Before You Start: A Theming Lesson Plan

Theming and design go hand in hand, but you don’t have to be an expert designer to pull off a great looking theme result. A basic knowledge of the systems and principles that web designers use will set you up for success when creating a client theme.

In addition to the design aspect of theming, our process for setting them up can be daunting without the right information.

The following is a lesson plan that will provide the foundational design knowledge to know what to look for in a well designed theme so that you can apply these core principles of web design to any themes you work on at A

spenware. The lesson plan also includes an article on image optimization as this is an important part of the theming process. This is to ensure a balance of great looking images and optimized page load times.

Finally, when you are ready to get started, resources are provided under “Next Steps” that include a Step By Step theme setup guide, an asset checklist to ensure the provided assets meet our requirements, and a QA checklist to use when reviewing your final results.

Theme Training PDF

Open

1. What is Theming at Aspenware (5 Minute Read):
   What is Theming at Aspenware?

2. The Design Process (20 Minute Read):
   https://proximityschool.com/learn/design-process/

3. Web Design Principles (1 hour Video Course):
   Free Web Design Tutorial - Web Design for Web Developers: Build Beautiful Websites!

4. Optimizing Images for Web Pt 2 (part 1 optional) (15 minute read):
   The Developers Guide to Optimizing Images for the Web, Part 2.

5. Next steps:
   https://aspenware.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AT/pages/752746519
   https://aspenware.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AT/pages/768507988
   Asset Review