WordPress offers a number of exciting opportunities for both developers and designers. Introduced as a blogging platform, it empowers a number of complex business sites today. If you haven’t joined the WordPress club yet, do it now. However, here are a few tips shared by experienced WordPress designers for newbie WP designers:

Can You Code in PHP?

Handling PHP code is the biggest challenge faced by many web designers who have not coded before. But, this doesn’t mean that coding in PHP for web designers isn’t possible. A lot of web designers are doing it and so can you. But before you choose to do this, you need to decide if you are really passionate about coding. Forcefully following in the footsteps of others won’t work out in the long run.

Understand the WordPress Theme and Functions

After you have learned some PHP code to handle WordPress, get yourself familiarized with the underlining structure of a theme. Learn about its functions as much as possible. Fortunately for you, there is a lot of information available online.

Understand WordPress CSS

CSS is one of the main arsenals of web designers. WordPress CSS is similar to the CSS used by the other sites. However, there are still some jargons particularly used by WP. You need to master CSS first to be able to code real designs.

Understanding the Internals of Existing Themes

Examining the internals of existing themes is a great way to learn more about WP themes. Visit the official WP theme directory to download a few popular themes and start experimenting to learn more about them.

Keep Reading About WordPress

WordPress is always changing and only by reading a lot of information about it, you can stay on the top of your game. You can join forums and blogs to learn from the experience of other WP developers. WordPress.org and WordPress.com are the official forums where you can ask questions from other designers and developers. You can also consult Medialinkers web designers for more WordPress information.

Bottom Line

Learning to design WordPress sites is very rewarding since it is one of the most popular CMS available today. However, you would need to spend long hours in front of computer to master all the necessary skills to become a potential WordPress designer.