I’ll be the first to admit that I am not a visual designer. I’ve been building websites for over 20 years now, and one of the things I still struggle with the most is creating attractive website layouts from scratch. It’s always been a major frustration for me. I can manager servers all day, write code until my fingers fall off from typing, generate content on the fly without even breaking a sweat. But when it comes to creating something that’s pleasing to the eye, it’s a job of work and one of my least favorite parts of building websites. And it’s a shortcoming I’ve had to learn to make peace with, frequently relying on the work of others to at least get me started when creating a new website or updated layout for a client.
Recently, though, a colleague of mine — another member at the Ironblock Coworking Studio — turned me on to a relatively new WordPress theme that has dramatically changed the way I approach web design and development. It’s a fully-featured visual design theme that focuses on blocks that can be positioned easily on a page and modified quickly to create nearly instant layouts that are extremely attractive. The theme is called Divi — and it’s forever changed the way I build websites.
Prior to meeting Divi, I had one of two approaches to building a website layout: 1) I’d grab an existing theme that was close to what I wanted and modify the code until it roughly matched the image I had in my head, or 2) I’d install a barebones theme framework and essentially build the theme from the ground up. In both cases, the final result was rarely as attractive or professional looking as I wanted and I was never 100% happy with the end product. With Divi, I’ve been able in the last couple of months to create half a dozen websites that I’m actually extremely proud of and excited to show off.
Ironically, Divi was created partially as a way for visual designers to be able to build websites easily without having to focus on a lot of code. Divi includes an easy-to-use drag-and-drop builder interface that makes creating layouts super fast and super simple. They also provide a wonderful template library that you can pull from to load a layout onto a page that you can then modify, tweak, and change to your heart’s desire until you have exactly the layout you want. For someone like me who has trouble not only visualizing attractive layouts but also struggles to implement them, this has been a godsend. I get to start with a template that’s already attractive, and then all I have to do is modify it from there.
Every module in Divi includes a settings panel, as well, where you can custom-tailor every piece of the page. And the coder side of me still gets the satisfaction of throwing custom code in as needed to adjust certain settings if they’re not already included in the module itself. Divi has revolutionized the way I build websites, and I couldn’t be happier about the change. It’s the first time I’ve used a theme builder I actually like, and I suspect I’ll never go back to doing things the old way. And for the code geek in me, I still get the joy and satisfaction of nerding out with the rest of the website setup, from purchasing domain names to setting up a server to installing WordPress to customizing everything with plugins and custom code, if necessary.
Take a look at my portfolio and see why I’m so excited about this new tool in my toolbox. I think you’ll agree that Divi has been an investment well worth making.