This website was built with a Headway theme and while the reader may consider this fact to be an effective endorsement, or not, I am impressed with Headway and do recommend its use — depending upon one’s needs. Headway was and is, for me, a particularly good solution.
I am not a web coder which is to say that I do not write web design code by hand (and don’t have any desire to do this). I am particular however about how my web projects look and operate and I don’t want to give up control, at this point anyway, to a third party designer to build my web projects. I realize that I’d have the final say over any design I was paying for but I consider it preferable, and more efficient, to do the designing myself.
And there lies a problem. I want the control of designing myself but don’t write the design code. The obvious answer is a software solution that allows for designing without having to write code. Various software does this for html web design but the pickings are slimmer for php web design; php is the language WordPress sites are written in, and this is a WordPress site.
I’d actually demo’d Headway — they offer a free demo option — and it just didn’t click for me. But after failing to find an acceptable alternative solution, and after speaking directly with Headway customer service, I decided to take the plunge and purchase Headway for myself. It was a good call.
For those who may be unfamiliar Headway uses a drag and drop design interface, and its design capabilities are as simple as dragging and clicking a mouse. Headway is, essentially, easy to use but my experience is that Headway definitely has a learning curve. I actually designed a site initially and then reset it and started over again. My guess is that it took me about forty hours before I felt quite comfortable using Headway but without mastering it absolutely (something I feel like I still haven’t done).
Let me emphasize that the forty hours is my experience and there may be a different timeframe for using Headway for others — maybe less time, maybe more.
When it’s all said and done however I find Headway to have very fine control over design elements and to be a very clever tool. I was quite impressed with Headway’s capabilities on a number of occasions while working on my site. Whoever created Headway did a very good job and they are, in my humble opinion, quite talented designers.
But what about customer service and / or support?
Headway support is a bit unusual as all support is handled in a forum setting. This makes sense in that it leaves documentation of problems and so others can, conceivably, find answers to whatever issues they may have just by searching the forum for previous solutions. It’s less than private however, and users may end up having to divulge a website url and potentially specifics about their site in a public setting.
For some people this may not be a problem but it could be for others. I submitted a couple of issues through the forum and received answers, and solutions, within a day or so. I would call Headway support good. Great? I’m not sure I’d go that far but I believe they get the job done and that’s essentially what matters.
If you’re concerned about purchasing Headway and being dissatisfied with the purchase, they offer a 14 day money back guarantee. When I asked whether the guarantee was solid I was told “If you want a refund, you get one.” Can’t ask for much more than that.
If you want to design a WordPress site without having to write code I believe Headway is your answer, and I recommend it with confidence. Check out Headway themes Here.
