Nick Hamze has called for making WordPress themes exciting and the web weird again. “WordPress desperately needs your creativity, your weird ideas, your willingness to break the visual rules. The future of the web shouldn’t be a monochrome landscape of identical layouts.”, he said.
He believes there are plenty of good themes in the Repository but no great themes with “designs that break the mold and spark excitement.”
We need more themes that make people say “Wow!” or “That’s different!” rather than “That’s clean and professional.” The web needs more personality, more risk-taking, more fun.
According to him, great themes should:
- Have a distinct point of view
- Embrace specific aesthetics boldly
- Design for specific use cases
- Break some rules thoughtfully
Hamze’s call comes amid growing uncertainty about the future of WordPress themes. While the repository now hosts over 13,000 free themes, recent community discussions have often cast a grim outlook.Some of the discussions/articles published on the fate of themes include:
- The Theme Is Dead, Long Live the Theme
- WordPress Themes Are Dead
- The End of WordPress Themes is in Sight
- Will Page Builders & Full Site Editing Be the Death of WordPress Themes?
- Is WordPress Theme Business Dead?
- WordPress Themes Are Dead. Long Live WordPress Themes!
Vova Feldman of Freemius too recently highlighted the stagnation in the WordPress theme market: “The WordPress Theme Market is in big trouble! Over the past six years, the annual single-site pricing for themes has shown little to no growth. In fact, the average price has decreased by 9%, dropping from $55.78 in 2019 to $50.75 in 2024.”
Many will remember the excitement generated by the Ollie theme, but it faced pushback from the Theme Review team. Though Matt Mullenweg, Josepha Haden Chomphosy and Justin Tadlock supported the theme, in the end, it was featured on the repository only after dropping its innovative onboarding features.
Accessibility Challenges
Amber Hinds, CEO of Equalize Digital (the team behind the Equalize Digital Accessibility Checker plugin) noticed some accessibility issues with Hamze’s post and she drew attention to them. She said, “WordPress themes need more #a11y and expected interfaces that convert. Not “weird” designs that confuse people or kill time on site.”
Matt Mullenweg joined the conversation and replied, “You’re tipping into net negative contribution territory. Like at what point do you say a Rothko painting isn’t high contrast enough?”
However, this sparked backlash. Katie Keith of Barn2Plugins questioned, “Why would the leader of the WordPress project say something so disrespectful to one of the community’s top accessibility experts simply for highlighting some accessibility issues? THAT is tipping into net negative contribution territory.”
WordPress developer Earle Davies also shared his thoughts, “Wonder why accessibility in WordPress sucks? When experts highlight accessibility flaws, it’s considered a net negative contribution by the leader of the project. No surprise a8c employees argue why they choose design >accessibility. WP/GB accessibility sucks. Indisputable fact.”
Accessibility Expert Alex Stine tweeted, “Matt has always taken this stand-offish approach to accessibility and I quit trying to figure out why.” He also said, “Accessibility and inclusion are important. Sure, themes should be eye popping fun. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be accessible too.”
Accessibility Advocate Anne Bovelett added, “If a theme is not accessible by contrast, it may look like a Porsche Carrera to the site owner and a good part of the visitors, but it will be a Porsche with windows that can’t be seen through from inside nor outside with doorknobs that won’t budge, to a large percentage of visitors.” She also shared her YouTube video showing examples of how many people experience the web and suggested organizing Design Days like Core Days.
Designer Brian Gardner had this to say: ” I’m all for creative WordPress themes—whether bold and quirky or plain but practical. As far as I’m concerned, they should ALL be accessible. At a bare minimum, every theme should pass basic color contrast requirements.”
“Rothko should be fine as long as no one needs to access the painting to order medical supplies or pay their water bills. Although, a text/audio alternative to the painting is very beneficial for those with low or no vision.”, tweeted Steve Jones, Co-Owner and CTO at Equalize Digital.
Jenni McKinnon, CEO of WP Pros(e) asked, “If the Rothko painting was on a website, then wouldn’t the WCAG point to what is (or isn’t) “high contrast enough?”” while Courtney Robertson of GoDaddy emphasised: “Democratizing publishing is for all. WordPress must ensure no one is excluded from creating or consuming content.”
Kevin Geary of Digital Gravy also does not support Nick Hamze. He said, “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….WP needs actual leadership and real improvements to the software. We’d all LOVE a “sanitized and professional” wp-admin right about now. “Weird themes,” not so much.”
According to Carolina Nymark of Yoast (former team representative for the Themes Team), “Themes can be art and experimental and still be accessible and high quality. You just have to decide that is what you want to build.” And for WordPress developer Brian Coords, “True creativity often thrives within constraints. Weird for weirdness sake is not art or self-expression. Creating something meaningful that inspires a shared experience between people (regardless of how they navigate the web) should be the ideal.”
Discussions are still going on about accessibility. Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined AI accessibility startup accessiBe to pay $1M for misleading advertising.
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