Wordpress experts - how to make a website interactive like *this one*?

March 9, 2017 7:07 AM

Examples inside. I have a client in a small-medium sized business who wants me to do more web design related stuff as opposed to creating content only for their WP site. Help!?

My client originally asked for a website section that lead on to further sections a little like the layout here: https://education.gov.scot/.

However, now that I have done this they are saying they actually want to make it look more like this (you may need to scroll down a little) -http://creativityportal.org.uk/. Basically, I need advice on how to create one page that has multiple clickable boxes leading into more pages/content like the creativity portal example. Processes, videos and examples etc all welcome.

I am reluctant to do website building but I am finding that small-medium sized businesses expect you to be a jack of all trades (rather than just a content writer or graphic designer, etc).

posted by Kat_Dubs to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Well... that's a terrible layout imo. But if that's what they really want, you'll want a portfolio theme or plug-in, I think. Do some googling with "wordpress portfolio theme" and you'll see a lot of possibilities.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:14 AM on March 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

I don't know how successful this will be without digging more into the design/code, but two search terms to help you are AJAX and Lightbox. AJAX, for loading content of other pages without triggering a new page load; and Lightbox for having that pop-up or pop-over effect for videos, images, and other content. There are, I think, tons of Lightbox plugins that could help you do something similar to this.

On preview, soren_lorensen's advice is also good— plenty of "portfolio"-centric WP themes will have a lightbox features built-in.
posted by Zephyrial at 7:16 AM on March 9, 2017

I agree with using a lightbox plugin, especially if you aren't comfortable coding that kind of functionality or changing the whole theme isn't what you're after.

I've had a positive experiences with the Fancybox, Responsive Lightbox, and Simple Light Box WP plugins on client sites.
posted by ap_classic at 7:27 AM on March 9, 2017

Another keyword is "modal." The site you referenced displays a page of links using a library like masonry, and loads the requested link in a modal popup. I'm not familiar with the current state of Wordpress, but it should be possible to combine a portfolio theme with a lightbox plugin to get something similar.
posted by bradf at 7:49 AM on March 9, 2017

There's a lot going on here. To reproduce the Creativity Portal, you'd need to set up some custom taxonomies (roles, subjects themes), which is not that hard. You could use something like pods to facilitate it, although you can also hand-code it.

Then you've got the live updating. That's a little more work.

Then you've got the Masonry display. There's at least one plugin for that.
posted by adamrice at 8:56 AM on March 9, 2017 [2 favorites]