Review for Review

Hi,
As I did for Basel, this is my review of Woodmart.
For comment / reaction on your side, before I publish it.
I am 100% ready to share any fact with you. Purpose is that it’s fair, and factual
Waiting for your feedback
Kind regards

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us. We appreciate all your feedback. Of course, you can post any review about your experience. But we don’t agree with almost everything written here so here is our answer.

1. Performance compared to Basel. Our WoodMart theme (starting from 6.0 version) is at least 60% smaller in size (CSS & JS) then Basel. So if you see a lower performance score then it is not caused by WoodMart and we are sure for 100% that we are right. We have just started our Basel optimization process but at the current period, it is twice “heavier” than WoodMart.

2. As we had a long discussion about the ergonomy and already agreed with your point we will change the categories burger icon in our future update.

3. 2nd menu is not responsive. Yes, it is correct. There is only one mobile menu in our theme and most of our customers are satisfied with that. You can leave this as a feature request.

4. Gutenberg. As stated on our theme description, WoodMart is just compatible but is not optimized for Gutenberg as well as for WPBakery and Elementor. We don’t provide any custom elements but it is fully compatible with all basic Gutenberg function. We plan to extend it in the future.

5. It is possible to have 100% local fonts. If you have any problems with this, please, create a topic and we will help you.

6. a certain cult for practices that add js. Would you mind explaining what do you mean here?

Kind Regards

Hi

Thank you for the feedback, I truely appreciate.

1. we compare different things. Yes, Woodmart is lighter in weight. I am just saying that the impact is a 8% faster page load on a rather optimised site (or 0.31s, from 4.06 to 3.75). In addition to theme, the only change was to replace basel elements by woodmart ones. Again, here, it’s not in algorithms, just the real life, real measures made via Google Analytics.
A reason could be that it’s easier to find the assets to unload / defer in Basel than in woodmart.

2. I hope that you have understood that my point is to have an obvious, simple, and “mobile optimised” product category selector in shop, and a topic selector in blog. 2nd menu would be the obvious way to do it. Otherwise, on mobile, it’s not obvious, it adds complexity, more texts, more icons, more clicks (again, on desktop, woodmart is super).

3. 2ndary menu is a real plus on desktops. Why don’t you have it responsive and use-able on mobiles, which are by far the n°1 devices in so many countries ???

4. Indeed, it’s about speed and performance. WPWakery and Elementor are slower than Gutenberg, and demand much more CPU resources. I am sure that most of your customers prefer those 2 page builders, since they enable to make more “sparkling” sites. Btw, if you’d like to check CPU / speed gaps, I can give you page references + admin access for you to compare

5. I hope. Topic was re-open there:
https://xtemos.com/forums/topic/disable-google-fonts-in-wp-bakery/#post-299155
The final target is to be GDPR compliant … but not at expense of moving back to galleries for iphone 3 or 4.

Hi,

1. It is not a big difference and we don’t think that it is caused by the theme. Most likely, there still some difference in content.

2. Yes, but we a bit confused about this and the third point. From one side, you are asking to simplify the mobile navigation by reducing icons, texts and clicks. And by the next point you are asking to display one more menu on mobile devices (2ndary one).

4. Sure, Gutenberg is a future. That is why we have a serious plan to have Gutenberg integration as our next big step. But it may take at least 6-8 months to implement this.

5. Sure, we have answered that topic and waiting for your reply.

Kind Regards

Hi,

1. Nothing changed. Ready to share any fact you’d like in a 100% open way.

I added new products, of course, but all are 100% made in the same way, including images (same dimensions, same resolution, same number per item). And honestly, month before, Basel was without CDN, while Woodmart is with CDN (ready to share invoices). I did not add any plugin. I was 100% focused on 1. erase Basel elements and 2. move from WPBakery to Gutenberg … on products and articles, what is …. super HEAVY work!!!!

Beyond sole theme, 2 additional elements could explain a lower perf than expected:

a- In Basel, I was unloading several assets (via plugin), as we discussed here
https://xtemos.com/forums/topic/speed-optimisation-of-the-theme/

b- according to my stats -again 1 month Basel vs 1 month with Woodmart, page load is faster on chrome (cc 30% faster to be exact), but slower on Safari (cc 20% slower). And my site has cc 2x more visits on Safari than WW average (35% share for me).

2. You can’t dissociate simplicity and findability.
To make it even simpler, if not basic, this is a blog with woodmart.
See this blog as a magazine … or newspaper … or wiki.
https://snipboard.io/9qSgLw.jpg
Question: on first device (Mobile), how do you choose the Topic / Theme of the articles you’d like to read? or which could be of interest for you?
Where shall I click?
Which explicit icon?
Which word linked with icon if needed?
You may choose the word in English or Russian, which I know better than English. Sorry, though I really love Kiev, don’t know Ukrainian.

If not simple / obvious / understandable,
if people can feel “forced” to view all excerpts,
sorry, it means “pissing off” for many.

4. Well ….
Symptom gutenberg is activated. I switch from WD to Storefront, website is broken. Issue? Widgets. WD, as of now, is not compatible with Gutenberg. Is it normal / acceptable?
I decided to move everything possible from WP Bakery to Gutenberg, after many tests, for sake of speed and CPU perf. Do that is very … painful! If you base WD on Gutenberg, most of your customers won’t follow and get the benefit. Same from Elementor to G … yes, shortcodes are not there, but you have to manually transform each element in a block … almost same nightmare!
I tried Blocksy theme, which is 100% Gutenbrg. Like most themes it’s too poor on mobile, but speed, simplicity and capabilities for desktops are wow!

5. I think it’s OK.
As a reminder, I wrote you about this on April 17, 2021 at 5:46 am
https://xtemos.com/forums/topic/portfolio-widget-on-mobile/
we are now on the 17th of June
Better late than never 😉

Ergonomy on mobile is KEY !!!

Kind regards

Hello,

Thank you very much for sharing your experience and for your valuable recommendations. We highly appreciate them.

Kind Regards

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