I am currently working on two #WordPress development projects, each starting out with a selected theme. One project is built on a child theme based on the free Responsive theme from CyberChimps. I selected this theme for the project because of its clean, minimalist layout – a layout that matched the wishes of my client. By building a child theme, I was able to customize the look and feel and move it to a Retina-ready state with icon fonts. The theme has a few theme options and takes just a few minutes to set up.

For my next project, the client selected the Inovado theme from Minti. This theme, in terms of complexity, is the complete opposite of Responsive. It has many options, including various templates and shortcodes. It also has the theme user install several plugins – among them two different sliders!

While Inovado appears to work well and looks attractive, I keep wondering if there is too much complexity to this theme? Should themes have all of these options? How will my client manage to update the content – are all those shortcodes even understandable?

My personal preference is for the more simple approach. I have never been a fan of huge frameworks and always think a site or theme should fit the project it is intended for. However, I am interested in what others have to say. What should be in a theme? How many options/choices are too many?

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.