Introduction
In the most recent phases of this site’s existence, all of which I outlined in “The History of This Site“, I contemplated making this website “responsive”, a term used for websites that adapt to screen sizes automatically, no matter if you access them via an Android phone, an iPhone, an iPad, or any other device you can think of.
For quite a while, I thought that was impossible. The WordPress repository of plugins and themes only offered convoluted solutions as well as plugins, and for a while I actually thought about giving it all up and calling it a day.
“Bugis”
One night, actually when 99% of my country were asleep, I somehow chanced upon “Bugis”, a “Tumblr”-like theme released by “Elmastudio” in Germany. It was probably via “Smashing Magazine” which offered a free responsive theme via their site, but it doesn’t really matter.
“Bugis” is a simple theme, without the obvious “bells & whistles” like rotating sliders, a trillion proprietary solutions to do this or that abd without the all-too-familiar “Wow!” elements that make you go “Ooooh”.
It just does what it is supposed to do; and that is to adapt to different devices.
Pure and simple.
Details
Despite its innocent exterior, “Bugis” smokes under the hood. It contains libraries that make one’s site adapt to different devices, and it does so in an unobtrusive way.
That means, and you are welcome to give it a try, that my site changes when you reduce the so-called “viewing port”, the size of your browser window.
People, like you, dear readers, might have a screen resolution that barely touches 480 pixels in screen width, or you have in your possession a device that can actually only handle (even) less that that. I have a 27′ monitor (“Honda Gives More Head!”). My plan was to make my site accessible to everyone, no matter what device they accessed it with,
“Post Types”
Although I have not made much use of them yet, “Bugis” is prepared for the use of “post types”, introduced by WordPress not so long ago. In a nutshell, “post types” let you post a single image, a gallery, a long post, an aside, a link or a quote, all of which can, theoretically, be “styled” differently.
Support
So far, the support has been excellent … although I have noticed that support for “Bugis” has slowed down when a new theme was released by “Elmastudio”. Nevertheless, already now all the comments and answers one could hope for are available on the “Bugis” main page. A lot of the discussion there is in German, but should you need to, you can always post in English and you WILL get a response. Very helpful folks!
Price
12 Euro.
The price of a super-sized meal with an extra portion of Chicken McNuggets.
If you can’t afford that, there’s something wrong with your budget.
My Changes
Out-of-the-box, “Bugis” is ready to run and looks great. Simply because I don’t like using “out-of-the-box” themes without changes, I tweaked things here and there:
- I changed the color of items to conform to a somewhat gray scheme.
- I added a different background color.
- I styled some elements differently (quotes, blockquotes, and more).
- I use a child theme.
- I have tried to change the menu colors … but haven’t been successful yet.
[to be continued, updated and expanded upon]