1) Choose your template as per the website type you’re creating:

First and foremost the website type matters. This seems ‘Duh !’ obvious but at times we’ve had clients coming to us showing a Magento theme they like whereas the platform going to be used is Woocommerce. These can’t work inter-changeably!

So the theme we are selecting should match the website type and platform, which needs to be finalized first.

2) Get Ideas from Competitors and also from Browsing:

Collect and collate all the ideas and design styles that you like first. You can group them within a folder, making an excel etc. of the urls, comments about the elements you like etc. You can also use the Windows Snipping tool to snip an image from of websites that you like.

Keep this handy somewhere for future reference. Examples could be:

a) A specific menu style you liked
b) A specific banner or graphic you liked
c) An image carousel (revolving images in a section within the site) for logos, brands etc.

Add one very important requirement here: The maximum loading time for the webpages of theme. Indeed, this is pretty important and you will need to assess the theme against this requirement during theme shortlisting and selection. Most users do not wait more than 5 seconds for a website page to load. Your theme must meet such benchmark in its final state (after your modifications and removal of all extra/excessive elements).

You may also get ideas by browsing for the Top Web Design Trends and aspects, so you know what kind of websites are in vogue.

3) List your basic requirements which the template needs to fulfill

In this step you list down the ‘Theme Requirements’ . This will be based on actual Website Features / Requirements as well as the ideas you collected in the earlier step. This may also involve a few discussions between all the stakeholders.
The end result should be a crisp list of ‘Design Specific Requirements’ such as:

i) Available on WordPress Platform

ii) Home page slider with images, configurable text etc.
( Note: This is typically done using either Revolution or Layer Sliders)

iii) Rotating Testimonials

iv) Brand Carousel

v) Call to Action Buttons

vi) Contact us form and map integration

vii) Browser compatibility

Browser Compatibility is very important. All themes may not work well in all browsers. Set a benchmark on what all browsers you want the website to work and on which you will test the themes to pass. Doing so towards the end of the project can be disastrous.

viii) Boring but equally important – All themes are NOT equally responsive. Plus even while being responsive there are differences. For example some themes provide mobile touch effects, some themes are progressive, some have mobile menus, some don’t.

ix) Multi-lingual – the website will be in more than one one language.

For more involved websites or larger sites – Design requirements are formal documents also containing:

a) Primary and Secondary colors to use ( Can be defined for page background, button background, font color etc.)
b) Font sizes and Font family to be used – For paragraph, generic body tag, headings, titles, list etc.
c) Padding and Margins

4) Some Template or theme related terminology you should be aware of

When you will actually start to shortlist a theme , you may come across some terminology on the theme or template website. Some of this does impact the theme you may want to select so lets see how.

a) Flat Design: As the name suggests, this has 2d elements, quite well spaced and is generally simple in look, and responsive (mobile etc. friendly) ofcourse. This design has been around for a few years. Pros are easy loading and simple but cons are that it looks quite simple and plain without 3d elements.

b) Material Design: IN simple or layman terms it gives an ‘app’ feel to the website and makes it more appreciable to the portable device user. Can be explored in use for App focused businesses.

c) Bundled Plugins: Many themes especially for platforms such as WordPress, Woocommerce provide what are called bundled plugins. Plugin’s add features to your website. You’d normally have to buy or find free plugins for specific functionality. But if a theme provides bundled plugin or features then that is nice positive if it provides you a much needed feature.

d) Multipurpose Themes: A multipurpose theme has mini themes / templates for multiple professions – such as theme for Restaurant, Corporate Theme, Creative Business Theme, Fashion Store theme – all within the same theme. This can be helpful if you’re looking for a website for multiple business. But do keep in mind licensing restrictions.

e) Supports RTL: A RTL theme is one which supports languages read Right to Left such as Arabic, Persian.

f) Bootstrap based theme: This is one of more most loved theme types. Bootstrap is an underlying well maintained and well managed theme style which may be the underlying style (set of css, jquery etc. files in use) in use in the theme.

