2011 Web Trends - Part One: CMS's

In the short history of web design, the push continues to make websites easier to build and maintain. First, CSS came along which basically made updating the design across multiple pages a snap. Styles could be created that would affect type styles, colors, content regions, and more reducing the need to make design changes to each and every page. Next came content management systems (or CMS's) that slowly began to reshape web design. CMS tools (such as WordPress, Joomla and Drupal) often sprang from being blog creation platforms to being used for full fledged websites.

The primary advantage of CMS's for building websites is the ability for anyone with access to add or edit content. No more having to call your web guy when a word changes or a new photo needs to get added. This makes maintaining a website so much more affordable and easier to update. There can be a bit of a learning curve to get completely comfortable with the editing process but it's worth the effort for those who want more control. Fortunately, it's not too easy to break a website when using these editing tools, so those fearful of causing damage won't need to worry.

A second nice advantage with CMS's are the convenience of using templates to quickly establish a design. Templates can be a great, affordable way of creating a professional design and appearance without having to build one from scratch. Templates can be found for free, purchased online or build from the ground up. If purchased, they often come with convenient features and functionality that once were difficult to implement. As a designer, using templates takes some of the creative flexibility out of my hands, but the time and cost savings can't be denied.

That leads into the third advantage of CMS's: plugins. Plugins allow access to functionality that would have been costly to build in the past. Features such as shopping carts, forums, forms, video, search engine optimization and much more can be tapped into with plugins. Most are free and provide a wide variety of functionality.

I've been using WordPress for about a year and find it to be a great CMS to use. Free to use, it's a powerful way of creating a site that looks very professional, is easy to maintain and finally gives the website owner more control.

Coming in Part Two: More about WordPress