Comments on: The slippery slope dilemma: How much control should users have?

By: Hikari

Hikari — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:23:32 +0000

My answer to your question is NOTHING.

All exemples you did are CSS related. Don’t solve CSS problems with PHP.

For my theme options page I add options to choose the doctype, default posts and comments languages, change the header image… and that’s it.

Wanna change a CSS config? Use a child theme or a plugin to add an extra CSS file, and add your customs there.

For customizations on HTML, add actions and filters where users wanna change and let them use their child theme to implement it.

By: alterity

alterity — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:32:23 +0000

Interesting. I wonder what the most effective theme is? Has any research ever been done on this matter?

By: Fauzan Husin

Fauzan Husin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:51:18 +0000

Its just part of the our nature. The more options you give, the more the users will ask for. I think you found a good balance in your themes, specially in the options theme, although its no longer supported.

By: Pancake

Pancake — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:38:37 +0000

great article and very good topic for discussion, i have to tell you that I don’t understand HorneyMelon….

By: Nebulizadores

Nebulizadores — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:25:23 +0000

The more options you give, the more the users will ask for. Nice topic some good comments thanks

By: Discussion Point

Discussion Point — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:39:00 +0000

I think its a good idea to give more options to end users. But again i think, it should be limited to fonts and colors. Else as you said the slippery slope continues.

By: Mike B. Fisher

Mike B. Fisher — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:49:13 +0000

One way to approach the question of balance is to survey people who download your themes. There’s no one “correct” balance between user control and complexity. But you can seek the balance by determining how -your- users are employing particular themes and what they need from them.

There are plenty of inexpensive or free online survey tools. I’d suggest setting up a feedback mechanism, perhaps even on a per-theme basis. Ask users what they’d most want to control & change. Then look for the common threads and address them as best you can.

By: ian

ian — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:34:07 +0000

Nice topic some good comments thanks

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By: Ditutu

Ditutu — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:50:27 +0000

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