Benefits of Creating a Custom Theme for Your DNN Website
One big benefit of DNN is its theme architecture which allows for the separation of presentation and content, giving web designers the ability to develop the structure and look and feel of the website. DNN comes with a couple of themes out of the box to get you started, however these are rarely the right fit and are generic on purpose. There are also many commercial themes, with pre-made design concepts and templates, but their “one-size-fits-all” approach often fails to deliver a good experience for a specific audience or are too off-brand.
On the other hand, custom themes allow organizations to easily have brand alignment and streamlined experiences made specifically for their unique user base. Beyond control of the brand, they only include necessary features and functionality, reducing bloat and providing a more secure and performant site.
Ease of Use
Custom themes are tailor-made for the individuals or organizations that sponsor their creation. Administrators’ needs can easily drive template naming, structure, and overall user interface choices to make a user experience that best fits everyday tasks and needs.
Brand Consistency
Superior brand alignment is one of the most beneficial advantages to building a custom theme. Customizing allows complete control over your brand’s color, voice, tone, image libraries, etc. compared to having to compromise within a limited, pre-built design.
Improved Performance
Custom themes are typically lighter and faster since they contain only necessary code for your specific needs vs. a commercial theme that covers a broader audience. By keeping features limited to only things in use, the site will be less dependent on unnecessary updates and compatibility conflicts in the future.
While custom themes come at a higher upfront cost, the benefits of avoiding long-term maintenance needs, updates, and potential compatibility issues provide a return on investment. Ease of use, brand alignment and consistency, and improved performance are just some of the advantages a custom theme can provide organizations. Embarking on a theme design project can also start to open many opportunities for other user experience improvements; calling attention to content hierarchies and flow, outdated or missing content, as well as learning more about what your users truly need to have a memorable experience.