@HOLYMOGWAI

I am not a big fan of cookie cut, but I am a big fan of function and if you take even a quick glance at the book "Don't make me think" you will see a natural selection to our web interface. The ones that work stick around, and the ones that are too flashy and confusing will not.

Having said that for people who are first putting up sites I think it is important to remember the basic thought: Who is it for? and What is it for?

That should help to inform the design.

Jasoncscs

Awesome. Now everyone can have the same cookie-cut website.

holymogwai

@Shane: And on that site they even talk about how powerful Wordpress has become and also how to use it as a CMS. [www.opensourcecms.com]

Will

While I do commend lifehacker for the effort, OSWD has not updated for years and some of the designs on the site is terrible. However, the successful designers that put up websites on their get high pageranks and lots of revenue. For instance, one of my friend's design is currently in the top 10 downloaded section, while another friend's design is one of the "favorites" in OSWD. Darn lucky people.

Dooga

May I suggest that you use something like CMSMS, and not do standard HTML...it can save you LOADS of time.

And BTW wordpress is for blogs, not "websites". Like I said, get a CMS.

There are tons more here:

[www.opensourcecms.com]

Shane

I totally agree about WordPress. It is amazingly versatile and highly customizable, especially if you adapt from the Sandbox theme, which basically enables you to design the site from scratch.

estherbester

Whoa there. You can do anything you like with wordpress if you know css/php. The same with Joomla etc, they all run on PHP so you can alter them in anyway possible.

Not a bad site, I should submit some stuff there when I finish what i'm working on. Some of them are seriously sub standard though .

minus19

@SINDERPHYTIK

Just wanted to second that Wordpress motion. I use it for my blog/website/storefront/communication hub. It is extremely versatile, very robust, and can be used to do basically anything you want. @AIDAN_CAGE Yes Thousands of themes or infinite possibilities as each theme can be modded to your likes/dislikes.

HOWEVER.

It is not exactly easy. It does require some basic skillz. There's no hotline to call for help, but there are helpful (for the most part) forums.

The basic exchange is:

Ease of use = limited options

Difficult to use (learning curve interface/coding needed) = unlimited options

If you need to slap something together in a hurry wordress will take you a bit of time, homestead is probably better for that.

If you plan on continuing to slap things together or want to get under the hood a bit then start using wordpress, it is pretty badass.

Jasoncscs

on the topic of free templates:

Does anybody know a good website for free templates for a gaming clan/guild that works with some kind of CMS? So far I have not liked any of the clan template sites because they do not offer free templates that work with CMS such as Joomla, Drupal, etc. I am far too lazy to figure out how to tweak Joomla or Drupal to include easy-to-modify features such as memberlist, ventrilo/teamspeak info, etc.

marksman7328

thousands of themes, eh?

aidan_cage

@sinderphytik: Agreed, WordPress is so versatile. The non-profit organization that I work for is going to be switching all of their websites soon from their current CMS (which is commercial and ridiculously expensive) to WordPress sometime next year, and the benefits will be huge ... not just recouped $$$ but also ease of use and the ability to customize/hack it however we want.

emmzee

Oh, and I forgot to mention....the Wordpress Theme Viewer also has thousands of free themes you can use and edit to your liking!

sinderphytik

For anyone looking to build a dynamic site (CMS, blog, anything!), check out Wordpress (wordpress.org). It's an open-source blogging engine, but can be adapted to literally anything. And unlike MovableType or Drupal or Joomla or what-have-you, its very simple to learn and maintain and use and update.

I've built a personal blog, a company site, a community site, a school site, and plenty more...all using Wordpress. Highly recommended!

sinderphytik

@whiskey: Those look good, thanks!

Kyle Pott

Nice! I was actually looking into something like this! thanks

laroi

@whiskey: I agree... Open Web Design seems to be updated much more frequently.

The How-To Geek

Both OSWD and Nvu haven't been updated as one would like them to do so. So i might suggest KompoZer (equally available on Mac, Linux and Windows) which is the same code as Nvu but has been updated more regularly and Open Web Design or the free templates (creative commons attribution 2.5 licensed) at Template World.

whiskey

Open Designs has a bunch of free templates, and the site is updated frequently.

columbia08

>>"Roll Your Own Professionally Designed Web Site"

How can it be professionally designed for the needs of the user when those needs haven't been specified to the designer? All you're getting is a template - nothing professional about it all.

>>"If you've never tried to create a web site, a download from OSWD coupled with a free graphical editor like Nvu should be enough to get you started."

Or better yet - pay a professional to do it for you properly, so that you don't end up making a dogs-dinner!

Matt Robin

Osskins is a repository of free and cheap templates for Wordpress, Drupal and Joomla. Some of you who are looking into these CMS solutions can certainly find design help on this site.

pmusaraj

I'd second the CMS Made Simple call, but then I develop for it, so I'm biased :)

Easy to make XHTML-compliant, separates content from layout, uses CSS, built-in menuing capabilities ... what's not to like?

Also, you can take any of these templates, and adapt them to a content-managed site in a matter of hours.

libelle

I think it's unfortunate that most of them are so ugly, especially when the word "professional" is used to describe them. Has the word lost all meaning or do most people not relate professionalism to attractiveness and rather other aspects of designing web layouts?

adyo

Not that previous posts have not mentioned this but use a CMS. Please. Consider Joomla or (my preference) Drupal if you want flexibility and will invest time to learn--power and flexibility is usually inversely proportional to effort to master. Otherwise CMS Made Simple is a good choice. Content management is drudgery and little details can be overlooked breaking a site and resulting in a bad user experience. Regardless of the choice, please use a CMS solution and keep the web clean and 'purty'. Those mentioned are free so money is not a barrier.

digginestdogg