Introducing PaulDyer.com
A few months ago, Dr. Paul Dyer came to us with an idea for a site to help promote and educate users on his Sacred Path, Joyful Journey process. After some initial discovery, it was decided we’d start with a relatively straightforward WordPress blog site. This site would allow Paul to share thoughts, ideas and resources while encouraging discussion from the user community.
Since that time the site has evolved into a comprehensive resource for people to find true meaning and happiness in their lives, and Caxiam Group’s relationship with Paul has evolved into that of a true friend to the team. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with Paul, and are proud to present some of the results of our relationship.
Custom Design
It was important for us to create a design that matched Paul’s message. We shot for a look that was calm, light and uplifting, while at the same time remaining clean and easy to navigate. Here are a few screenshots of some key areas:
Paul’s Home Page acts as a portal directing new and existing visitors
to the areas they are looking for.
The “What Is It?” page sums up the purpose of the site to new visitors.
We created a custom Flash assessment to help new visitors determine
where they are in the Sacred Path, Joyful Journey process.
WordPress Integration
Working on Dr. Paul Dyer’s site has presented some unique challenges that motivated us to learn the inner workings of WordPress’s API. Much of the site is driven on custom programming elements that we feel really stretch the capabilities of WordPress as a CMS platform. Here are a couple examples:
In addition to a custom, tabloid-style layout, custom queries were relied up heavily
to pull supporting content in from other areas of the site.
Paul offers tools to help users along with their Sacred Path, Joyful Journey process. These tools are categorized under one of the three stages of the process, then further categorized by type of tool. Each type is marked by an icon, offering users a clear visual indicator.
Admin Interface
As the project evolved, it was clear that in order for WordPress to continue to be an effective solution, we needed to expand the capabilities of the platform – content no longer fell into the simple post vs. page model. In this regard, the More Fields plugin has been vital. Here’s how we were able to leverage it:
Custom Post Types
More Fields allowed us to create additional categories to organize content. No need to wade through hundreds of posts – Paul’s content is neatly separated into a set a several categories:
Custom Content Boxes and Fields
WordPress’s support for custom fields is a nice addition, but it’s out-of-the-box interface tends to be unwieldy and unintuitive for client use. More Fields allowed us to present custom fields in a clean interface with professional-looking fields that could be logically grouped into collapsible boxes. Additionally, it allowed us to hide WordPress elements Paul didn’t need to use, keeping things uncluttered and relevant:
To top things of, we also made use of the Admin Menu Editor plugin to more logically rearrange and organize the WordPress admin links.
It has been announced that WordPress 3.0 will offer support for custom post types out of the box, so we look forward to trying it out and seeing how the two solutions compare.
