Some days it feels like there’s to few hours. I started with looking into how a modern WordPress theme is built yesterday. A few hours and many rows of code later I still had no clear view on that. In reality I was probably more confused then I was when I started. Making the theme both responsive and accessible is an important part of a WordPress theme today.
Responsive
I got sidetracked into modern html, specifically the kind that is responsive. That was never really an issue when I was making pages a decade ago. Today it is surely an important part of webdesign.
Nowadays it is far more common to use a phone or tablet for surfing the web then it was some years ago. Some might not have an actual desktop computer, as a tablet can meet most needs.
My first step will be understanding how to make a site perfectly responsible and look good on all screen sizes. At a first glance it doesn’t look to difficult. The first and most basic rule is to use percentage and not fixed width as much as possible.
Accessible
There has been a lot improvements in making a site accessible for everyone. The learning curve for making a site accessibility will hopefully not be a steep one. Screen readers use many of the attributes I already use in my coding. There is some added functionality that will be important to learn to use properly.
What content can we skip? and what needs to be there? Those are two very important questions in accessibility design. The goal is to make the site interesting through just textual elements.
HTML5
Another “novelty” to learn is the semantics of html5, there are some new containers introduced that will help structure the site better. I can still code a perfectly fine site with the use of “normal” html, or even xhtml, I would however miss out on a lot of the new and fun features that are now a common occurrence.