We just released a really exciting new Add-On plugin for MP Stacks (our page-building WordPress plugin) which allows you to animate almost anything on the page! You can separately animate both content-types, no matter what that Content-Type it is. It could be text, a video, a contact form, or even a PostGrid – you can make it animate-in in any way you can imagine.

Because it uses Keyframes, there is virtually no limit to the ways you can animate content in and out. Check it out here if you’d like to spruce up your MP Stacks with some custom animations.

I remember going to see “The Matrix” right when it came out. It was directly after my high school graduating ceremony and so we were running late. We finished up our graduation and raced over to the movie theatre. Unfortunately, you know what happens if you try to go to a movie late – you’re stuck in the very front row, off to the side, craning your neck from side to side of the screen just to see everything. It was pretty overwhelming and a bit nauseating – and I told myself that I would never come to a movie late again.

What does this have to do with the content width on your website? Well, I have been seeing a trend in some websites where the content (text and images mainly) is wider than 1200 pixels in desktop view (we’re not talking about mobile phones here) – so wide, in fact, it touches all edges of the screen. I suspect this is because designers often have very large screens and so they design to make it look good on those screens – and let “responsive”-ness fix it up for any smaller screens.

Unfortunately, on my MacBookPro 15″, it means that the title of a section is scrolled out-of-view while I’m reading it’s subtext. This makes it very difficult for me to keep what I am looking at in context and I start to feel lost on the page – the same feeling I got at the movie theatre sitting in the very front row and off to the side.

Section titles are our “bearings” when we are reading a page – and as often as we can, it helps to keep those bearings in-view. Basically, a section of your page, (or “Brick” as we like to call it) should be able to entirely fit on an average laptop screen from top to bottom. (This is also one of the drawbacks of “responsive” web design – but that’s a topic for another blog).

By making our content extremely wide and large, it feels a little bit like going to the movies and sitting right in the front row. When you are designing your pages (maybe you’re using our free page building plugin “MP Stacks” to do so), make sure to test it on all screen sizes – and try to keep your page sections small enough that you don’t make your users feel like they are at the front row of the movie theatre.

We do a lot of work here at Mint Plugins to make eCommerce solutions for WordPress seamless and easy to use. But yesterday I was talking to an artist who is selling offline (face to face) using Square to sell their painting at Art Shows around their city. I was absolutely blown away at how great the process is using Square (note this isn’t a sponsored post).

They have considered everything from invoicing customers through email/text, to invoicing customers if they pay you in cash – which helps to keep your books and everything in one place.

If you sell products offline (in person), Square is an amazing option that allows you to swipe people’s credit cards using your Smart Phone. It doesn’t have a monthly fee – they just take a small cut of each purchase – like ANY credit card processor does.

If you sell on your website, unfortunately, Square doesn’t have an API at this point that we can use to truly keep all of our books and invoices in-sync across all platforms. I’m really hoping they open an API at some point though because it is super super slick. Check it out if you’re selling anything offline!

There’s a new kid on the web-design block calling itself “The Grid(io)” – and it has a lot of hype. It promises to build your website for you using “Artificial Intelligence” and “Robots” – and that it will save you hours of time by not needing to worry about the nitty-gritty parts of your website. If you’d like to see the advertisement in question, it’s here.

Basically, their advertising makes it seem like you just put all of your content on a USB stick, throw it at a computer, and out will come a beautiful website – which will be everything you ever dreamed of and more! Literally, the sell line is: “Wouldn’t it be better if websites just made themselves?”.

Is this possible? Maybe. But it brings to mind something Dad used to tell me:

“Son, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is” – My Dad

Lets take a step back for a moment and look at this for what it really is – an advertisement. It’s an advertisement that simultaneously attacks services like Squarespace and WordPress (for being template-based) while presenting itself as a sort of “Second Coming” of web design.

Its cleverly worded verbiage almost convinced me that things I formally thought were downfalls of a WordPress theme – are actually somehow bonuses with “The Grid”:

These are “The Grid”‘s main selling points:

• You can’t put things where you want them. Robots do it.
• You can’t choose your own font. Robots do it.
• You can’t choose the size/placement of your images. Robots do it.
• And so on. You can’t choose display option “X”. Robots will choose that for you now.

Now, call me crazy, but those aren’t the selling points (or the robots/droids) I’m looking for.

Is “The Grid” all that different from WordPress?

Even with WordPress (Or even Squarespace, Wix, or “The Grid“), another thing to consider is that most of the time spent working on your website isn’t coding or messing with layouts. No matter your website’s foundation, most of the time is spent creating content.

Most “website time” is spent doing things like:

• Getting great Photography (by taking it or finding/buying Stock Photos)
• Creating an awesome Promo Video
• Writing great blogs and text content
• Posting your latest product to your store
• Keeping your website’s event calendar up to date

Don’t let the advertisement fool you: this stuff takes time. I can guarantee “The Grid” will not do that stuff for you – nor will it be faster than WordPress or any other system. But according to the ad, it feels like that stuff will do itself too. If it was truly as easy as they make it sound, it would. After all, “Website’s should make themselves” right? Wrong. People make content – and websites ARE content. All of the “robots” in the world won’t make you good and unique content. It’s what separates humans from robots (at least for now).

Truth be told, “The Grid” doesn’t seem all that different from a pre-designed WordPress Theme (other than the fact that you have more control over your WordPress theme – especially if it uses MP Stacks – or, heck, even some of the other great Page Building Plugins for WordPress out there).

If there’s one main thing I’ve learned about people building websites in my over 10 years of doing web design, making themes, and developing plugins, it’s that people WANT control over their website. They want to be able to move their things around as they see fit – not a robot making those choices for them. At the beginning of WordPress Themes, themes were intended to be what The Grid is: something you never have to “mess with”, that looks great, and can accept your content: and they generally still are exactly that. But even with Themes, people want more control. They want to be able to do stuff like use a font of their own choosing. With “The Grid”, Robots do that for you now.

Basically, it seems like you’ll be paying a lot of money to have LESS control over your site and get a design/layout that you may or may not love – and have no control over making it your own – other than asking “the robots” for something new and hoping they spit out perfection.

I’m not trying to bash a new idea. This really could be the best thing since sliced bread. Maybe it isn’t too good to be true. But it never hurts to take a step back and realize you are watching an advertisement tooting its own horn. I still strongly believe that WordPress is the best website solution out there. It has years of testing behind it, a HUGE, talented, passionate, and committed community, and is constantly being upgraded – literally daily. It isn’t a flash in the pan and it won’t be gone tomorrow with your cash in its pocket.

My desire with this blog post is just to shine a realistic light on some extremely cleverly worded (and a bit  over-the-top) advertising before everybody throws their websites off a cliff without looking first.

Greetings! It’s Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend so our support will be back on Tuesday Oct 14. Thanks for your patience eh!

Stay tuned for great updates coming for the PostGrid add-on too!