How CSS3 Animations Work

In a nutshell, these animations work by defining "frames" and then deciding how the changes should transition from frame to frame. Let me explain with an example. You have an element that begins at 200 pixels wide, you want it to expand to 400 pixels. The beginning 200 pixel state is the first frame, the ending 400 pixel the last. From here you can decide how you want the element to expand and how long it should take to happen. Simple enough, right?

A Basic Example

With the idea that "less is more" in mind, the easiest way to get started is by using pseudo selectors. If you don't recognize the term, it's a fancy way of describing a :hover or :focus selector. By using pseudo selectors we can easily code a starting frame (unhovered) and a finishing frame (hovered.) In this example we are going to make an anchor tag grow and change color when hovered upon.

The HTML

 <p class="css3anim" ><a href="#">Hover Over Me</a></p>

The CSS

   .css3anim a { 
               display: block; 
               width: 150px; 
               height: 75px; 
               font-size: 18px;
               background: #ddd; 
               color: #fff;
               text-decoration: none;
               padding: 10px;
   }
  .css3anim a:hover { 
               width: 175px;
               height: 100px;
               background: #000;
               color: #fff;
               font-size: 20px;
 }

At this point if you hovered over our example it will grow in size but it would happen instantly, not the effect we are looking to achieve. In comes the CSS3 "transition" property. The transition property allows you to control how an element transitions from frame to frame. In this case the unhovered state to the hovered state.

The transition property has four options:

• What to transition
• How long it should take
• And style of transition
• How long to delay the start of the animation

While there are lot of aspects you can transition, for simplicities sake lets transition all changes in the element, for 1 second using ease-in-out (a pretty standard transition style.)

So our CSS would be updated to the following:

.css3anim a { 
            display: block; 
            width: 150px; 
            height: 75px; 
            font-size: 18px;
            background: #ddd; 
            color: #fff;
            text-decoration: none;
            padding: 10px;
            transition: all 1s ease-in-out;
}

If CSS3 was fully supported that's all one would have to do. Since it's still in beta we need to use vendor prefixes to ensure our browsers will recognize the command.

.css3anim a { 
            display: block; 
            width: 150px; 
            height: 75px; 
            font-size: 18px;
            background: #ddd; 
            color: #fff;
            text-decoration: none;
            padding: 10px;
            -o-transition: all 1s ease-in-out;
            -ms-transition: all 1s ease-in-out;
            -moz-transition: all 1s ease-in-out;
            -webkit-transition: all 1s ease-in-out;
            transition: all 1s ease-in-out;
}

And there you have it! That's all you need to do. See the demo below for a live example (if you are using a modern browser of course.)

Hover Over Me

Additional Resources

With a grasp of the transition property, you can begin to explore other transition options and capabilities. For more information take a look at the official spec here or a more down to earth tutorial at w3schools.

The following excerpt from the unveiling post explains our inspiration for the plugin.

Anytime you experience the same situation a several times there is an opportunity to improve on it. My inspiration was a common occurrence of clients inquiring about the status of their project. This often happened despite setting dates, outlining milestones and creating schedules. To me, this illustrated two issues. Most importantly, clients shouldn’t have to proactively contact me to get an update. Secondarily the materials I delivered were too cumbersome to sort through and reference.

There are plenty of project management tools available, my company uses Basecamp for project management. While I still use it today, it’s use is primarily for internal communication. The problem with these systems is they are designed for the agencies, not clients. Most clients dread the idea of logging into a foreign system and the information provided is not what they are looking for anyways. In my experience, those who try these systems inevitably give up and resorting to e-mail by the time the project is over.

Most clients don’t care about what tasks we are performing or what the key milestones are. They  just want a general idea of how far along their project is, what they are responsible for and an expected completion date. Everything else is noise or irrelevant. Being that I haven’t come across a system that easily does this I went ahead and created one.

This creation is called “Project Status.” It’s a simple WordPress plugin for service based businesses and freelancers. It’s primary function is to give clients a visual indicator of the project status. More specifically it lets you define four key phases of a project, currently activities and client responsibilities. Rather than requiring logins, clients can access their project status through a custom URL.

And that’s just the beginning.

Plugin Features

This plugin is a simple way to give clients that information while providing you with a high level overview of open projects and their standpoint. It gives you the ability to:

• Create and manage unlimited projects
• Track levels of completion
• Track current tasks
• Identify client responsibilities and project holds
• Identify four major milestones (20%/40%/60%/80%)
• Send clients to a page containing the above information

Projects are displayed in a responsive template so clients can access and monitor their project from any device.

