1/ What Functionality Do You Need?
Functionality is a fancy word for tools and/or features. There are plenty of features and functionality that you can add to your site, but only implement the features that are pertinent. At this point in your planning, you’re probably getting excited about some of the ideas you have for your Web site. Now the fun begins. It’s time to decide how each page of your Web site will look and what functionality it needs to include to help you accomplish your goals.
Joomla templates usually come with a set of features. You will need your site map for this step. Determining what you need will help you when you demo some of these templates Start with your home page. What is the first thing you want people to see when they visit your site? Examples of these things are image sliders, submit forms, module positions, layout options, menu display options and other elements.
Once you have a list, it’s a good idea to assign each item a priority level so you or your designer can focus resources on the most important items first. After you have decided on the aim of your site, visit existing sites that appear to have the same purpose, as doing so can provide you with some ideas for the presentation, functionality and content of your site. From here, you can start to form an image in your mind of how you want your site to look and behave.
2/What Kind Of Site Do You Have?
The first question we ask anyone who comes to us with a potential web project is “what do you want your site to do?” How you use your website decides which Joomla Template you should pick up. Most people, especially those that run smaller companies, but even those who run multi-nationals do not have a clear choice on this.
There's more than one way to build a site, and web sites should be dynamic in nature. They change according to your immediate needs and how you grow.
The usual impulse to get a website developed is because you know all of your customers will look at your website and check you out as much as possible before making a call and arranging a meeting. Of course you want it to look great and present you well – but a sign can do that!
Website design must meet your structural and stylistic requirements. There are designs for almost anything you can think of and it's important to choose a templates that fits your brand's persona. When figuring out what kind of site you have there are a few tips to keep in mind.
So what kind of template do you need? Here are some clues for you:
1. Which template you are looking for?
2. What template genre are you looking for? Here are a few template genre. examples: architect, musician, real estate, scientist, and there are many others.
3. Decide what kind of color schemes you need to choose match your brand (It helps to have a logo already).
4. Have a closer look at the reference for website.
5. Before you decide a template is the right one for you, dig into it a little. (Test out the demo. Have some friends or colleagues test it out as if it were your site and get feedback. Sometimes the design seems great but because of poor menu layouts, bad module positions or other unorganized issues, it can turn out to be a bad choice.
6. Take a closer look at what similar industry websites are doing:
It's common to go after the flashy websites because they look pretty, but using a template simple because it looks pretty in the demo can result in disappointment when your business doesn't fit the template's style. Simply put, don't force your business to fit the molding of a template.
So the first thing is you have to know what your objectives are when running a website and choose the types that will meet your needs.
3/ How Template Pricing Works:
There's not one way to know the price with template companies. Some charge you a one-time fee, some charge a yearly rate for a number of templates, and some offer unlimited templates for a monthly rate. That price also include unlimited chat sessions, free upgrade and supports. So how much it costs? To help with your search you can start by asking yourself a couple of questions.
1. Am I going to buy a template with long term updates, support, or a new template from the same company? - This determines the subscription length you can plan for.
2. Am I technological savvy enough to handle template issues if they arise? – If you need technical support, our support team will help you.
3. Am I going to need more than just a template? Maybe an extension/plugin or added functionality? - Choose whether you can make it with just a template or if you will need plugin/ added functionality.
4. How much does my budget I need to spend? - This could be the fastest and easiest way to decide on choosing a template or club. If you have to be under budget, they your choices will narrow down.
4/ How & Where to Get Templates?
Like we've mentioned already, templates aren't going anywhere. As content management systems like Joomla continue to grow in popularity, the more you will see templates being used. There are lots of companies that recognize this trend in the industry and have started very successful businesses that focus solely on template design.
Joining a template club is a popular way get templates. It will bring you the chance to get access to a big number of professional products that the author has developed over the years.
After you join in the club, you will immediately access the download area of the templates. You always have access to their latest templates, you get technical support, and you can generally trust that they won't build a bad template.
Also, these clubs spend more time with templates by their top-notch supported team than many of the independent website designers. The biggest benefit of a membership is you can download any designed template that you like. So much time in fact, that the industry has seen a move towards template frameworks (like mentioned previously). A template framework is a set of code, the template's engine if you will, that does not change even when compatible templates are switched while using it.
Template clubs build communities around their templates with forum and devoted support staff. Many issues can be resolved quickly and any bug are repaired and sent out through updates.
You will pay more for a template club membership, however, you can get better service when using club membership. Your templates will be better designed and backed by a team of Joomla professionals.
5/ Making Final Decision:
Making the final decision is a choice made after researching your template thoroughly. This guide should help, but most of website details will be up to you.
To Recap, We Covered:
1. Intro Into Joomla Templates
2. What Kind Of Site You Have
3. What Functionality You Need
4. How & Where To Get Templates
5. How Template Pricing Works
Hypothetical Decision Making Process
Let’s walk through a hypothetical situation following the steps aboe. Lets say I have a real estate consulting business. It's a relatively small firm of about 10 people and my budget for a website is around $5000.
1. I have started to discover about joomla templates in the first part and decide a template is definitely what I want because our company will not want to hire a full time or part time web designer.
2. I move on to the next part and determine I would be best with a real estate style template with a minimalistic design and color scheme. It will have only 15 or so pages that will see most of the attention from visitors. Some of the modules will display featured content and there will be an image slider on the home page.
3. Now that I know what genre of template I want, I figure out the functionality. I come to the decision that my website will need a flexible main menu in the header that can display multiple rows, on the home page I will need a slider, and I will need a place to put Google Analytics code easily.
4. Next, I learn how to search and purchase templates. I choose Joomlavi because they have a free Frameworks, Extensions that I can use as a base for any of their templates that I like.
5. I purchase a membership that is a yearly plan that costs me $60 and gets me to get immediate upgrades to templates and expert technical support. I can also use up to 3 of their extensions as part of the membership.
More about Responsive Templates
We haven't covered anything about responsive templates in this article yet, but it's an important concept to know about in Joomla website building. The term 'responsive' refers to when a website dynamically adapts to the size of the browser viewing it.
This is very popular because a growing number of internet users are using mobile devices to view websites. As time goes on, all templates will be responsive and creative. Early adopters have already been making improvements to this technique and it displays that it's here to stay.