...everything looks like a nail! And often you are so blinded,
that even when you don't have a hammer, you still look at
everything like nails :)
It all started this morning when I sent an email to a few of my
trusted senior guys here Next
Digital, and sent them
this link that is a good article about Joomla verses WordPress with a focus on ease
of usability for the end user.
I got all sorts of answers around comparing apples and
oranges, WordPress is not a CMS but a simple blogging tool,
Joomla is a 'CMS framework' and so on. But I think that some of the
guys missed the point - WordPress DOES make it easier to get
content to a website than Joomla, and for 'basic
sites', WordPress is an easier tool to install, setup and
manage!
But I think that because the majority of the sites we build here
and not classed as 'basic sites', we start to lose some
perspective. The first few clients wanted a website that enabled
content to be added, and WordPress wasn't around so we used tools
like Joomla, Umbraco, Sitecore and FatWire. But as time marches on,
new tools are developed that do fulfil a need - take WordPress and
simply creating a blog - that then do get extended (like WordPress
and its new ability to add static pages) and now fill a void. And
sometimes they fill that void with improvements or enhancements
that further simplify implementations, like WordPress themes and plugins which are
just fabulous.
We are so used to looking at everything as a nail / CMS, but we
need to sometimes stand back and see if this implementation may be
a case where a simpler tool will a) get the job done, b) get it
done easier and c) provide more value to the client. I'm definitely
a fan of all the CMS's mentioned above, but I also think its
important to put the hammer away and see what other tools are out
there.