Screenshots

Download the Plugin

You can download the plugin through the WordPress plugin screen, just search for "project status." Or download it directly here.

To explain further, WordPress typically stores information (or data) on a MySQL database located on your web host. Storing information in a database, rather than in files, makes WordPress more flexible, capable and reliable. This is why most web based software use databases for information storage. Databases are not with out their drawbacks. It takes time to access a database, look up, retrieve it and display information. Typically the time required to perform these actions is negligible. The capabilities the database affords are worth the minor performance hit. Over time the database can become bloated however, this slowing down the entire site.

Not only are users intolerant of slow websites (many leave after 4 - 5 seconds of load time,) Google now includes site performance in their ranking algorithm. Suffice to say, you can no longer afford to have a slow website regardless of cause and many do because they have not kept their database healthy. To do so you must put your database on a diet, optimize your tables and eliminate the need for it altogether where possible.

Going on a Database Diet

The best way to address an "overweight" database is by slimming it down. This means optimizing the database by removing any old, unnecessary information (or tables.) You could login to your MySQL database and do this manually (if you are a gluten for punishment I highly recommend it,) but it's better to have a plugin do it for you. The choice is yours, I choose the later. The WP Database Optimizer plugin will delete excessive post revisions and other unnecessary information and you can even schedule it to run regularly.

This plugin takes care of obvious bloat, but misses the commonly overlooked pending comments. If you are like me you see pending comments much like e-mail, at a certain point it's not worth manually marking each one as spam which in turn causes them to build up to an excessive level. Those 5,000+ spam comments awaiting moderation are also slowing down your website (damn you spammers,) so you should probably clear them out. Of course WordPress doesn't make it easy to delete thousands of comments at the same time, so we will have to find a plugin to do it for us. Luckily the Delete Pending Comments plugin does just that. One click and some extra confirmation latter and your database is feeling lean and mean.

With your Database slimmed down you can move onto step two, optimize that sucka!

Optimize Your Tables

MySQL has an "optimize" function built in which defragments stored data. This reduces the time necessary to query a database and can reduce the file size as well. Again, for those of you who love pain you can do it manually... but I would much rather let the WP-Optimize plug-in do it for me. Beyond optimizing tables, WP-Optimize can also clean out the database making the two aforementioned plug-ins unnecessary. Three birds with one stone.

Now your database is lean and optimized, you should be good to go right? Not quiet, there is one last step. Eliminate the database where possible.

Don't Use the Database

There is no better way to reduce database associated slow downs than removing the database all together. Sound fanatical? Stay with me. I am not suggesting you find some way to run WordPress with out a database, rather use a caching plugin to reduce how often the database is used (my favorite is W3 Total Cache.) Caching plugins create a static version of your page the first time a user visits. Meaning, when the first users visits your page the database is accessed to generate the page. That generated page is stored on the server so the next time a user visits the page they are served that same pre-generated page and the database is left alone. When the page is altered, such as an edit or a new comment, the generate page is flushed and a new one is created.

This reduces most of the database associated slow downs. However, since some users will still encounter the database generated page it's worth getting your database trimmed and optimized as described above.

Summary: Set and Forget

The great thing about the plugins mentioned is most of them can be automated. Just install them once, schedule them to be run routinely and you have very little to worry about. It just takes the initial twenty minutes to get them installed and configured. Last but not least, the healthiest database is one with several backups. Make sure to backup your database frequently to prevent any unrecoverable issues.

Sam Cohen, Local Development

Designer and Developer at SamCohen.net

• It's time to stop cowboy coding (ie: editing sites directly off the file server)
• Instead develop your site locally using XAMPP, MAMP, WAMP or my favorite InstantWP
• Use RAMP to deploy content from dev to live environments

Chris Ross, Free is Not A Business Model

WordPress Designer at ThisIsMyURL.com

• In business school, they teach you that "Free is not a business model." With WordPress, it is.
• WordPress allows you to make money by giving things away for free.
• Make free plugins and charge for support
• Make free plugins and get freelance gigs (to customize)
• Ask for donations
• Write / publish free content and get donations or ads
• Write / publish free content and make affiliate sales
• Google is now notifying site owners that they need to upgrade WordPress (through Google Webmaster tools)

Wally Metts, Communication

Communications Professor at Spring Arbor University

• An adjective is the enemy of the noun. Avoid adjectives, use stronger nouns.
• Active writing means using better verbs.
• Vivid writing means using better nouns.
• ie: don't use "they made a decision" use "they decided"
• When communicating "unpad" everything. Remove meaningless, doubled and inferred words.

