We work a lot with WordPress and it’s one of the most common open source content management systems (CMS) we use for client sites. Generally we develop a unique design and build a custom theme; therefore it was an interesting experience when we recently got asked to redevelop the site of the Agricultural and Rural Convention (ARC), a multi-stakeholder platform involved with the reform process of the European Union’s Common Agriculture Policy (CAP).
Their current site used a commercial theme and ARC wanted to change it to another theme by the same provider. They needed help with installing the new theme, re-organising their content, customising the theme to fit their content, as well as adding a couple of new functions.
The site is very much news-driven and the new theme was specifically geared to this type of a site. The challenge was to re-organise the content in a coherent and logical way and to bring the most important information to the front page.
In the process we scrapped the native theme options page and built a custom options page more targeted at ARC’s particular content and structure. With it, they have more control of what content gets shown on the front page, without having to resort to code changes in the theme.
The other main part of the project was the integration of an internal communications platform, where the core stakeholders could exchange ideas in a private space. Previously this had been done via LinkedIn and Dropbox and the desire was to bring this conversation over to the new site. For this function we used the powerful WordPress plugin BuddyPress, allowing ARC to set up specific groups for stakeholders, where they can post and answer questions in group specific forums, upload files and send private messages.
All in all, it was an interesting project, especially using a commercial theme as a foundation and then making custom modifications on top of it.
