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I have to admit I get pretty tired of “which is the best theme for…” conversations. And I also lament the mobile-ification of site design, although it’s true that most sites are visited on phones.
That said, most halfway decent page builders (even Gutenberg) are reaching a point where headers, footers, partials, and CPT pages are just something else to be designed from scratch with the builder. The strong benefit being that designers can just design without having to negotiate with different implementation considerations or even different implementation teams!
As for accessibility, if you’re clever enough to design a distinctive, custom, and genuinely interesting site design then part of being clever is detecting and accommodating people with alternative abilities. If you’re going to do everything as Rothko images you can #%!#% well include complete alt text. If you’re going to implement your controls as runaway buttons you can !#%!%# well include a solidly anchored “cut it out” button. Real graphic professionals don’t just slap stuff around and call it art. (Even Rothko didn’t just slap paint around and call it art!)
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There is one very important word that cannot be found anywhere in Nick Hamze’s article.
I’d wager the vast majority of visitors could not care less about the design of a website. What they want is the right content and for that content to be easily accessible. A good design for most visitors is an invisible design, one they don’t even realize is a good design as they are seamlessly presented with the content they are looking for. They don’t give a flying *&%! whether the design is “wow” or “different”. Only designers care about such things. It’s like how a movie can enthrall the audience because it has a great story coupled with the very best editing that the audience doesn’t even realize is great editing. Then come the awards season the creatives can all pat each other on the back and say what a marvellous job they’ve done.
As for Rothko, this is just silly and pretentious. All art is wonderful and certainly has its place but again many many people would have no idea who Rothko was or what he painted, and would probably (rightly or wrongly) joke that it had been created by a six-year-old child, the nuances completely lost on them. We seem to be in an arms race of opinions at the moment in WordPress and the wider world where it’s opinions for opinions sake.
Please Nick Hamze, would you be willing to create what you would call a weird theme, and submit it to the .org theme repo? Lead by example and then we will have more to go on than mere words calling for such things.
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Man the WordPress community can be so freaking up tight that it’s off putting. Not every theme needs to be designed for accessibility. The ones that come stock with WordPress sure, but otherwise what people use is their own business. If someone wants to use a non-responsive theme, with low contrast, and a gaudy color-scheme then it’s their own choice and certainly not the end of the world.
The only person in this article that says anything worthwhile and productive is Nick Hamze:
“WP “themes” are dead. It’s a dead concept. If you don’t realize this, you’re completely out of touch with how sites are built and managed. It’s especially antithetical to the fundamentals of a block editor”
This is what we should be actually debating. In a world of Full Site Editing when can we move away from the old theme paradigm? It’s no longer necessary, or at worst with a little work it won’t be necessary in another year or two.
Maybe we should be talking about moving people from designing themes to designing collections of patterns.
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A criticism if I may.
Some of the linked articles here are like 5 years old (hence not really relevant).
There’s definitely a discussion to be had about how themes are developed – particularly given the recent push by Automattic to promote “hybrid themes” – but that discussion probably isn’t well served by concentrating on Twitter soap operas about what Matt said or didn’t say.
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Okay… So I looked at the Nick Hamze post and the WordPress themes listed.
They look different for sure but unless you are going to use them as is for a plumbing company website what is the main deal here???
Themes like Psychedeli and Kawaii-Chan are not getting 5,000+ downloads a day so how many people are really going to use this theme or even know it exists.
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And the #EuropeanUnion wishes a happy, new Year.
Just search for European Accessibility Act 2025 #EAA. Non-compliance can result in significant costs. Be aware, also ANY non-EU business that offers products or (digital) services to the EU market must comply with the accessibility standards.
Think of it as GDPR on steroids.
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Nick Hamze’s post is thought-provoking but feels disconnected from the reality of how most people use WordPress. The author romanticizes a return to a “weird,” personalized web while overlooking the practical needs of the majority of WordPress users, who often prioritize functionality, simplicity, and accessibility over daring aesthetics.
Unfortunately, many core and Automattic developers seem to share the author’s perspective, favoring conceptual ideals over the practical realities of how WordPress is used. This disconnect often manifests in feature updates and design philosophies that emphasize creative possibilities or abstract principles over tangible benefits for everyday users. While there’s certainly a place for bold, experimental themes in the WordPress ecosystem, this prevailing mindset risks alienating the very community that sustains WordPress as a platform: regular people who need straightforward, reliable tools to manage their online presence.
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Accessibility and inclusion must be at the heart of any software. WordPress is a go-to publishing platform due to its accessibility and ease of use for many, including myself. As a person with a visual disability, I prefer creating accessible themes and plugins from the start rather than compromising on them later.
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