David Wilemski, WordPress Security

• A large part of keeping WordPress secure is being "less hackable" than everyone else
• Most attacks are not targeted (attacks try thousands of WordPress sites, looking for the most vulnerable.)
• Common vulnerabilities:
• Privilege escalation
• SQL Injection
• XSS
• CSRF
• Some easy fixes:
• Change your WordPress table prefix
• Rename the "admin" account
• Use SSL in your admin
• Use 755 file permissions for for directories and 644 for files
• Use the wp-config.php secure keys
• Limit login attempts (or login via specific IPs)
• Be prepared backup regularly, including:
• Database
• Theme
• Plugins
• Uploads
• When hacked, clear and reinstall (there could be hidden hacks)

Overall Takeaways

Having used WordPress since 2006 I didn't expect to learn new things, but the community continues to impress me (or maybe I'm not as smart as I think.) I often go to events such as WordCamp for networking and opportunities, not for education. However there are so many smart WordPress experts willing to share their knowledge for free. Additionally, WordCamp Detroit demonstrated the breadth of the WordPress community. The best presentations were not about core WordPress functionality, rather the surrounding topics of being a website owner, developer, designer, etc...

A year ago I would have said mobile can be an afterthought, now this isn't the case. In fact, some authors stress you should design for the mobile web first. I can't say I disagree, it's a solid strategy. Mobile web design sounds easy, you're "just" designing a simplified website right? If only it were so easy.

The first consideration many overlook is the method of delivering a mobile website. The second is that the user experience of mobile interfaces are inherently different. As this is a mobile 101 post, we will first look at the approach to designing and delivering a mobile version of a site. Mobile UX will be examined in a later post.

Even before we discuss design methods, we must first clarify the difference between a mobile website and a mobile app.

Website vs Application

While seemingly basic, many still confuse mobile applications with mobile websites. The distinction is different because users interact with an app differently than they do a website. An application is a program which is downloaded onto the users phone. The program resides on the users device and can (but doesn't necessarily) connect to an online server. A mobile website isn't downloaded nor is it stored on a users device. It is accessed by visiting the site URL through a browser.

This can be confusing (especially for users) because some designers choose to style their mobile websites to look like mobile applications. There are some circumstances where this makes sense as the user is likely familiar with the interface and conventions, but often times they are just as familiar with web browsing (even in a smaller, more basic form.) Unless you are specifically trying to emulate a mobile application through a website it's best to avoid the "application style."

Mobile Application Usage

The use of mobile applications is very intentional. A user must search for the application (or a type of application), decide to download and install it and then learn how to use it. There is little chance of them "stumbling" onto it. Many mobile apps remain unfound because no one would think to try and find them. A shopping application for a local designer shoe store for example, will get very little usage for this reason.

Mobile Website Usage

Mobile websites are much more accessible. A user doesn't need to search, download or install anything. They just visit your website. Any marketing targeting your website also promotes the mobile version. It requires less effort for the user and the company/organization. The only drawback is lack of persistency. An app remains on the users device until they decide to remove it. A website is gone until the user decides to access it again.

Once you understand the distinction between application and website, you can consider your approach to mobile design.

Approaches to Mobile Website Design

There are four primary approaches to mobile website design, each with strengths and weaknesses. They are:

1. Do nothing
2. Modifying the existing design for mobile (using css)
3. Designing a separate mobile site
4. Design a responsive website

Modern smart phone browsers provide an acceptable (but lack luster) mobile web experience.

1. Do Nothing

As stated earlier, modern mobile browsers are capable of handling most websites "as is." Most mobile browser allow users to zoom in for reading and out for navigating a page. While clunky, users are getting acclimated to the workflow. Doing nothing is the cheapest of all the options because you literally "do nothing." It's also the least effective method. Sure mobile browsers are greatly improved, but as a whole mobile users are less experienced than before. It won't detour all mobile users from browsing your site but it will detour some.

This site has a mobile specific stylesheet which simplifies the layout but uses the same markup.

