KISS Web Development

[mikey-Oh]

Howdy folks!

In my last week with my current employer, and I've been charged with the task of converting their webpage into something my boss can update. I have my doubts, but is there something simple and easy enough a layman can utilize and update?

They've got me through the week so I can build the backend, but he'll need a simple UI. Kinda tending toward wordpress, but that again might be a bit complex and I'm not entirely sure it will function as intended. Especially considering one should be active with plugins making sure they are up to date.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[Locals Find!]

If your boss is insistent on cheaping out on this and not going with a professional save yourself and him, the headaches of building the backend.

Use http://www.yola.com/ it will also convert automatically to a mobile site along with the standard site its easy & cheap.

 

[MatthewTimothy]

well 1st, what is the purpose of the site?? Hard to tell someone or give suggestions when the end product is not mentioned.

 

[Circleville Signs]

I have one word for you...

Headway.

As in www.headwaythemes.com

if you are even a little bit proficient with CSS, and have a decent grasp of how Wordpress works, you absolutely CANNOT beat this framework. It provides the easiest CMC out there (Wordpress), and gives you unlimited design flexibility.

 

[MatthewTimothy]

I have one word for you...

Headway.

As in www.headwaythemes.com

if you are even a little bit proficient with CSS, and have a decent grasp of how Wordpress works, you absolutely CANNOT beat this framework. It provides the easiest CMC out there (Wordpress), and gives you unlimited design flexibility.

IF you are proficient with wordpress there is no reason to pay someone 100 bucks a year for a tool.

 

[Circleville Signs]

I'm not really sure that you have a grasp on what Headway actually does dude. That beins said, i'm a legacy user. I paid I think around $189 one time for the 2.x developer license - so I get all future updates for free.

I'm telling you though - Headway is wicked cool. And for someone who is a really good designer, but who isn't a programmer, you can't beat it if you want to create WP bases sites.

 

[mikey-Oh]

If your boss is insistent on cheaping out on this and not going with a professional save yourself and him, the headaches of building the backend.

Use http://www.yola.com/ it will also convert automatically to a mobile site along with the standard site its easy & cheap.

Thanks Addy, unfortunately this professional is heading for greener pastures. So he needs something he can handle. Yola looks simple enough.

well 1st, what is the purpose of the site?? Hard to tell someone or give suggestions when the end product is not mentioned.

Sorry to be vague MatthewTimothy, basically converting the existing Yukon Trophy website over into something he can add or remove items. Simple here we are this is what we do page, not really dynamic and will probably end up ignored for many more years.

I have one word for you...

Headway.

As in www.headwaythemes.com

if you are even a little bit proficient with CSS, and have a decent grasp of how Wordpress works, you absolutely CANNOT beat this framework. It provides the easiest CMC out there (Wordpress), and gives you unlimited design flexibility.

Sweet Circleville, alas there's no CSS proficiency in his bag of tools. Though this might be the best solution. I can at least get the template built and functional, then he can drag and drop to his heart's content.

 

[Circleville Signs]

HE doesn't need any CSS proficiency - just you Once you have the site set up he can use WP's simple input on the back end to add/change things.

 

[signswi]

Headway can be a great solution and I'm a massive WordPress fanatic but for a situation like this I'd probably recommend http://squarespace.com

 

[TyrantDesigner]

I'm just going to quote what I said in another post.

for 'blog' style sites (no ecommerce, no massive scripting not a big gallery, etc) your golden 5 will be wordpress, joomla, drupal, typepad and b2 evolution ... all have their strengths, for most people they need a wordpress site that is properly themed to allow them to easily edit and go from there.

beyond that if you need a page editor cms there are hundreds out there (no post type pages, just a wysiwyg editor ... or a dynamic editor, simple layouts, everything on a page is a component and you build your site page by page) golden examples are concrete5, opencms, frog cms, bluesky canvas, cms made easy and zimplit ... I prefer opencms, concrete5 and zimplit out of them.

ecommerce ... really as a stand alone it comes down to oscommerce and zen cart ... but both drupal and joomla have the capapbilities and expandability required to use an ecommerce on them ... only down side joomla and drupal require massive time requirements as it is, throw an ecommerce add on and you're pretty much spending about 20-40 hours a week doing nothing but adding to and monitoring your site to keep it relevant and in decent standing.

just check out all the alternatives, make some test sites and make the boss use them for a little bit to make his own choice.

 

[mikey-Oh]

Headway can be a great solution and I'm a massive WordPress fanatic but for a situation like this I'd probably recommend http://squarespace.com

Easiest solution, thanks signswi!

Would love to work with Headway, but I couldn't find a way to trial it.
Probably build my future sites with it.

Many exciting things in the works for mikey this 2012.
Thanks again for the recommendations!

 

[Circleville Signs]

Easiest solution, thanks signswi!

Would love to work with Headway, but I couldn't find a way to trial it.
Probably build my future sites with it.

Many exciting things in the works for mikey this 2012.
Thanks again for the recommendations!

Yup - there is no trial for Headway....But trust me when I say it is TOTALLY worth it

 

[jkdbjj]

CircleSigns, I'd also check out http://www.camelback.net/ This is pretty sweet too, I used it before but not currently.