BY Nick Pelton

The Road to New Theme Releases

Two months ago, Westwerk announced the acquisition of WordPress theme shop Press75. Eight short weeks, hundreds of long hours, three themes later, and Press75 has officially hit the ground running!

Within our first three weeks of taking the reigns at Press75, we released a completely overhauled version of the company’s classic, On Demand. In 2009 and 2010, the On Demand theme was one of Press75’s best selling themes because of it’s inspiring approach to video – providing a new way of embedding YouTube and Vimeo videos as well as allowing self-hosted videos on WordPress. We saw the potential, so we decided to focus on On Demand as our first Press75 project. Our overhaul kept those beloved features intact, but pushed the envelope further. We started from scratch with On Demand version 4, redesigning the theme, layout, typography and structure. What’s more, we’ve developed the theme on a new, fully responsive and mobile friendly framework, once again making On Demand in demand in the new age of WordPress. Check out the theme here.

One week later, we released our WordPress.com version of Clear News. The WordPress.org version of Clear News was getting some great mileage, so we decided to bring those same features for blog, news, and magazine websites to our WordPress.com audience. Whether you’re a casual blogger, dedicated news provider, or just looking to showcase your images and videos, consider Clear News on WordPress.com.

Today, we are excited to announce the launch of eCommerce/shopping theme Acquisto, (due in part to our fans for providing feedback in our online poll!). Acquisto is a simple eCommerce theme, promising not to overwhelm with unnecessary options and settings. It features a brand-spanking new design, beautiful responsive breakpoints so that your site looks wonderful on every device and browser, and complete WooCommerce integration so you can easily get your shop off the ground. eCommerce and WordPress go hand in hand with Acquisto — check it out here.

For details on our new eCommerce, news and video theme launches, visit Press75.com. Interested in learning more about our theme customizations or full custom builds? Drop us a line!

BY Nick Pelton

Sharing WordCamp Mpls Knowledge

We wanted to create a small repository of sorts for our various presentations and talks at WordCamp Minneapolis 2014. Videos of our presentations can be found at WordPress.tv.

 

Designing For Interaction, Travis Totz

Touch, gestures and voice control are quickly becoming more important for designers (and developers) to think about and design for. Interaction can enrich a user’s experience of a product or service, and express character and feeling within those interactions. During this talk I will assist in equipping you with the process you need to design for interactive experiences on WordPress and on the web. How can we achieve clean, easy and scalable interactions that are optimized for every device? This talk will focus on current solutions from various experts in the field, as well as our best practices, and optional tools to use.

Download full presentation here. Video here.

 

WP-to-JS and Back Again, Nick Pelton

WordPress is an amazing tool. JavaScript makes it even better. Learn how to push data from WP-to-JS and back again in this primer on AJAX. Key takeaways will be several methods making WP and JS work together as well as some tips and tricks for better performance.

Download full presentation here. Video here.

 

Where’s My Maserati? Dave West and Amy Abt

There are a lot of steps between starting a business and buying a maserati. In our discussion, we’ll cover a few critical areas to consider as a new small business owner begins to hone their process. Walking through some of the common business mistakes and misconceptions can help get attendees on the road to growing their business and being more profitable.

We’ll cover:

– Estimating
– Time Tracking
– Analyzing Time Data
– Evaluating Profitability

Download full presentation here. Sample category headlines for terms and conditions can be found here. Video here.

 

Remote Project Management

There are lots of benefits and challenges associated with managing projects when your clients and your developers are separated from you by several time zones. I’ll go through what I’ve learned in the past year as a project manager working with people all over the world. Topics will include how take advantage of unique experiences and opportunities that arise from working outside of your geographical area, how to overcome language and cultural barriers, and tools you can use to keep your project on track and successful. Video here.

Download full presentation here.

A few other resources:

Time Zones:
http://xkcd.com/1335/
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

Good Tools:
http://www.desk.com
https://trello.com/
http://www.skype.com
http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/business/ – Gmail, Hangouts, Drive all working together

Waterfall Methodology:
http://werkpress.com/process-for-quick-turnaround-projects/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_model

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