It’s been interesting to see the evolution of websites in this business and how it’s increasingly easier for clients to take control of maintaining their own sites if they’d like to. Of course, building WordPress websites from scratch isn’t as easy as the advertisements want us to believe they are. So it does take care of the huge learning curve to have a professional design and build one for you and then have you take it from there. There are many different page building software programs to choose from, and for the past 5+ years, we’ve been using one called Divi. Like many others, it uses a system of grid layouts, drag and drop modules, and highly customizable features. This allows us to build websites that are unique to each client rather than simply popping things into a pre-made template.
If there’s one consistent thing about working in technology, it’s that it’s always changing. And the Divi builder that we’ve been using is going through a huge evolution right now, and the new version that will be coming out is called Divi 5. We’ve been experimenting with it, reporting bugs to the company, as it is about to go into Public Beta testing very soon. I won’t go into some of the more detailed specifics that are mostly only interesting to designers and developers, but for the average user, the big difference is going to be the speed. It’s very fast and lightweight and if you have been enjoying the ease of updating your own site, then you’ll notice that this next version will be lightening fast while still operating under the same principles.
It’s still being tested and tweaked, and it has a little ways to go before the official release of this version to the public. But just as a head’s up… the new phase of this builder is on the way. We’ll be installing it into already existing websites (like, ours) and making sure that it still all functions properly, doesn’t conflict with other plugins, etc. Once we thoroughly go through all of that, we will start using it to build new client websites and then eventually suggesting that we swap in the newer theme for already existing sites if a client would like us to. This will keep things looking the same, but much faster and easier on the back end. Stay tuned.
