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Themes Falling Apart at the Seams

October 14th, 2009

I just completed a small job for a new client. And I think it was quite a lesson for us both—in a good way!

The Highest Bidder Wins!

This client went seeking a new web designer on oDesk. As you may be aware, oDesk is a guilty daily pleasure of mine—a love/hate kind of thing, because they’ve always got a gig! Anyway, he posted, I answered (as did 25 others). And—despite my rate being roughly 3.5x greater than the average of other 25—I got the gig. Really!

Now, I’m going to digress from my main theme here, just to point out that you never really know from where your next client will come. Yesterday, Rita Lewis posted this article on Freelance Switch. And as of this writing, there are over 80 comments. (I’m no. 28, or so.) And they’re still rolling in! Looks like my new client relationship is the exception to the majority experience.

So, back to topic…

Style Sheet Torn? I’ll Fix It!

Client’s problem: the first web designer had set up a WordPress site, using a stripped down, patched up, recycled, reconditioned, shoulda been retired former premium theme. U.G.L.Y.
Client’s solution: hire a different web designer to fix it–without putting over 4 hours into the fix.

My solution: fix the style sheet by organizing font stacks, margins, padding, etc. improve the color palette. If still time, address a flash plugin issue.
My problem: I put the solution before the problem.

Without actually evaluating the style code, I had no idea how messed up the style sheet was. Once committed and on the clock, I realized the following:

  1. there was no reset
  2. there were no sensible font stacks
  3. the “original” theme was a shell of its former self, with left-over style rules, redundant code and CSS errors
  4. and whoever input the content into WP, also added lots of inline styles and unnecessary markup

Yikes!

Tick Tock

Long story short. I persevered and fixed it. Added reset, IE styles, typography, and color palette. Cleaned up the code from the top down, and put in more than a few extra hours. Off the clock.

And I have a new client.

Next project, he’ll call me first and I’ll provide him a brand-new, custom-tailored theme! And we both learned our lessons!

Client Lesson

  • check out the provider
  • price/rate does equal value
  • cleaning up bad code is harder than doing it right from scratch

My Lesson

  • look under the hood before estimating
  • cleaning up bad code is harder than doing it right from scratch

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2 Responses to “Themes Falling Apart at the Seams”

christine
October 14, 2009

I feel for you.

I’ve done this so many times. I’ve agreed to do work, thinking that it should be super simple until I start looking at the raw files and realize that the previous designer(s) simply just kept adding stuff, some of it totally unnecessary and useless. It feels great to get it to work in the end, but I’m always wary now about fixing someone’s else site.

I often use the kitchen analogy. Sure, I can make a pie in your kitchen, but I may not have the right tools, ingredients and it may take me a while to get organized. Clients tend to understand that more, then talking about messy code.

catherine
October 14, 2009

No kidding! (Says the woman who brings her own knives and pots on vacation!) ;-)

I seriously doubt I’ll ever make the same mistake again–I’ll find a new one!

Really though, coulda, shoulda rebuilt it from scratch. Woulda taken less time overall. I’m still amazed at the sloppiness of the code. (Eeewww…wonder what that designer’s kitchen looks like?)

What Say You?