My first WP theme

I have always modified WP themes (free and premium), but never tried to create my own theme from scratch. Although I used to modify somebody's else themes almost completely, but creating a theme from scratch is quite routine. And finally, I decided to do it.

I used GPT to write the code, but the idea, structure, and design are mine. GPT only checked what was written and produced cleaner code.

In general, I made a list of everything that pissed me off in WP themes, all the stupid implementation methods of simple ideas, constantly changing paddings and margins, a bunch of integrated 3rd party's plugins, and a huge number of scripts.

It is quite possible that at first glance my theme looks routine and boring, besides, I have already used such a design to modify other people's WP themes. But this one is well thought out and written from scratch. The theme is universal.

The only thing I did not do and do not want to do is visual theme options. All edits must be made to the PHP files, there is no click to check a color, element, widget, etc - all must be added directly into the PHP template. But I'm fine with it. The main thing for me is that the theme is completely responsive and I know where each line of code is written.

For now, I'm testing the theme, creating new sites, and correcting errors and shortcomings (when I find them).

You can check the theme on these 2 sites (remove all slashes and spaces):
peru / tourist / guide /com
SEO / friendly / domains /com

I would like to hear opinions and reviews.
What do you think?

 

The decision to skip visual theme options shows a commitment to simplicity and functionality, which many developers (and users) can appreciate.

 

I would like to hear opinions and reviews related to the design.
What do you think?

 

Both have the same design style, minimal and user-friendly. I suggest reducing the amount of scrolling on SEOFriendlyDomains, as excessive scrolling can detract from the user experience. Instead, consider implementing pagination.

 

They are different...
The site about Peru has only posts, and the domain portfolio has listings and posts.
The search is by posts or by listings.
Besides, listing elements always have a title inside the feature image and don't have excerpts.
Posts have normal titles and excerpts.
Listings have a different layout.
It is the same theme but it has many different templates to choose from for posts, pages, listings, and homepages.

I have pagination, but not for that template.
I know It is long enough, but I decided to keep It without pagination

 

You made these themes from scratch?

They're beautiful! Simplicity is important on so many levels - mainly the UX. I'm a sucker for simple themes.

The Peru one made me think back to the early days of using the marquee function. I've honestly not seen one in years. Personally, I would replace that.

They look awesome on my desktop but are a little clunky when in vertical mode on my iPhone. I mean, they work on mobile but just seem a little clunkier.

Nice work

 

Do you mean the weather bar?
it's a widget from weatherwidget.org, I add it to all my travel blogs.
What exactly looks clunky on your phone?
What elements? Can you take a screenshot?

This is the same theme on the both sites, the theme has many templates for posts, listngs and homepage to choose from.

Yes, the theme is made from scratch, I did it with the help of GPT.
Sidebar widgets were made with the help of GPT.
GPT also helped me to create "listings" - a type of post and make search results filtered by listing and post types.
The homepage "hero slider" (in the domain portfolio site) with search also was made with the help of GPT.
GPT also insisted on using grid-template-columns: repeat(4, 1fr) - I used to make a grid with %.
The "toggles" used in posts were adapted by me from somebody's else old free plugin a few years ago, and GPT cleaned the code.
GPT also checked the final CSS for errors, duplicated, and useless lines.

All templates are very simple, the homepage layout may look complex, but it is very simple.
The homepage slider is also very simple - it is the slider I used to create for years (only HTML+CSS).

I am not sure if I did it correctly or not, but I removed all image crops, I hate when WP creates 6-7 images from each uploaded image.
Now, I have only the original size and a 70% copy of it (only 2 files per each uploaded image).

The translation button is Google Translator integration

 

I also made the version with a white top bar menu.
I think the white top menu bar makes the header less "heavy".

best / dubai / tours /.com

And here are versions with colored top bar menu:

peru / tourist / guide /com
SEO / friendly / domains /com

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