2. Modify the Existing Design

Maintaining the original markup but tweaking the design for mobile devices is a long standing method of improving the mobile experience. Typically this is done by giving mobile browsers a different stylesheet which simplifies the layout, hides large graphics/animation and makes the navigation easier to use.

Pros:

• Low cost to maintain and implement since you are only modifying presentation
• Capable of producing an improved experience over the "do nothing" approach

Cons:

• Limited in the amount of changes that can be made
• Content is still downloaded causing speed and bandwidth issues (for the user)
• No ability to change content based on the context of the site
• Difficult to design for multiple mobile devices or screen resolutions

BestBuy.com has a mobile specific site with a different design and contextually relevant content.

3. Design a Separate Mobile Site

For those with flush budgets, the most desirable approach is a separate mobile specific site. The mobile site is designed, organized and populated from the ground up with focus mobile users needs. Because the site is completely independent of a companies primary website it can be completely different. Even the content can be changed (and often should). This provides the best experience for the user, when they access the primary website they are identified as a mobile user and forwarded onto the mobile specific version. They can then browse a site design specifically for their mobile needs and tasks.

Pros:

• Completely customizable for the best mobile experience

Cons:

• Expensive to build and maintain
• Some users are accustom to the desktop version of the site and would prefer to browse normally
• Difficult to design for multiple mobile devices or screen resolutions

Web Designer Wall has a responsive design which expands / collapses based on the users screen resolution.

4. Design a Responsive Website

Responsive design is the new kid on the block (and his parents bought him a BMW.) Responsive design is useful and practical hence it's rise in popularity. The concept behind it is simple, rather than having one stylesheet which (hopefully) works for all resolutions, you use different stylesheets for different resolutions. The result is a site that expands and collapses based on the size of the browser window. Responsive design allows you to maintain the best presentation regardless if the user is on a mobile phone, tablet or desktop with a large monitor.

Pros:

• Capability to design a good visual experience for multiple resolutions
• Less expensive than a mobile specific site

Cons:

• More expensive to design / build than a mobile specific stylesheet
• There is little capability to modify the content/context of the site based on mobile usage
• Layout is constrained by source order

Summary

The first step in designing any mobile site is selecting your approach. The approach reveals design constraints and capabilities. Currently, their are four conventional methods each with strengths and weaknesses. The oldest, most customizable and expensive method is designing a mobile specific site. The lower cost long standing method is using a mobile specific stylesheet and the new (sexy) approach is to create a design which responds to different screen resolutions. If budgets are tight and mobile visitors infrequent, you can always do nothing. Modern mobile browsers offer an acceptable experience on their own.

First off, WordCamp Detroit will be held at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit. The beautiful GM High Rise that overlooks the riverfront. Secondarily, there are two days full of interesting and unique speakers and activities. Finally, there will be a "help bar" in which anyone can get 1 on 1 advice for their WordPress websites... for free.

Buy tickets now as they are running low and the even is only a week away (November 11th and 12th).

The organization of content, elements and objects on a page such that users can scan over the arrangement and understand the relative importance and relationship of everything they see.

To elaborate, successful layouts organize elements on the page based on importance and relationship. The more organized your page is, the easier it is to look at, understand and use. An important distinction to make, is that organization is more than arranging things in a neat and cleanly way. Organization is much deeper, the arrangement of elements must inform the user about them.

Applied to the web (and layout specifically,) organization means elements on the page are arranged based on how they are related or connected. Elements are arranged based on their relationship to other elements on the page and the context of the website. Interrelating elements are placed in close proximity to form a cohesive group. Elements involving the sites goals are more important, and are given more space and visual prominence. For example, a site designed to sell books would arrange book listings so they are seen first. Users coming to the site will be looking for books, so placing them in an visually obvious spot (top center of the design, for example) informs them of the site context and makes their primary action (browsing books) effortless.

In order to design an effective layout, you must first understand the relationships of page elements. Only through understanding the relationships can you arrange them in the most organized way.

Understanding The Relationships

As I eluded to earlier, there are two types of relationships you should seek to understand. First, is the relationship of an element to the user or clients goal. Elements that are vital to conversion (a user performing a desired task, like purchasing a product) or user's goals are more important and should be organized as such. Second, is the relationship of elements to each other. Users interpret everything they see, one universal interpretation being that elements in close proximity are related. Great layouts are designed around these concepts, allowing users to understand a design without conscious thought.

