A presentation on Wordpress customisation for travel blogs by Joseph C Lawrence at the Getaway Travel Blog Conference.

1. Joseph C Lawrence

3. • What is User Experience (UX) design?
• Why Wordpress?
• First steps – Domain names and installation
• Basic Usability
• Copy/Text – the UX of reading
• Images & galleries
• Web Video – the future of TV
• Maps – location, location, location
• The social ‘layer’
• Delight (the emotional icing on top)

4. What is
User Experience
(UX) design?

10. Why
Wordpress?

17. Turn this:
[cuber_shortcode]
Into this:

18. Go Mobile

19. First steps
Domain names and
installation

20. Register your own domain. It costs
about R100 per year for the name,
and can be as cheap as R19 per
month for hosting.

21. Wordpress has a famous 5 minute
install. Easier on Hetzner with 1 click
install.

22. Basic
Usability

24. Links should look like links
The logo should be linked home
Navigation should be clear and
obvious

25. Copy/Text:
the UX of reading

28. Use plugins to paginate – good for
UX, good for ad impressions 
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-paginate/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-pagenavi/

29. Use plugins to break up content into
tabs and accordions
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-pagenavi/

30. Use plugins to break up content into
tabs and accordions
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-pagenavi/

31. Lots of themes come with this stuff
pre-packaged, or use one of the
following plugins:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/thethe-tabs-and-accordions/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/j-shortcodes/

32. Images
& galleries

34. Easy FancyBox
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/easy-fancybox/

35. Lightbox Plus
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/lightbox-plus/

36. Galleria galleria
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/galleria-galleria/

37. Nextgen Gallery
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery/

38. Slickr Flickr
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/slickr-flickr/

39. Web Video
the future of TV

40. TubePress
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tubepress/

41. Maps
location, location,
location

42. MapPress
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/mappress-google-maps-for-wordpress/

43. WP Geo
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-geo/

44. Wordpress Geo Mashup
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/geo-mashup/

45. Wordpress Geo Mashup
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/geo-mashup/

46. Wordpress Geo Mashup
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/geo-mashup/

47. Wordpress Geo Mashup
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/geo-mashup/

48. Wordpress Geo Mashup
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/geo-mashup/

49. WooThemes Postcard
http://www.woothemes.com/2010/01/postcard/

50. WooThemes Postcard
http://www.woothemes.com/2010/01/postcard/

51. WooThemes City Guide
http://www.woothemes.com/2010/03/cityguide/

52. The social ‘layer’

55. Digg Digg
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/digg-digg/

56. Facebook Comments
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/facebook-comments-plugin/

57. Simple Facebook Connect
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-facebook-connect/

58. Simple Twitter Connect
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-twitter-connect/

59. Latest Twitter Sidebar Widget
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/latest-twitter-sidebar-widget/

60. Delight
(the emotional icing
on top)

62. The best experiences are EMOTIONAL.
These are the ones that you remember.
That make you tell your friends.
That make you come back for more.

64. Check out http://travelogic.intios.com/

65. Check out http://travelogic.intios.com/

66. Check out http://blog.vtravelled.com/

67. Even Matador is Wordpress!

68. Remember:
Always, always
think about the
experience first

69. Finito!
joe@clickshape.com
@josephclawrence
…Questions?