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Aug
14
2009
The End of the Bloated Joomla Template Era?
Written by Steve Burge   
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Back in October 2008 we released Bolt which we marketed as "The World's Fastest Joomla Template". Several other template developers asked for copies to test against their own work, but the results were clear.

Nearly 10 months later, someone has come along and beaten that mark. We're proud of course that a company with 12 full-time template designers feels the need to compete with 2 guys working in their spare-time. I kind of wonder what took these professional developers so long? ;)

Since we released Bolt a lot of other companies such as YooTheme have worked on making their heavy templates run faster.

Where Do We Go From Here?

When we've got time in the next few weeks, we'll overhaul Bolt so that it reclaims its crown as the fastest template. Will we take on more challengers after that? Probably not. There's a reductio ad absurdum aspect to going even faster. Obviously the literally fastest Joomla template in the world is about five lines of code calling up the component.

Bolt was an experiment of sorts for us. We were frustrated by the bloated nature of other templates out there so we built what wanted to use.Breeze Template

What's next? Well, we've just released Breeze which is "The World's Easiest Joomla Template". That was another experiment of sorts, inspired by talking with so many students who were exasperated by the complexity of most modern templates. Rather than a 20-page PDF of instructions, this is how to set-up Breeze:

  1. Install Joomla
  2. Upload Breeze
  3. Upload your Logo via the Media Manager
  4. Relax and enjoy the new template!

If this sparks a rush for template developers to start making their designs much easier for beginners to use, we'd love that. At this rate, will we see Rockettheme release the "The World's Easiest Joomla Template" in about June 2010?

Finally,? if you've any ideas for where we should go next with "The World's _______ Joomla Template" theme, we'd love to hear them :)

 

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Comments  

 
#1 Brian Teeman 2009-08-14 09:23
If only it was true that designers would start to make their templates easier for beginners to use.

Unfortunateley it's the beginner that gets attracted by all the the bling of the complex template and then wonders why it's so hard to use.
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#2 Michel van Agtmaal 2009-08-14 09:34
I'd suggest "Whitest" as in "The World's Whitest Joomla Template", since "less is more".

A lean and mean template, without any gradient and blurry backgrounds.
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#3 Ivo 2009-08-14 09:39
Templates will become lighter with their own API (the clubs) developed.
However in order to achieve good look and WOW effect, the site can not be light.
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#4 Steve Burge 2009-08-14 09:48
I think JoomlaBamboo.com might have that wrapped up unfortunately. They've a couple called "Snow" and "Snow Reflection": http://demo.joomlabamboo.com/
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#5 Andy Miller 2009-08-14 10:15
Steve, Bolt was the only real competitor as the "world's fastest joomla template" - Be proud! :-) If this starts getting crazy with tit-for-tat across the Joomla developer landscape, we'll have to pull out the big guns and release our long-threatened 'pixel' template, and put the title to rest. heh. Cheers!
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#6 Sam Bible 2009-08-14 12:37
Nice post, Steve. ;-) If this is the beginning of a trend, hopefully it'll play a role in attracting more users to the Joomla community.

I definitely agree with Brian. It never ceases to amaze me how many people are their own worst enemy, even when given something good and easy. But then I suppose the difference between a beginner and a professional is not the tools they own, but the skill with which they are able to apply them.
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#7 Andy Miller 2009-08-14 13:00
I don't think this will be the end of 'full-featured' templates. The problem is that people demand and expect features, so we provide. However, all these features are not supposed to be used at the same time! Our demos obviously show everything off, but in practical every day use, features that are used should be chosen careful for their practicality and functionality rather than just because they are available. In short, we do provide lots and lots of features in our RocketTheme templates, but that doesn't mean they are bloated. Our motto is that it's easier to turn off or remove functionality than to add it, that's why we have so many features, but please, please, please don't try to use all of them on your site :-)
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#8 Brian Teeman 2009-08-14 13:22
Sadly beginners always seem to want everything at once. Only last week I was asked why a site was so slow only to find 52 modules on the home page.
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#9 Steve Burge 2009-08-14 13:36
@sam @brian you're right ... beginners go for flashy components and plugins as well as templates. It's takes experience to balance the steak and the sizzle.

@andy thanks for taking this post in good humor :-) You're completely correct ... the customer gets what the customer wants. Several other providers produce much heavier templates than Rockettheme.

We're able to sell more streamlined templates mainly because design isn't our day job and it fits well with our SEO niche.
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#10 unleash.it 2009-08-14 14:58
I think we need moderation not extremes. IMO, you're all missing the market for small to medium size businesses that need a smartly designed template with some personality. The big bloated designs (and the "lightning fast" but under designed) have their place, but my suggestion would be to think about a particular business model when you do a design.

Right now it's ecommerce, blogger, super rich media site, etc. But how about narrowing that down a bit to musician/artist, photographer, therapist, town government, consulting service, etc. Sure, the audience for each template is more narrow, but the goal is to build up a library.

Can you really imagine ANY of these smallish business type sites choosing the average Rocket Theme (or other) template for their site? Sure they can be pared down, but I know from experience as a designer/developer that it's not always easy to convince them...

But it's helping me get more original design jobs, so maybe I should just keep quiet!
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