It has been more than five years; we have been providing WordPress solutions and services to our customers. We created many designs, did some amazing customizations, and worked with some excellent clients. But this was not enough for us. We always wanted to go a step further and increase our domain from Service to Product development. So we thought to do something different in this field and came up with the idea of creating a WordPress theme, Reign-Ultimate BuddyPress Theme.
Service and Product domains are the best domains to jump into in order to provide stability to a business.
We knew it was not an easy task. Getting a theme accepted on a platform like WordPress was one of our major obstacles. To stand apart, we had to make sure that our product must go beyond the user’s imagination.
Planning for Reign ultimate BuddyPress theme
Our product had to be good enough to boost our sales as well as increase our customer’s confidence in us.
Phase 2: hurdles- Reign ultimate BuddyPress theme
Initially, in April we started our theme design and then gave it a name -Reign. Only designing the theme took two and a half months. Lots of discussions and meetings took place. There were sleepless nights for us. Design plays such a crucial role in the theme development process. We not only had to focus on designing we also had to check whether our theme is fully-responsive or not. Attempt after attempt, our team created a UI-UX design for the idea. Finally, after two and a half months we got our Reign theme design. We couldn’t believe our eyes. It was a dream come true for us.
Yes, finally we did it! The design is super cool, it was just a start but many other phases are still there to cover
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Phase 3: Intermediate Output
After two and half months and the basic design, working after the regular job even on weekends, we planned to take reviews from our team members so, that we can quickly get an idea of what amendments needed to do to our theme design. Development was not a natural process for us. We had to make sure that we do the best and simplest for our users. Every single step was a risk, but we needed to take these risks and come up with a theme.
After loads of reviews and applying them gave a new look at the theme. The theme was utterly different from the initial design. It was not just a three or four-person effort, but it was a team effort. It was finally happening. After making some adjustments, we came up with an entirely responsible community and an awesome-looking theme. Thankful!
I would like to thank our team. Without them, it wouldn’t have been possible
Why Reign stands apart?
Reign is not just a theme; made with utmost love for the community-building aspect of WordPress. We have taken good care of our user’s requirements. Why we need to be different from other themes was the most significant question for us. So we came up with the best in store.
BuddyPress Friendly Sandbox Mode
Sandbox mode is entirely for our users and making it user-friendly and keeping in mind the BuddyPress aspect was another essential task to do. We made a sandbox in such a way that a user gets his separate login and password and can use BuddyPress to create groups and activities. We used MotoPress Plugin to create a sandbox for our users.
Which page builder we should use?
Page Builders play a significant role in designing a website. We had to make sure that we use a builder who doesn’t make a site cumbersome to use. With lots of comparisons and evaluations, we came up with the best page builder for our theme, Elementor Page Builder. Elementor is the latest addition is WordPress and has some promising features. It’s a drag-and-drop page builder and reasonably easy to use with any theme. It doesn’t make a site heavy and is free.
Also Read: Basics of Inserting and Editing Images in WordPress- Part 2
Demo Installer- Reign ultimate BuddyPress theme
Every WordPress theme provides a demo data installer that imports the demo content to the website in the form of an XML File. But the biggest drawback is that the BuddyPress Activity does not get imported. We had to find a solution for this, and as a result, we used two different plugins namely the wp-demo installer and wp-demo exporter. With the help of these plugins, all the BuddyPress Activities also get imported while demoing data installation.
Use a framework or not?
It was a big question at that time revolving around in our minds. Do we need to add a framework or not? We tried lots of Frameworks, but finally, we decided not to use any framework for our theme. Why? Our focus was to make a theme that is quite easy for our users to work with. We used WordPress Customizer to create theme customizing options for our users. The most amazing part is there is the least coding required, which makes it easy for users to use our theme. Not only this we created a separate section for BuddyPress customization. Customizer and Elementor make it easy and quick for the user to build his website with the least coding.
Sometimes it is necessary to take the risk, to see the bigger picture of Success.
[What our clients say about Reign!
“Reign not only looks great but covers all of the essentials one would need when setting up a community. The strength of a community site comes from the networking power the site provides, and this theme covers all aspects. It then goes above and beyond with support for such stuff as eCommerce and Digital downloads, both great options for monetizing your community.”
-David from CollectiveRay
Here we present -Reign
Yes, Finally we launched Reign – “The Ultimate BuddyPress Theme’’. It’s online for our users to take a test drive. It is flexible, easy to use, and has a well-designed theme. With our team effort and their support, we have launched our first theme. It’s like starting a new chapter in our life. Much more to go!
Get ready to play with our Reign Theme demo in Sandbox mode. Feel free to share your feedback and help us to improve.
Interesting Reads:
WC Vendors Features and Demo Sandbox With Reign BuddyPress Theme
BuddyPress Demo Website – Learn BuddyPress WordPress Community Plugin
