Foreword

In the past few years, I’ve been honored to speak at dozens of WordCamps, lead WordCamp Birmingham, and contribute to WordPress Core with the user interface group. I am honored that Jesse asked me to write this foreword. I love the WordPress community.

We are Pioneers

In this age of ever-changing technology, it’s important to be forward-thinking. As web designers, developers, and builders, we need tools that are reliable, faster, better, and sustainable. We desire standards, yet also crave innovation. We don’t want to sit idly while technology passes us by—we want to predict what lies ahead and make it.

We Shape the Future

We need to protect ourselves and our content, and forge our own paths. We have to react to a constantly shifting landscape—proprietary systems only tie us down. To be forward-thinking, we need a platform we can mold into anything we want it to be.

We Use WordPress

We use WordPress because it’s secure, reliable, and adaptable. It can fit anyone’s needs, large or small—from high-traffic WordPress.com VIP clients to local urban farms. WordPress isn’t just for personal blogs—it’s the backbone of large businesses, tight-knit communities, web apps, and everything in between. Most importantly, WordPress is free and open source. Thanks to its license, the GPL, WordPress will remain free forever. The GPL lets you build on the shoulders of others, granting you the freedom to reuse whatever you want, shape it, and publish it at will.

WordPress Can Do Anything

Not many platforms can do what WordPress does. Not many have the flexibility to scale and adapt. Some have proprietary code that you can’t touch and remake into your own. With WordPress, you can remake and reuse—and you’re not alone. WordPress is a community: there are millions of people just like you sharing their code, ideas, and innovations.

Jesse Friedman is one of these people. In this book, he takes you step-by-step through how to leverage WordPress and its intricacies, sharing the knowledge he’s gathered from years of working with this tremendous platform. Jesse not only provides you with practical standards for WordPress design and development, but also dives deeper with his own insights.

Jesse has a knack for thinking about not only the outcome, but also ongoing usage. He shows great attention to how people interact with the WordPress dashboard, and provides insight into the user-admin experience. Pioneering the future requires more than a make-it-then-leave-it mentality—it takes thoughtfully crafting experiences for everyone, while keeping an eye on the future.

This book is a tremendous resource to our community.

—Sara Cannon

Sara Cannon is an artist, designer, and developer based in Birmingham, Alabama. She is the cofounder and creative director of Range—A Design and Development Shop.