So where does that leave the end user when they want to easily build, develop, design, and launch a project on their own? The current trend dictates a CMS of course! WordPress has always done a great job at helping the end user discover the world on content creation in a simplified manner. WordPress has also evolved over time to be more than just a blog creation tool – in fact there is very little you can’t do with WordPress as long as you can code in PHP and CSS.

Which leads us back to our first question – where does this leave the end user?

Originally PressWork was meant to be a way for developers to streamline their work, and it still does a very good job of it, however, PressWork has evolved to also be a more human way for end users to build and launch their own projects. No, I’m not trying to creatively push a marketing campaign on you, but think about it? PressWork gives users the ability to make changes on the front-end, tools like drag and drop make it easy to visualize, and our toolbar gives them everything they need to take a basic theme and make it their own – and this does this without having to teach them any code at all!

I’m my humble opinion, and from the feedback we have received, PressWork does a a really good job at bridging the gap between end-user software and human friendly software. As we continue to develop PressWork this is something we are paying very close attention to as we integrate new features.

I’ll leave you with 1 quotes that I think really sum this idea up

“An interface is humane if it is responsive to humans and is considerate of human frailties”
-Jeff Raskin, “The Human Interface”

“If we want users to like our software, we should design it to behave like a likeable person.”
- Alan Cooper

I find it fascinating that there aren’t more frameworks or web apps taking advantage of or employing front-end modification. It’s a natural progression as we move further away from web 2.0 everyday, thankfully, and closer to the “Human Web”.

I’ve been thinking about this evolution a lot lately. Recently there has been a lot of internal discussion about where we see the project going, the future of PressWork Pro ( … it’s coming … ), and what more we can do for the end-user. Let’s face it, it’s what the end user wants and needs and the majority of WordPress users are just that – end-users  – not developers, not designers, and they don’t have the time or background to pick up these skills. That being said, developers and designers can still take full advantage of these features, and it makes a great offering for their clients.

This is why in the early days of computer application design Windows made a smart, and well timed, move to a GUI. Since then we’ve seen the evolution of Word-processors and visual editors evolve themselves to a more human like interface. The addition of features like color, font, table, image, and arrangement panels have made a huge difference in the way end-users interact with their applications and even the quality of what they produce has increased.

In the early stages of PressWork we were very focused on what would make the developers job easier, which is great, but WordPress already handles this well and there are plenty of tools available for developers to help mainstream their projects.

We very quickly realized that what would set PressWork a part from other frameworks and take WordPress into a whole new direction would be to “evolve” the human connection by providing an easy way for end-users to modify their site without any understating of code or the WordPress back-end. It would also make new users to WordPress feel more comfortable in the environment. This is what makes PressWork successful. Most user feedback we get is in response to our Toolbar.

How far can we take this? That is the big question we are trying to answer everyday with the help from our community and as we build our team.

Add the following code snippet to your Custom Action file or to your child theme’s actions.php file:

remove_action('pw_index_sticky_post_middle', 'pw_posts_featured');
remove_action('pw_home_page', 'pw_home_page_featured_query');
remove_action('pw_index_middle','pw_loop');
add_action('pw_index_middle', 'custom_pw_home_page_featured_query');
function custom_pw_home_page_featured_query() {
	global $post, $notin, $paged, $pw;
	$pw = 1;
	$notin = pw_notin();
	$args = array(
		'post__not_in'  => $notin,
		"paged" => $paged
	);
	$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
	while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();
	?>
	<article id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" <?php post_class("pw pw1"); ?>>
		<?php pw_actionBlock('pw_index_featured_post'); ?>
	</article>
	<?php
	endwhile;
}

Now all of the posts on your home page will have one large featured image above the post content. You can even emulate the second featured post that has only a thumbnail image to the left by changing the $pw variable to 2:

remove_action('pw_index_sticky_post_middle', 'pw_posts_featured');
remove_action('pw_home_page', 'pw_home_page_featured_query');
remove_action('pw_index_middle','pw_loop');
add_action('pw_index_middle', 'custom_pw_home_page_featured_query');
function custom_pw_home_page_featured_query() {
	global $post, $notin, $paged, $pw;
	$pw = 2;
	$notin = pw_notin();
	$args = array(
		'post__not_in'  => $notin,
		"paged" => $paged
	);
	$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
	while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();
	?>
	<article id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" <?php post_class("pw pw2"); ?>>
		<?php pw_actionBlock('pw_index_featured_post'); ?>
	</article>
	<?php
	endwhile;
}

As mentioned in our last post, Building a bigger and better future – Updates, PressWork 1.0.4.2, and PressWork PRO, we are working hard to realize the full potential of PressWork and moving closer to a polished PRO version. With that comes many changes to the code base and updates to align ourselves with WordPress. We’re happy to announce that all out themes have been updated for PressWork 1.0.4 and WordPress 3.3.

We’ve also launched InstaPress v1.0.2 so if you’re an InstaPress user make sure to update!

For more information on this update see the individual themes’ changelog and check out the support forum.

Normally I wouldn’t post about a somewhat minor release almost a week after it went live. However, here we are! As we get closer and closer to a more polished product, I think it’s fair to let everyone know about an imminent PRO version. Yes that’s right – we’re working on PressWork PRO! This version will include many new features and take live preview editing in WordPress to a whole new level of simplicity, and of course, coolness!

My co-founder c.bavota has been busy coding away on new features and making the current version of PW even better – which is not easy with a new baby in the mix! Me, on the other hand have been juggling my day job, family, and late nights scratching my head on how to make PW the success we know it can be. Every day we get closer to our vision, but there is still lots of work to do.

The only thing that keeps us going is our love for WordPress, our desire to build something useful and game changing, and of course, the support of each and every one who has downloaded PW and contributed in one way or another – spreading the word, GitHub, our support forum, showcase, etc … THANK YOU!

With that being said, we don’t want to ruin all the surprises of PressWork PRO. So all we can say is it’s in production. We’ve closely listened to everything our community has said over these past months and we know that we have something for everyone in this version

What I can let you in on is the shiny new PRO logo:

Some maintenance …

As WordPress keeps changing we are doing our best to change with it- hence the last few releases. We know there are some issues and with the help of the community we are doing our best to keep crushing bugs and enhancing features so please be patient That being said, there will be new themes coming in the near future as well as a complete overhaul to our current theme repo and some updates to BriefCase as well. If you have any question please make sure to let us know on our support forum.

Make sure to download PressWork 1.0.4.2 and let us know what you think? If you have any suggestions or ideas for PressWork we are all ears?