Having an idea for a website is easy. To go and build the website is the tricky part. First you have to figure out what your website is going to look like, what kind of functionalities it’s going to provide, and where’s the right place to host it. With WordPress, things get a bit easier, but you still have to know how to set it up the way you want.
I’m Igor, and I lead the Design team at Namecheap Cloud. Our main focus is to make Cloud hosting accessible. We want to enable more people to own and manage their websites, have them up and running quickly, on top of fast Cloud hosting. As a design team, we figure out the complicated hosting stuff, design products that are simple to use so you can focus on your business.
Today, I’m giving you an inside look at how we redesigned our new EasyWP Wizard.
Making WordPress Easier
Creating a WordPress website on EasyWP has always been seamless. You selected your plan, picked a domain name, and you were good to go.
However, if you don’t work with WordPress every day, you probably struggle to figure out the next steps of creating your website.
Despite the fact that WordPress is becoming the operating system of the web (close to 40% of all websites out there are now powered by WordPress), it’s not always the easiest software to use. You have to find out how to customize your website, select the right plugins, understand the editor, and more. There’s a lot of things to learn and decisions to make. If you’re not familiar with the platform you’re in for an adventure.
As a creator, you should be able to take advantage of all of WordPress’s power without needing extensive experience or a technical expert by your side.
Creating the Right Foundations
We saw this as an opportunity to improve the EasyWP wizard. We listened to our customers’ feedback, investigated their key difficulties, and got to work.
We started by defining the goals for the new wizard:
- It’s easy to use. Each step is presented in a clear, beautiful, and understandable way. Everything is where you expect it to be.
- It’s fast to go live. Steps are skippable when not required so you can go live quickly. This helps you get the website you want and doesn’t waste your time.
- It’s responsive. You can use it on any device (in fact, you can even start a WordPress website from your phone).
- It’s personalized. It’s not about building any website, it’s about building your website. We want to fulfill your needs.
We also defined a new order of steps:
- Website title. This is where you name your website and let us know what type of website you would like to create.
- Subscription plan. Here we give you the option to choose up to three hosting plans. The Turbo and Supersonic plans even come with free PositiveSSL so you don’t need to worry about setting up SSL certificates.
- Domain name.You can select your Namecheap domain name or use a free EasyWP domain name that is ready to go. You can also connect domains from other providers after creating your website.
- Plugins. Here we present you with the most popular and essential plugins for your WordPress website, including WP101, Yoast, and WooCommerce.
- Summary. As the last step, we give you a complete summary so that you can review the website we will create for you.
A Brand New Beginning
The new wizard is now a full-screen experience, with zero distractions. Creating your new website is the only focus. Each step is focused on a key decision. It all starts by asking you the name and type of website you want.
Our pricing plans are now presented with all the included features. This makes it easy to compare the plans and find the one that best suits your needs.
We made picking a domain name even easier. We will set you up with a free EasyWP domain name and you can connect any domain name when you’re ready. If you have a Namecheap domain name, it’s easy to find it from the dropdown menu.
We introduced a new step, bringing forward the most popular WordPress plugins. You can get started with WP101 to learn WordPress, Yoast for SEO purposes, and WooCommerce to set up an online store.
The last step gives you a quick summary of all your website options, so you can confirm that you have everything you need.
In Conclusion
The new wizard is now available to all customers. It’s there to guide you every time you create a new WordPress website on EasyWP.
But our work does not end here. We’ve got even more in store for you, all to continue making setting up a WordPress website accessible to everyone. We’re working on taking personalization further based on the type of website you want to create, on giving you better support to customize your theme, and on making the EasyWP dashboard more useful and insightful.
As WordPress continues to evolve and Gutenberg delivers a modern website editing experience, we couldn’t be more excited for the future of EasyWP.
So, how do you feel about the new changes? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.