Key Learnings
Working with WordpressBefore starting this project, I had no prior experience using Wordpress. Looking back at my approach to this project, I’m happy with how I went about it. That is, utilizing a powerful, familiar design tool like Figma to bring my vision to reality as fast and easy as possible, and then replicating that design in Wordpress/Divi. One of the biggest frustrations I’ve had in the past when building websites is the limitation placed on design freedom when using no-code web builders. At a base level, using the default Wordpress theme has those same limitations, but utilizing blank-slate theme builders like Divi opened up new opportunities. Designing first, and learning how to build second allowed me to realize the full potential for VXS’ website and challenge myself to learn a new skill to a higher level compared to if I had taken the “easy” route of designing the website in Wordpress using my very limited knowledge of the platform and conforming to its design limitations. All that said, learning Wordpress and Divi on my own wasn’t easy, but thankfully I had my own Wordpress/Divi experts right at my fingertips, i.e., ChatGPT and Claude.
Utilizing AI
AI chat tools played a huge role in the success of this project. While the Divi theme offers a lot of customizability in terms of design freedom and functionality, it only goes so far without having to use custom code. To help recreate the fully custom design I built in Figma, I utilized ChatGPT to inquire about custom solutions to any roadblocks I was facing with the limited functionality of Wordpress and Divi. Taking the suggestions from ChatGPT, I would generate prompts for custom code solutions from Claude, which has a built in visual preview of the custom code it generates. This was a super helpful way to quickly iterate, debug, and preview custom code, whether it was for CSS visuals or more complex backend functionality.
Additionally, when the site was fully built out and ready to be deployed to overwrite the old site, I used ChatGPT to give me a comprehensive guide on everything that I needed to prepare and check in terms of security, SEO, data transfer, and backups. As a designer, I would have never thought of a lot of the things it taught me and I now feel much more confident in my knowledge of the interconnection between design and development.
What Could I Have Done Differently?
User TestingIf it was within the scope of this project, I would have liked to conduct user testing with the final design. While the client was happy with the final product, it would have been advantageous to conduct user testing to confirm that my design was effective and user friendly and would have granted the ability to optimize any areas that we’re lacking.