Relationship to Goals

Example user and client goals for an online book store

How an element relates to user and client goals is the most important aspect of layout, so you will find it best to start here. To do so, you must first know what the client goals and user tasks are. Hopefully you have already uncovered this during planning and discovery phases, if not there is never a better time to clearly define why the site exists. This information can be obtained in many ways, interviewing clients and stakeholders, looking at site statistics, performing field research, etc... Design research is a subject best left for another post. Regardless of your method, first understand what users and clients want from the website.

Important elements should be placed in larger spaces with more visual prominence, like a content well. Lesser elements can be placed in smaller, ancillary areas like a sidebar.

With this information in hand, list all of the site goals (for both your clients and the users) and then rank them based on importance. Having a clear hierarchy of objectives will make future decisions to prioritize easier. The most important elements should be given the most space and most prime locations. Elements of lessor importance can be placed further down the page.

Once the list is created, create a second list containing any element which relates to the goals (ie: call to action button, primary headline, photo of product, etc...). Elements which relate to the most important goals should receive the most visual prominence, those which relate to non-essential goals can be deemphasized.

Identifying the most important elements is half the battle, but you must still consider how elements relate to each other.

Relationship to Each Other

On a form, the submit button and cancel link are related. Laying them out next to each other is visually logical.

Elements on a page have relationships. Some elements are intimately related, others are practically unrelated (the only commonality between them being the website they live on.) A pair of submit and cancel buttons are closely related as they both control the functionality of a specific form. The cancel button and a home link however, are almost completely unrelated.

Adding a home button is illogical and confusing because it's unrelated to the elements surrounding it.

When designing a site you will understand these relationships intuitively. You know enough about the context of the page, user and clients where relationships will be obvious. Users however, have no idea the relationship between elements. This is why the layout must communicate it to them.

An example of grouped elements, an a group with a sub-group

Related elements should be grouped together into a common space. Unrelated elements should be kept far apart. Often times you will end up with groups and subgroups of related elements. A sidebar for example, typically contains non-critical information and actions. Within a sidebar -- which is a group itself -- you typically have sub-groups of related elements. The "Stay Updated" section of this blog contains several related elements all grouped within the site sidebar. The "Stay Updated" section has a headline, latest tweet (which has the tweet itself, the date and user handle), icons and links to RSS and E-MAIL subscription. All of these elements are closely related.

The grouping instantly tells the user the relationships of the elements. On a broad level, one doesn't need to read every word in the "Stay Updated" section to know the elements within deal with the same subject mater. On a micro-level, the layout informs the users the RSS icon and the Entires RSS link are "one unit."

Another good example of this concept is the split column approach in the Categories / Archives section. These links essentially take the user to the same place, a list of previous articles. They only differ in how the list is filtered. Rather than creating two separate sections (which communicates non-relation) they are contained in a single section (which communicates a relationship.)

With in groups are "micro-groups" where closely related elements become perceived as a single unit.

To understand the relationships simply create an inventory of all elements on the page and document how you would categorize them. You can do high level categorization such as "navigation, primary content, actions, etc..." or detail level such as "archive links, calls to action, utility navigation, etc..."

If needed, you can always use card sorting (a common IA practice) and put each major element onto a card and pill them together based on their relationships.

Layout Next Steps

Once you understand how elements relate to site objectives, user goals and other elements you can begin crafting a layout. Because the function of layout is to best organize and display the elements on the page understanding the relationships is essential. The word "organization" by definition means "the structure or arrangement of connected items," relationships determine connectedness.

Read the Whole Series

Fundamentals of Web Design Layout Part 1

To respect the role of layout requires a solid understanding of what it is.

Layout Defined

The classic definition of layout is "The way in which parts of something are arranged." In web design specifically, layout is "The way elements, content and graphics are organized on the page." A key distinction here is the substation of "arranged" for "organized." Arranging elements without organizing them doesn't create a layout, it creates visual vomit.

The purpose of a layout is organization, more specifically layout uses organization to:

• Convey relative importance of content
• Group similar content and separate unrelated
• Optimize visual flow
• Establish a basic visual hierarchy

Each aspect of layout might not be compelling alone, but together they make or break a design.

