Design is very important in almost everything in our life. Look around you, and inside of you. You will see that design has been implemented in Everything! Today, people tend to understand and learn more about design aspects as they realize how important design is to our lives.
So, now that we know that design is important, we can’t deny that design is hard, it’s not that easy to come up with a design, especially if you are designing for the future.
Some people are gifted though, they -simply- can see things that others just can’t see or even imagine, this is exactly what happened with Thesis 2.0, a lot of people are against it, a few people like it and see its potential.
My first impression about Thesis 2.0
When I first had a chance to test Thesis 2.0, I quickly realized its power, and I understood why it took 2 years between planning and development. I was actually impressed!
My impression didn’t came out of the space though!
I say this because I had some coding and designing battle. I was partnering with Andy Bailey -the creator of CommentLuv plugin– in a new project, our goal was to develop a WordPress plugin that mainly uses a drag and drop UI to create landing and squeeze pages in a way that no has has ever seen before.
Unfortunately, we spent more than 6 months of development with no luck. Andy had to re-code the whole thing from scratch more than once, and we weren’t satisfied about the way it works. We wanted to make something really unique and easy to use, something out of this World, but it just didn’t happen yet.
So, I see things from this point of view, and I can imagine and appreciate time and effort required in product development process.
What’s really wrong with Thesis 2.0?
I will put together a quick answer to this question based on my personal opinion, so please don’t take it personal! (if you have another opinion, shoot it!)
The short answer is : Nothing is wrong with Thesis 2.0
So?!
The problem is not in Thesis 2.0 itself, the real problem -as I see it- is in people’s minds, I think most of them got freaked out by a Technology shock!
Don’t get me wrong! Most of us would enjoy an easy to play game, but mostly you will hate a game that is hard to play!
Why Thesis 2.0 is hard to play with?
Despite the fact that Thesis 2.0 provide you with a lot of awesome and easy to use tools, you will hate the whole framework if it messes with your creativity.
This is what happen when you get challenged by an empty, white, or a blank page!
Simply, because Thesis 2.0 touches your creativity!
And, this is why you are mad with it, and you hate it.
Other examples of brilliant tools that most people don’t get!
A lot of developers has been working so hard recently to bring you awesome tools that you can depend on while designing your sites, or your clients. I’ve seen really interesting stuff, and I love the fact that the way we design and develop for the web will get several serious changes in the coming years.
Here is a few examples to look at:
Headway 2.0
I remember the same exact thing happen when Headway 3.0 was first released, a lot of people got mad, while I think it’s a fantastic theme framework.
All this was because of the blank page, no one expected or wanted a blank page.
The Product Skin
Another example is my Product Skin for Thesis that make use of WordPress widgets to simply create an awesome landing page that will help you to sell almost anything! I’ve made all styles for the user, so they don’t have to code or style anything.
Some people just love it and figure it out right away, they were able to create amazing pages. However, some others hate it to death, probably because it gives them a blank page to start with, and … it touches their creativity!
Pages and Layout Builders, and Themes
I can talk about this till tomorrow, so I will just give you a few examples of builders (these are my aff links):
- ElegantThemes‘ page builder
- Ether Content Builder WordPress Plugin
- Content Builder
- Visual Composer For WordPress
- Impact Page Builder
- Catalyst Theme
Cool?!
What ZERO coding means?
It means that you don’t need to code! It’s simple to understand… Right?
But, why most of themes’ authors promote their themes as “zero code required” while it actually takes a lot of work and “code” to build a website using these tools?!
Here is my answer:
When a theme is advertised as “No coding required”, then believe it or not, this is true and 100% correct statement!
All what you need to do is setting up the theme, check a few settings, and you’ve got a running and ready to go site… Boom!
But, hold on a second! Why people complains?!
You see, everybody wants to have a unique and standing out design, plus specific functionality (for example: new widget areas, extra menus… etc.) People always ask for more, try to find out what’s missing, focus on cons, and ask for the impossible!
At this point, people often forgot the whole point of the new tools in their hands, they forgot that no coding is required to build a site (unless someone wants special and specific functions, then you must code it, this is something else), Again.. You don’t have to code unless you want too. This is exactly what zero coding means, and that’s how all these products has been advertised by its authors though.
So, if you don’t get it, this is your own problem, and you have to solve it between You and yourself.
You can blog, you can build websites, you can design, but maybe you can’t innovate!
Why People Attack Thesis 2.0?
In many places, Thesis 2.0 has been attacked.
I personally got a few attacks by some Thesis Theme users plus some other non-users who don’t agree with my opinion about Thesis 2.0, and I just want to say that it’s not a problem if you don’t agree with me. But, being negative all the way down won’t solve any issue, you are just complicating things for yourself, so take it easy!
We all need to make Thesis Theme better framework, and this is what the DIYThemes staff are after. (I say that because I got the chance to work closely with the team being part of Thesis 2.0 testing group, and I am really enjoying it, it’s one of the best experiences I’ve ever had).
Trust me on this, we need to work together to make things better, so why not join the party?!
Giving a good feedback always makes a difference. I remember that I didn’t design FamousBloggers.net by myself, but it was a result of great feedback from many awesome people helped in designing the blog.
Believe me, we are so lucky to have these new design tools, and we must be thankful for those developers who do the hard part of the work for us and appreciate it. Try to help them out, support their ideas, and work together on making our business better.
Why it’s Hard to understand Thesis?
It’s now handed to you!
You see, it’s not enough to just say “I do’t like it”, at least explain your point of view!
Tell us…
What’s the hardest part in Thesis 2.0? Why?
And, in your opinion how we can improve it?
Image : © vladgrin – Fotolia.com