Website Development Standards

Mediumcube’s website development standards are the basis for all proposals we send out. They are our internal instructions for building websites UNLESS our customer specifically requests something else. If there is special preference which supersedes one of our website development standards, we will clearly identify it in the proposal or in an email amending the proposal.

Website Development Standards: The Basics

Mediumcube will:

  • initially build site on our development server (dev.mediumcube.com/projectname)
  • use the latest version of WordPress available when project is started
  • create properly commented and logically ordered CSS files
  • set all external links to open in a new window
  • disable comments on blogs and other posts
  • QA test the sites for the following browsers
    • IE9+
    • Firefox 31+
    • Chrome 40+
    • Safari 7+
    • Microsoft Edge
  • QA test the sites on the following devices
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    • Android phone
    • Android tablet
  • Move the site at the completion of development to the customer’s final hosting location

Mediumcube will NOT:

  • create a child theme for Foundation or Bootstrap sites
  • use any inline CSS
  • style comments form or comments thread views

Website Development Standards: Header and Footer

Mediumcube will:

  • use Dashboard » Appearance » Header for header logo file
  • link logo to home page
  • use Dashboard » Appearance » Background to set background color and/or image
  • use Advanced Custom Fields » Options Page to create global options for header content, footer content, etc. resulting in a Dashboard menu item called “My Options”
  • will setup Dashboard » My Options » Contact Info as custom fields so novice user can edit contact details
  • will setup Dashboard » My Options » Social Media as custom fields so novice user can choose icons and links for social media sites
  • will setup Dashboard » My Options » Copyright Statement as a custom field so novice user can add/edit the site’s copyright statement

Website Development Standards: Navigation

Mediumcube will:

  • create all menus using Dashboard » Appearance » Menus
  • clearly identify Menu Locations
  • build the responsive navigation using the Bootstrap or Foundation defaults

Mediumcube will NOT:

  • use breadcrumbs

Website Development Standards: Slider (a.k.a. Slideshow)

Mediumcube will:

  • create custom sliders using Custom Post Types and Advanced Custom Fields
  • add Slider Options to the My Options area where transition type (e.g. fade) can be selected from a list and transition speed can be set with a numeric variable
  • make images in the responsive versions of the slider proportional
  • put all text that overlays the slider in the full screen view underneath the slider image in the responsive views

Website Development Standards: Pages and Posts

Mediumcube will:

  • list pages on Dashboard » Pages to closely follow the same order as the navigation
  • use only one

    tag per page or post around the Page Title or Post Title

  • setup custom fields used in the Page Editor or Post Editor in a logical tab order and using obvious naming syntax
  • use Dashboard » Settings » Permalinks to set the default permalinks to /%postname%/

Website Development Standards: Templates

Mediumcube will:

  • create the following templates and provide custom CSS for:
    • home.php
    • full-width.php
    • single.php
    • archive.php
  • use the default responsiveness provided by Bootstrap or Foundation

Website Development Standards: WordPress Plugins on Every Site We Build

Mediumcube will include the following WordPress plugins on every website site we build:

Website Development Standards: WordPress Plugins Used When Required

Mediumcube will include the following plugins if the functionality is required: