WordPress and websites

WordPress and websites

Many of today’s routine activities happen with greater speed and require less understanding of the process.

An example might be that if you want to set the time, you don’t need to know how to balance the weights of the clock or comprehend longitude. You just move a slider on your mobile phone! Or if you need to start a car you don’t need to know how the internal combustion engine works – you just turn the key in the ignition.

But curiously, website creation, that most 21st century commercial activity, isn’t streamlined and requires a level of understanding. I was reflecting on this the other day after the latest meeting about my new website.

Just six years ago, designing a website meant taking pages that had their imagery and text fully laid out and then coding them so they worked as html. I anticipated the same sort of process in 2017. Given that I have made my transition to digital orthodontics in the same timeframe, I thought that if anything, the website construction would be more streamlined. This may be true of other sites, but not of mine.

My mistake was to overlook the fact that the website is moving to a new platform. In fact, the move to WordPress has been one of the drivers for refreshing the website. This time round, everything is happening in a more evolutionary manner. First there was the sitemap and then the wireframe. When that had been agreed, there were some initial template designs. These were then moved into an app so that we could see the initial home page online. Then it was the turn of the web developer to take over and create an html page. Finally, once all this had been achieved and agreed, it was time for the web developer to take all his coding and move it across to WordPress.

And it didn’t end there either. Because the coding is no longer for the website alone. He must also factor in mobile phones, ipads and tablets. In all there are about six iterations of my website.

There is another challenge to WordPress beyond just the build. This is that it’s a magnet for hackers. WordPress is so popular worldwide that the hacking community have made it their mission to infiltrate the site. This has involved another fundamental change. Hosting of the site will move to specialist servers which are both faster and more secure.

You are probably wondering why I have made the move to WordPress when it’s been such a labour of love. There are several answers but the main one is optimisation. The other is that I need to make it easier to update the site. In future I will be able to do this if I want to. This is one of the great attractions of WordPress – you don’t have to be a website developer in order to use it. And I’m certainly no developer!

2023-03-07T15:52:44+00:00For Patients|
Go to Top