Screenshot from WordPress Showcase

First up, many thanks to WordPress for including Matador at the WordPress Showcase. Currently we’re rated #1 based on our implementation and use of WordPress. To vote, please click here and roll over the number of stars you feel we deserve, then click the mouse. You don’t have to sign up or register for anything, however, please vote only once.

As far as why we were included in the showcase, WordPress wrote:

Matador is made up of a number WordPress blogs that work together to provide content on a variety of travel-related topics.The site averages more than 1.8 million monthly pageviews.

I fired off a couple questions to Ian MacKenzie, who (along with his wife Karen) has been the primary architect responsible for Matador’s design.

David: How many designs had you and Karen worked on before this latest one?

Ian: Well I’d say it was the second major theme makeover since the first one. We’re always making tweaks, but this was substantially different.

David: What was the overarching design element you were going for with this latest theme?

Ian: We mostly wanted to showcase more content from across the entire network, in a visual way, and make it easier to catch people’s eyes. We also wanted to increase the ability for people to scan many headlines.

David: What does it mean to you and karen as developers to have a design currently ranking # 1 in the WP showcase?

Ian: Ha, is it really?

David: Yes.

Ian: I’d say we’re happy people seem to like the theme, and we’re looking forward to its continued evolution in the future.

Spoken like a true developer, I think. Thanks again to everyone on the team and in the community–this is really the cumulative vision of many many people with lots of feedback.

Community Connection

Interested in site design, or just wondering about which blogging platform is best for your writing? We’ve been having a good discussion on this at the Notebook this week.