When Good Layouts Go Bad

A great layout makes design look easy. Every element fits so well within the design, you would never consider putting them anywhere else. The "logical" organization of elements makes navigating the website easy. Users don't need to think where desired content is located, the layout tells them. If users are looking for important content, they know to look in the primary content area, typically located in the area with the most space. If they are looking for something less important, like navigation, they look for secondary or tertiary areas which are smaller and placed in less prominent locations.

Because layouts are purely visual, the best way to understand what works and what doesn't is through example.

Well Organized Layouts

Information Architects

The Information Architects website, while minimal to the point of being plain, has a beautiful designed layout. The layout is so predominate, it's actually the strongest design element.

The design makes no attempt to hide the underlying grid structure. Ample whitespace makes it easy to identify where each section within the layout starts and stops. The few graphical elements that are on the page receive maximum attention because they heavily contrast the otherwise white and text heavy design.

In terms of layout, the first element a user encounters is the top navigation which is broken up into four columns (1). That same four column structure is retained at the bottom where the footer navigation lies (2). By using the same column structure, users can easily extrapolate that the footer elements are also navigation. This occurs based on principles of consistency. Elements which look alike are thought as related, elements that look different are considered to be unrelated.

The primary area is bold, and large, equipped with a massive photo and supported with text which is broken up into three columns (3). Immediately below lives a news section, which for all intensive purposes is a single column. By shifting that column to the right and confining it to a smaller column whitespace and legibility are maximized (4).

Why this Layout Works

The primary goal of any layout is to clearly organize and locate information. The Information Architects website does so beautifully. By observing the layout you can decipher what's most important and in what order. Larger, higher up elements are clearly most important and as elements become less importance they shrink and are moved further down the page. The grid keeps everything organized neatly, everything falls into place in a logical way and your focus is never divided between two elements that seem equally important.

In this design, the layout is fitted the content.

Mark Boulton Design

The Mark Boulton Design website also employs a well executed layout. Like Information Architects, the design uses a grid to clearly organize content on the page. Unlike Information Architects, the design is bold, vibrant and graphical in nature. This demonstrating that using a grids and organization doesn't mean the site must be graphically stark.

The page header is placed at the very top of the page and is larger than anything else by a factor of at least 100. This clearly communicates it's the most important element (1). The header content is case studies, intentionally telling the user that above else, they should be aware of the companies previous work. Once you travel past the header, there is a full column tagline describing what the company does (2). Because the tagline is smaller and placed further down the page, it's apparent that Mark Boulton Design feels previous work is more compelling.

Below the tagline resides four equal width columns (3). The content with in those columns seem unrelated, but their size and placement indicates they are of equal importance. The ample whitespace makes it easy to read and digest content within a column, if you choose to do so.

Why this Layout Works

It doesn't feel like it, but there is a lot of content on this page: Case studies, navigation, a logo, the mission statement (or tagline), a brief company description, news, contact information and a portfolio section... phew! Because the content is laid out in a logical, well organized way it is easy to read and comprehend. The layout tells you what to look at and in what capacity.

With a quick glance you know what's most important (the header), almost as important (the tagline) and that everything else is equally important. Additionally, by using four equal width columns you can easily scan the headline of each to determine if the column contains the content you are seeking. If not, you continue scanning until you find the one that does.

Again the design puts content together like a puzzel. Everything fit's into place perfectly.

What's Next

Hopefully these examples illustrate what a well designed layout is composed of. Specifically, the layout organizes the content on the page based on it's importance and relationship. More important content is placed in large containers and located at the top of the page. Less important content is contained in smaller cells and placed lower on the page. Similar content (or content that's related) is grouped together which communicates their relationship.

In our next installment we will cover how to design your own layout in the most effective way.

Read the Whole Series

Fundamentals of Web Design Layout Part 1

Fundamentals of Web Design Layout Part 2

Here are the six things that dissenters don't know about WordPress:

1. WordPress is Incredibly Scaleable

There is a misconception that WordPress can only handle small sites because it was built as a blogging tool. If you need a large site with a lot of content WordPress will choke and die. Not true, sites like SmashingMagazine and TechCrunch have hundreds of thousands of pages of content and still run lightening fast. WordPress can be run on multiple servers if needed or integrated with a content delivery network if you have high amounts of traffic or a particularly large website.

Additionally WordPress.com, the hosted version of WordPress has over 20 million blogs running on a version of WordPress (using the multisite mode). If that doesn't demonstrate scalability I don't know what would.

