Yes, I don’t like widgets. Okay that is not entirely true because I am using a few but it’s not what I’m referring to. What I’m referring to is when themes include widgets.

Themes that include widgets for contact forms, testimonials, group -or team- members of a company. Dare I say it? Newsletter widget. Cue dramatic music. Yes, I am referring to most of those. The reason I hate them is because you lose it once you switch a theme. It reminds me of the shortcut icons I see being used by a lot as well. It does drive me up a wall.

Up a wall, you say?

Yes. The reason for that is because there are dozens, and dozens of plugins that can do it and possibly do it better. Some things are not meant to change. The shortcut icon ( favicon ) should be one. In my opinion some widgets should be the same way. I make an exception only because I know there is at least one theme that unregisters core widgets and includes their own extended version of that widget. You still lose that functionality ( keyword right there ) once you make a switch to a new theme.

I know you may be asking and even wondering what argument, or arguments, could be made. Well, some people never change their themes. True. The thing to remember too is that even down the road they may just think about changing that theme. It will be a bad experience once they change that theme and lose the widget(s) they had.

There are some that are purely aesthetic and add to the theme’s experience but should that be the end all to turn to for widget design, functionality? I don’t know but it does seem a little strange that I haven’t seen many themes proclaiming support for certain widgets.

Start a trend

Yes, it would be nice. At least to see some theme authors supporting more and more plugins or specialized widgets. I mean after all that is what the description is for or even the theme’s documentation, right?