Ian M Rountree

Copywriter, Project Manager, Digital Marketing

Why Genesis Framework Rocks

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I’ve used the Genesis Framework from StudioPress as the basis for my blog for a couple of months now, and am about to finish the fourth site I’ve developed on it. I need to say this: The framework rocks. Everything from the format, to the support from StudioPress, to helpful tools people have published have helped me cut down my modification and theme building time significantly.

Genesis is slick. Genesis is smooth. And, above all, it doesn’t always look the same – even when you’re using the same elements for design.

Here are the sites I’ve now got going, built on either Genesis itself, or one of its child themes.

The Dowager Shadow - Built on Genesis Framework
The Dowager Shadow
Ian M Rountree - Built on Genesis Framework
Ian M Rountree
Hard Refresh Blog - Built on Genesis Framework
Hard Refresh
Jazmine Rhomyk Gallery - Built on Genesis Framework
Jazmine Rhomyk

Yes. I like blue. Don’t judge me.

Why did I switch from Standard Theme to Genesis Framework?

  • SEO options – unless you’re using plugins, it’s the bee’s knees. Seriously – beyond just being able to designate title and meta descriptions, Genesis allows for built in redirects, which is great for link blogs.
  • Ease of design – Spending a lot of time building sites isn’t my goal – I want to get decent looking sites up quickly, so I can start filling them in with content.
  • Ease of modification – The above being said, I want to be able to iterate my work quickly. If there’s a feature I want to add, or a design change I want to make, I want to be able to make it on the fly. Genesis allows for that.
  • Updates and notifications – Really. What other theme tells you, on its own, when it’s ready to get upgraded?
  • The Showcase – totally for bragging rights. There are a lot of awesome examples in the SutioPress showcase of well-built Genesis framework powered websites. Two – and soon, I hope, three – of mine are there.

Genesis Framework can help wordpress become a proper CMS very swiftly.

Many of StudioPress’ turn-key themes make developing non-standard blogs a breeze. One of the troubles most people see with using WordPress in general is that so many WP-based websites look… Well, like WordPress websites. Getting away from the usual columned layout, and adding some flair is one of the many places where Genesis is a viking.

Check Genesis Framework out – it’s well worth it if you spend a lot of time working with wordpress.

A Note About Documentation

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There are basically two camps among web developers and designers as regards documentation:

Those who believe it’s pointless, and those who document their work.

Those who do not document don’t understand it’s necessity. If you know the code, they may think, then why do you need cues as to its use? How useful are witty comments in haiku form to getting the darn job done?

How utilitarian. But, the perspective does have its merits. It speaks to knowing your job, knowing your tools and, above all, doing comprehensive and elegant work.

On the other hand, you have the developers and designers who love to document. This ranges from simple cases such as building a readme.txt for every module they build – all the way up to those who create ascii art from their functional notes. It’s fairly varied, because there are no real conventions for software documentation, especially in open source.

And it’s not just in software. Right down to html structure in websites and override hierarchies in CSS files – documentation can be more than just thorough, it can also be elegant.

Documentation may seem frivolous to some, but the point is clear: you need to know where you’ve been to know where you’re going. What happens to your elegant programming if you disappear, or if someone else takes it over? Good documentation can prevent backward engineering, as well as allowing for more efficient forking, revisioning, and repetitive versioning.

By and large, I’ve seen graphic designers like documentation less than functional or application developers. The group I’m seeing lean toward documentation more and more, however, are user experience designers. People building user interfaces, designing the workflows for web sites and applications.

There are benefits to both theories – good documentation can be as helpful as elegant, minimalist code structure. However, as with so many other ventures, coding with future versions in mind is never a bad idea.

Photo by Syntopia.

The Power of Cross-Disciplinary Skill

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I’ve been writing HTML by hand and building websites since I was twelve – fifteen years, more than half my life. I’ve been programming since I was sixteen, again, nearly half my life. I’ve been blogging for more than eleven years, studying internet culture for somewhere around eight, and administering websites for the last seven.

I’ve been an internet marketer for three months. What do these things have in common? Transferrable skill.

Marketing is more than just snappy ads and writing copy. There’s a tracking aspect that doesn’t get enough credit, a necessity to know a space thoroughly enough to navigate any trouble that comes your way – just as there are in so many other fields. And I keep running into situations, especially doing SEO, where my knowledge of code and structure has proven valuable. I’m aware that sounds incredibly self-agrandizing, but consider this.

Knowledge of code in many forms is easily transferrable to internet marketing, the same way knowledge of building materials is transferrable to architecture. Designing any structure – whether it’s a website infrastructure or the framing of a building – benefits immensely from a studious approach to knowledge of your materials. Associated knowledge empowers you in a way few other personal or professional developments do, by lending perspective to your work.

Transferrable skill is not universal. Knowing a lot about dance isn’t going to help an architect. However, you’d be surprised what can be transferred – from a history of, say, retail one might take an intense knowledge of people and human behaviour and become a stellar salesperson, or get a psychology degree and use the unique perspective from behind the counter to help others understand mass behaviour. A history in accounting may be just what someone needs to tackle building a business from scratch – patience and tenacity.

Meaningful work comes in many forms. We don’t live in a culture where we are encouraged from any direction to have College graduation-to-retirement loyalty to a position, company or even field any longer. If the market, the culture, and your family and friends expect and accept that you’re liable to jump jobs every five or ten years, one of the best things you can do to serve yourself is develop not only a wide range of skills, but a widely usable range of skills.

Just as there’s a difference between being known and being knoweable, there’s a gap between being skilled, and having applicable skill.