I had a call with a lady recently wondering what the point of a website theme was when building creative websites. After some thought, I’ve decided to write a short blog post to try to explain themes in a bit more detail. Hopefully, this post helps anyone else who is confused as to what themes are and why we, as web designers, use them.

What is a website theme?

Themes are essentially a group of files a developer can download to make their job a little easier. They contain thousands of lines of code to lay out the foundations of a website. Themes make it quicker and easier for us to do our jobs as we don’t have to write all this code ourselves.

Using a house as an analogy…

The code in a theme is essentially the building block of a well-designed site. The theme can give us the basic structure such as the walls, roof, floor and power in a building. But the “house” is still missing furniture, paint, appliances and decorations and all the things that make each house unique.

We download themes based on the client’s website needs…

The building blocks for a medical website will be different to a beautician website, a restaurant website, creative websites or fitness industry website. After installing the theme, the website is completely customised according the the client’s preferences. We complete a user journey for each possible client that lands on the website. User journeys look at the different experiences they could have and how they will navigate the website. We add buttons, links and menus to guide the user through the website to where you want them to go.

Your developer will then configure the website with the required functionality. This includes things such as booking calendars, shops, members areas, contact forms, pop up incentives etc. We add styling, branding and imagery to fit the business’s tone and brand. Text copy will then be added to fit each individuals brand’s tone of voice. This makes each website totally unique and personalised to every business.

Themes speed up the development process

and make it possible for me to complete a fully functioning premium WordPress website in weeks rather than months. I *could* still build a website without a theme, but it would take a lot longer and you (the client) would pay *a lot* more money for my time and effort.

Hope this helps you understand why we use themes!

Want to know more?

Check out some of my other blog posts such as Website terms that are useful to know or Does your business really need a website?

If you need a website, get in touch! I work with people worldwide to help get their businesses online 😊