My positive first look at this new theme by 2 Romanian developers (Sergio Radu & Andrei Glingeanu).
- Yes, it’s built well.
- Yes, you can use it.
- Yes, I think the built-in features are cool.
Here are the exact things I liked:
1. Quality code
Because if you guys know me, you know I won’t even look at it if it’s coded like crap. Blocksy seems clean, no bloat. All template files and partial files are methodically-placed. Very respectful to WordPress coding standards and common theming logic. Thank you!
2. Just the right amount of opinionated styling
The problem with most themes out there are that they are way too opinionated and your site always looks like their default styling. Or they’re not opinionated at all and look too un-styled (or UGLY, there I said it).
Blocksy makes your stuff look professionally balanced and spaced without forcing your content into a certain style. Quite simply, it looks good from a wider range of settings leaving you free to stylize more rather than restricted to styling less (because of looking ugly when you adjust things).
3. Customizer settings organized by post type
Just about all modern WordPress themes nowadays are building super comprehensive settings panels out of the WordPress customizer. Every little settings that you used to have to dig through the hard-coded templates or CSS files can now be found there.
It seems convenient to just shove them there, right?
…WRONG!
- Actually, it’s semi-right and semi-wrong.
Because developers will love it. But for non-coders and newbies…it isn’t much help. They don’t understand what those settings do or where it affects things.
Blocksy does an ingenius thing of listing out your post types and different theme sections in the customizer so you know exactly what’s being edited. And they’ve done a great job custom-spacing settings elements so it feels less overwhelming. Great job, Blocksy!
4. BEST header menu builder!
Like damn. This is an award-winning feature right here. If you’ve ever had problems trying to DIY-build your custom menu design without coding *raising my own hand*, you will love how powerful and flexible Blocksy is. It is definitely the best menu builder I’ve ever seen.
- 3 rows of item placements
- easy drag-and-drop UI (no pixel measurements or sliders to mess with)
- sticky header functionality (really smooth!)
Much like Blocksy’s other Customizer settings, it gives you more control without feeling like more options and things to choose from. Very intuitive layout. I love it from a UI/UX point of view. Go ahead and play with it and see what beautiful things you make.
- Multiple menu rows (up to 3)
- Left, right, or center alignment options
- Can put a variety of items in there (not just “menu”)
FYI: the footer builder is great, too. I just didn’t want to write more than 5 main points for this review.
5. Built-in sample sites are nicely-designed
I hate when themes have sample sites that are either super generic and look like every other theme…or so crazily-styled that it only looks good with the demo content and images. Blocksy’s starter sites have a nice balance where you can easily switch things out and it’ll still look good.
Best use cases for Blocksy theme
Blocksy theme is great for:
- Non-coders.
- People without a professional designer available.
- You like more flexibility in customizing your header and footer.
- You like Blocksy’s built-in styling or starter sites.
- People who already like Blocksy and now just want my approval on it.
- People who didn’t like a more matured theme like GeneratePress.
If that sounds like you, then it’s time to get Blocksy (FREE & PRO versions).
Leave a Reply