasn’t just watching it come to life, it was also watching it work with WordPress core to introduce new features: video headers, starter content, and even edit shortcuts (another feature I worked on alongside the Customizer team). The theme worked well with the release, which was centered around the idea of “your site, your way.” 4.7 is one of the most exciting releases yet, and I’m happy Twenty Seventeen contributed to that.

    Of course, any good default theme also needs a strong team behind it. Working with Laurel Fulford and David Kennedy on the theme has been an absolute pleasure. Laurel coded my designs with accuracy and precision, and was ever patient and gracious in the face of my nitpicking. DK kept us on-track, and made the hard decisions that led us to success. You can read his writeup here:

    https://davidakennedy.com/2016/12/07/dear-twenty-seventeen-contributors/

    I’m thankful for all 103 contributors who helped create Twenty Seventeen:

    aaroncampbell, acmethemes, adammacias, afercia, ahortin, akshayvinchurkar, alex27, allancole, anilbasnet, b-07, binarymoon, bradyvercher, brainstormforce, caspie, celloexpressions, claudiosanches, clorith, davidakennedy, davidmosterd, delawski, dimadin, dineshc, doughamlin, electricfeet, enodekciw, fencer04, for, grapplerulrich, hardeepasrani, helen, hiddenpearls, idealien, imnok, implenton, implenton, initial, iv, joefusco, joemcgill, johnpgreen, jordesign, joshcummingsdesign, joyously, juanfra, karmatosed, laurelfulford, leobaiano, littlebigthing, lukecavanagh, mageshp, mahesh901122, manishsongirkar36, mapk, mattwiebe, mbelchev, metodiew, mor10, mrahmadawais, netweb, nikschavan, nnaimov, noplanman, nukaga, ocean90, odysseygate, patch, patilvikasj, peterwilsoncc, pratikchaskar, pressionate, presskopp, rabmalin, ranh, rianrietveld, ryelle, sami, samikeijonen, sandesh055, sgr33n, sirbrillig, sixhours, smyoon315, snacking, soean, sstoqnov, swapnilld, swisspidy, swissspidy, taggon, tg29359, themeshaper, transl8or, tsl143, tywayne, valeriutihai, voldemortensen, vrundakansara, westonruter, williampatton, yoavf, yogasukma, and zodiac1978.

    All you folks were a pleasure to work with. We made a pretty dang nice default theme, if I do say so myself.

    mel

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  • Say Hello to Twenty Seventeen ??

    It’s that time again: time to build a new default theme for WordPress! WordPress 4.7 will launch with a brand new theme – Twenty Seventeen. Designed by Mel Choyce (@melchoyce), Twenty Seventeen sports a modern look and will make a good base for any business website or product showcase.

    — Say Hello to Twenty Seventeen ?? – Make WordPress Core

    More to come at the end of the cycle, where I’ll talk about the whole process behind the theme, but for now I wanted to announce that I’m working on Twenty Seventeen, next year’s default WordPress theme. ?

    Check out the post for more details, and key an eye out for my full write-up once WordPress 4.7 is released later this year!

    mel

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