2. WordPress is NOT Just Posts and Pages

While WordPress originated as a simple blogging platform that only had posts and pages, it has come along way with custom content types. Drupal has always been strong in this area, with the CCK (Custom Content Kit) allowing the creation of flexible data models and have now integrated that capability into the Drupal core. Unbeknownst to most Drupal developers, WordPress also has this capability built into the core (since version 3.0).

The custom post type gives developers the abilities to create content types that have have their own data structure that doesn't need any resemblance to  posts or pages. This content can be displayed anyway you wish and can be dissected, mashed up and output if you so desire. Additionally, with plugins like Magic Fields, Custom Post Type UI, PODS and Advanced Custom Fields this can all be done from the WordPress backend. Along with custom taxonomies content can take any shape, can be sorted, classified and output anyway you need it.

3. WordPress is NOT Just for Simple Sites

Many people gravitate towards Drupal because they think that it has more capabilities than WordPress. WordPress is thought of a "simple CMS for simple websites." In reality, WordPress is extremely extendable. In fact I have yet to come across a project that you outright couldn't do in WordPress (not that it is the best fit for all projects, just that it would be technically possible.) In fact here are some capabilities WordPress can easily accomplish:

• Facebook clone
• Forums
• Digg Clone
• Newsletter
• Wiki
• Customer Relationship Management System
• Twitter clone
• Invoicing system
• Project management system
• Calendar system
• E-commerce website
• Job board
• Classified board
• Real estate listing site
• Business directory
• Auctions website
• Review website

And that isn't even all of them. With custom post types you could conceivably do just about anything.

4. WordPress Has Great User Management

I have no problem admitting that Drupal has really powerful user management capabilities. Drupal was originally a community based platform that has evolved into a CMS "Framework," so much of the user management capabilities have been left in the core. That being said, WordPress can have extremely powerful user management if you need it. I would say that the average website doesn't need complex user management capabilities, for most businesses you only have one or two people maintaining the website. If you do need more power there are plugins like User Permissions, User Access Manager or User Role Editor that can give you that functionality.

Those plugins allow you to create groups, restrict group capabilities on a detail level (including editing, adding or modifying plugins, etc...) restrict page editing to specific groups, etc... Pretty much anything you would need with a community based site.

5. WordPress Can Address Your Workflow Needs

It is likely that new web content will need to be approved before it goes live. This is described as workflow and it is the process of how the content must be created, reviewed and published. By default WordPress has a few ways to manage this, including private pages (you must be logged in to see), password protected pages and draft pages. If you need a more sophisticated system you can use Edit Flow, Zensor, User Submitted Posts, Peter's Collaboration E-mails or Peter's Post Notes to add the functionality you need.

6. WordPress Can Rock E-Commerce

In my presentation I made the mistake of saying that at some point you should use a full fledged E-Commerce system rather than WordPress. While I still believe that hard core e-commerce sites should run on an e-commerce specific platform, it did make WordPress sound like an poor candidate for selling items online. Through a handful of great e-commerce plugins, you can use WordPress to sell products online including the following features:

• Real products
• Digital / downloadable products
• Tickets / event registration
• Subscription / site access services
• Real time shipping integration
• Payment gateway integration
• Product variations (colors, sizes, types, costs, etc...)
• Quickbooks integration
• Affiliate management
• Custom fields / product types
• Pricing levels
• Wish lists
• Recommend products
• Discount codes
• Stock management
• Import / export capabilities

These capabilities exist in the plugins or through already available plugin extensions. No custom development is required.

Additionally WordPress has been able to integrate with outside e-commerce systems like Magento, ZenCart and OS Commerce since as early as 2008.

Summary: Why I Love WordPress, but Drupal is Great Too...

I love WordPress because it is kind to my users, the end client. WordPress was designed to make the management of your site easy and that is exactly what it does. Because of it's ease of use it has reached the level of fame that it now enjoys (powering over 60% of the top 1 million websites that have a CMS). This level of fame has lead to the endless capabilities that allow us to take this simple website CMS and turn it into complex web applications.

That being said I recognize that WordPress is not right for every project. There will be situations where Drupal is a better fit (or some other system all together). I don't think Drupal is a bad platform, I have used it enough in the past to understand it's capabilities. I just prefer WordPress because it makes it easier for me to build sites and my clients to manage them.

I recommend anyone that can make it, do so. More info below:

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