Interactive Website Theme for WordPress – What You Need to Know
An interactive website theme for WordPress is an immersive digital experience that brings content to life through various multimedia capabilities.
With the growing popularity of digital nomads and freelancers, remote workers, and digital creatives, more companies than ever are turning to WordPress to meet the demands of their online communities.
Whether you are a digital nomad looking for a blog to stay connected with family and friends, or a small business owner seeking to engage with clients, subscribers, and other digital communities around the world, WordPress can play a crucial role in your digital strategy.
Why WordPress
WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) in the world. According to Google Analytics, roughly 41.7% of websites globally use WordPress as their CMS.
The good news is that there is an interactive website theme for WordPress. In this guide, we will discuss what elements to include in your design to create an immersive digital experience that will keep your users engaged.
A Solid Foundation
Even if you have the most amazing idea for an interactive website, it’s not enough. You need a solid foundation to build on. Before you start designing your theme, take some time to learn about the different types of servers (physical versus virtual) that WordPress supports. You also need to consider what hosting plan is right for you. Finally, try out the Beta version of WordPress to see how it handles your most basic website tasks. With a little planning and research, you can be sure that you are choosing hosting and a CMS that are up to date with the latest trends and technologies.
A Mobile First Approach
Keeping up with the latest trends is important, but it can be difficult to do so without sacrificing the functionality that your users expect. Since most WordPress users access their sites through mobile internet browsers, you need to make sure that your theme works well on small screens. To test your theme on different devices, visit this tool from Google and resize your browser window.
If you are new to mobile design, start by playing around with resizing your browser window to see how your website looks. Once you have the basics down, add in more features slowly. Build up your knowledge of mobile design and front-end development so you can confidently tackle any project. The last thing you want to do is rush into using an obsolete framework or CMS.
An Important Difference
As a general rule, you should always design for the largest screen size first. Due to mobile device limitations, you cannot always assume that your desktop website templates will look good on mobile. Designing for mobile devices means taking extra care to make sure the text is easy to read on small screens and the images are of a high enough quality to look good on smaller devices. To test your website on different device sizes, visit this tool from Google and resize your browser window.
A Multi-Purpose Website
WordPress is most recognized as a blogging platform, but the functionalities are endless. If your goal is to create a fully-fledged website with a portfolio, blog, and other web content, you can use WordPress as a platform and integrate the different functionalities that it offers through free plugins. Just remember to install and activate the plugins that you need to utilize.
The Building Blocks of an Interactive Website
Let’s start by discussing the different elements you need to include in your design to create an immersive digital experience.
A Challenging Background Image
A background image is a virtual billboard that you place behind your content. Depending on your site’s theme and color scheme, you can choose a graphic that will make your blog posts, social media posts, and other content come to life. Since the background image is a virtual billboard, the more you put in it, the more you will see. Make sure that the image you choose is high-quality and will not obscure any content on your page. To learn more about choosing the right background image for your site, check out this blog post from ThemeForest.
Content Above The Fold
A lot of people think that the header, footer, and sidebar are the only parts of a website that matter. While it’s true that these are the most visible parts of a website, you need to focus on what’s above the fold. The area of the page that can be seen without scrolling.
If you are following the typical rules of thumb for web design, you will end up with a scrollable area below your header and above your footer. As a general rule, try to keep your content above the fold so that it does not cut off any part of your website’s content.
Call To Action
An action is something that you can do on your site that will change the behavior of your visitors. Calls to action are also known as CTAs or Calls to actions. We typically see CTAs in red at the top of a webpage, but they can be in any color. The good news is that WordPress comes with a variety of pre-built calls to action that you can use in your site without having to build them from the ground up.
If you are creating an eCommerce store or blog geared towards selling a product, you can use the calls to action in the form of a button, link, or text box in which visitors can enter their email addresses, submit a coupon code, or browse your products.
Social Proof
Believe it or not, the number of people who are visiting your site and its content is actually a good indication of how trusted you are in your industry. If your site receives a lot of activity, it proves that you are a popular choice among your peers. Keep your social media platforms updated with relevant content and interact with your audience on a regular basis. Visiting your site and engaging with you through social media shows that your users consider you an expert in your industry and trust you to give good advice.
An Important Note
While developing an interactive website template for WordPress, you need to be mindful of your users’ privacy issues. When we’re designing a website, we often assume that our visitors will be of an adult age group. However, that is not always the case. If you are not comfortable showing graphics that will be accessible to children, make sure that you filter their access to the website. For example, you can put in place a content warning system that will pop up when a child tries to enter a restricted area of the website. This way, you will be sure that they do not stumble upon inappropriate content.
If you are looking for a free WordPress theme, check out this list of the best free WordPress themes.