The Best WordPress Themes – How To Select The Right One

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My good buddy, Mary Motz, just posted a great article about what to think about when selecting the right WordPress theme for your projects … and I couldn’t agree more with her points.

Check out her article at: http://www.provirtualsolutions.com/2010/05/how-to-pick-the-best-wordpress-theme

In addition to her list of favorite themes, I really like using the Flexx WordPress themes from iThemes. I think the thing I like most about it is how user-friendly it is to customize the elements that seem to be the most important to all users I work with: the header image (very easy to create a rotating header with multiple images), the navigation, the layout, and the background. These are down and dirty simple for the everyday user to modify to their heart’s content and the learning curve is very low. If you can use a Browse button to locate an image for uploading, you’re good to go.

If I had to make a wish for the features I would like to see simplified with the Flexx themes, there would be 2 of them: 1) I’d like to be able to change the color scheme easier for widget headers, etc., and 2) I’d like the navigation bar for pages to handle multiple rows easier. Maybe they’ve changed it since I got mine, but if you have too many navigation tabs they just disappear instead of wrapping to a new row. You have to get into some extra coding to make it work.  What’s up with that? Anyway, still a winner in my book. It’s a great theme for those that want to be able to customize it without needing the help of a WordPress assistant. My advise would be to select the Flexx version that matches your color scheme already. Everything else is easy to change for the typical user.

If you’re into designing your own themes, but want some sort of foundation, you simply must take a closer look at Builder from iThemes. They keep adding new modules, goodies, and templates to it. It’s just crazy good.

Also, I like the themes from Solostream.

I do use the Thesis theme from DIY Themes a lot, but you still have to be extra techie in order to add a header image or background. Everything else about it rocks my world, though. It’s high on my list of favs because of all the extra goodies it provides out of the box.

I do have to admit that I haven’t tried any of the WooThemes yet, but Mary has me wanting to get one just to try it out.

What are your favorite WordPress themes and why?