Code, Edit a Template, or WordPress?

On a personal level though, I’ll more than likely stick to Weebly for my online portfolio and blog. For a robotics team that I mentor, I’ll continue to use and work on and at some point teach my WordPress skills as we currently use that host site for our website. I had just unfortunately not understood how to control and edit our robotics site until this class. So, I’ll definitely continue to work on and improve those skills. I also believe that it gives me a competitive advantage to know how to use and operate so many different styles of website design.

WordPress

WordPress is a great hosting site for quick and easy blog sites. It’s relatively easy to understand and learn and still has room for small coding opportunities in plugins for your site. For the most part though, WordPress does all the coding for you. One aspect that I found that I did not like is that it’s not as editable as a site that you code and you also don’t receive the same level of satisfaction as you do when you code a full website from scratch. However, out of the 3 different options, WordPress takes the least amount of thought and experience to create. I would recommend this style of web design to anyone who lacks patience or is relatively new to creating websites.

Code From Scratch

For my JOUR206 class, we used Brackets and Lithium Hostingto create, code and host a website that we were able to completely design from scratch.  I had very limited programming knowledge from a robotics team that I am involved with, so I believe that personally helped me understand how it worked. I’m also really interested in technology and have been since I was a young child and not just in the “social media is cool” way, but also in the “but how does it work and operate” way. When creating an HTML coded website from scratch, you’re able to feel a big sense of accomplishment from doing so

It’s also fully customizable, any part of a website, you’re able to learn how to design through HTML. Some customizations that I find to be the most interesting is hover actions such as hyperlinks changing color when you hover over it. Also, actions such as hearts following your mouse cursor on a website. However, one big con about coding from scratch is that it’s a lot thought, work, and research needed to put into it. It also has more opportunities for error as the slightest change in code can change an entire section

Editing a Template with Code

Editing a template with code seems to be the middle ground between WordPress and HTML coding. It’s less work than working from scratch, but still more personalized than a WordPress site. Personally on both the HTML coding from scratch and from template, I have yet to understand how to incorporate a blog. It’s more of an editable static site

One of the biggest issues I’ve stumbled upon while editing a coded template is that it is incredibly easy to get lost within. They also can use shortcuts and codes that you have yet to learn. Another issue I’ve found with editing a template is that they have so much already there that it’s easy to lose track on which parts you have and haven’t already edited whether it be the “lorem ipsum” text or links to other pages / sources

Future Website Plans

If I were to recommend a way to create quick and easy websites to a beginner, I would not choose any of these three options. I would recommend to use Weebly. Weebly is relatively similar to WordPress, except it is highly more user-friendly and easier to navigate through to design on your own. For my upcoming marketing business, unless another route was asked for or appropriate for the company (such as a programming, computer science, etc. business), I would continue using Weebly so that my client is able to make easy changes on their own.

On a personal level though, I’ll more than likely stick to a combination of WordPress and coding for my online portfolio and blog. Also, for a robotics team that I mentor, I’ll continue to use and work on and at some point teach my WordPress skills as we currently use that host site for our website. I had just unfortunately not understood how to control and edit our robotics site until this class. So, I’ll definitely continue to work on and improve those skills. I also believe that it gives me a competitive advantage to know how to use and operate so many different styles of website design.