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Session: Development of a No-Code Theme for Teaching Full Site Editing to Beginning WordPress Students

Date: Thursday, July 13, 2023
Time: 2:30 - 3:15 pm (CDT) (UTC-05:00)
Location: Room 2
Format: General Lecture Session

Who is this session for?

Higher education faculty in design-related fields

Session description

Full site editing is changing how faculty in higher education teach WordPress to their students. Among these changes, design students can create web sites from scratch without the need for page builders or extensive knowledge of coding. FSE effectively allows designers to be theme creators. Teaching FSE, however, requires a theme for students to start from, and for designers this should be a no- or low-code framework with few defined styles. Unfortunately, block themes of this type are mostly for developers, and rarely offer the frontend controls that design students need for a no-code solution.

This presentation describes the development of Naked Skeleton, a bare bones FSE theme for beginning WordPress students. Following a survey of existing starter themes and their virtues and limitations, the presentation will focus on the “why” and “how” of the Naked Skeleton theme. Key takeaways include the criteria around which the theme was built and why these criteria were chosen, questions instructors should ask in defining their own criteria for a starter theme, settings in the theme.json file for creating a no-code theme, how to disable WordPress block patterns from loading, and recommended plugins for theming with a no-code approach.

Presenter

Drake Gómez

Headshot of Drake Gómez
Professor, Digital Media Program, Keystone College

Drake Gómez is an artist and educator, currently holding a Senior Faculty Appointment as Professor in the Digital Media Program at Keystone College in La Plume, Pennsylvania. His paintings and drawings have been shown in exhibitions throughout the US, in group and one-person shows.
As an educator whose courses have transitioned from the traditional fine arts to digital media and design, Professor Gómez’s interests have increasingly focused on teaching web design, WordPress, and drawing for designers.
Professor Gómez holds a BFA in studio art from the University of Central Florida, and an MFA in painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan.

Sessions

  • General Lecture Session: Development of a No-Code Theme for Teaching Full Site Editing to Beginning WordPress Students

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