Bootstrap themes are responsive and intuitive to use with loads of functionality. It is perhaps the most widely accepted theme style for modern websites. We like it because it is so well maintained and contributed for that is unlikely to have security issues, bugs or performance issues.

5) Involve your designer in the process (if you have one)

This tutorial is meant for both scenarios – getting your website done through a designer or being involved in the whole process by yourself. But in case you have hired a website designer – definitely involve him in the theme selection process. A good theme is the foundation for a great website – so let him also give his feedback and ideas and help you out. He can recommend his own themes, and help shortlist yours and provide feedback as to what’s good or bad in a theme / template.

6) Research which template or theme sites are the best

By now you would have consolidated all your design requirements with you. Now starts the part where you just search on google for the best theme sites and maybe bookmark them for reference. Here are 4 Theme / Template resources which we’ve found useful.

i) ThemeForest: Probably one of the best and the biggest websites containing all types of themes. What i love about Themeforest is its huge range – because it has themes for html, for WordPress, Woocommerce, Magento, Open cart. It even has admin themes. The other thing to love is the clear presentation showing the features, ratings, compatibility of all themes and a easy way to reach out to the theme authors.

ii) Studiopress: This is a wordpress focused theme shop and so has great and extensive wordpress themes. Also has an all-in-one membership but that seems to very costly. On the pro-side , it does have some free themes though.

iii) Template Monster: Perhaps one of the oldest, has quite a few good and vertical focused themes. A huge range and is multi-platform. Pros: it has something called as the ‘One’ membership which apparently provides access to all themes without limitations and is reasonably priced. Cons: Individual themes though seem to be slightly pricier than themeforest. Also, i do not find the info. about the theme provided in as detailed and systematic manner as in themeforest.

iv)Other good Theme marketplaces include sites like Rocket Theme, Elegant Theme, Theme Palace. These are mainly WordPress, Joomla etc. specialized marketplaces and with generally a lower no. of themes than Themeforest or Template Monster. However, if you’re not finding a theme which excites you on the biggest sites, no harm in trying these too.

Remember: there are also FREE themes available on many other sites but paid themes are more likely to be well-maintained and backed by support.

7) How to assess a template’s reviews, features, customer support

In this step you will shortlist the templates, maybe marking them favorite or simply copying the url. Theme websites provide the features and other details of the theme next to the image and these should be carefully referred to .

Some things to look out for:
i) Avg. Rating of the Theme (and how many ratings)

ii) Age of the Theme and Update Frequency – We prefer themes which are at-least a few months old and being frequently updated. This shows that they are tried and tested as well as well supported.

iii) Fit with your Technical and other requirements: including browser compatibility, platform version, loading speed.

iv) Check the Author Response/ Comment etc. section – anything which shows how supportive the author is.

v) Detailed Documentation. – Check whether it is providing detailed documentation

vi) Bundled Add-Ons & Plugins and Extra’s

8) What to check in a template’s preview , documentation (especially for wordpress)

Again, it may sound kind of obvious but you need to preview or run the theme and look at its various pages – the Home page, contact , Services etc. pages to assess it. You may also want to check out it’s documentation if you’re somewhat tech savvy and doing the website design yourself.

If a theme seems too busy , too full of elements or having too many features – DO NOT WORRY – you will have all the options available to remove the excessive elements or features when you start customizing.

9) Shortlist the themes and rank them based on these factors

The best way is to assign them a weight between 1-5 to the main factors on which you’re rating the theme. You may also have some ‘must-have’ requirements (See Step 2 and 3). Assign the factors to the 8-10 themes you’ve looked and from these shortlist the final 3-5 themes which fulfill the must have criterion as well are top-ranked.

Now you have your shortlist ready on which you can spend the final few hours studying to select the best one.

10) Select the best template from these after confirming any doubts from the template developers

Once you have shortlisted to the final 3-5 templates or even the final one you may want to address any queries in mind. This can also be a test of how quick and eager their customer support is.

Questions can be easily asked on ‘Themeforest’ for example – by simply adding Comments on the right bar.

Remember to search existing public questions or a FAQ section if available before asking a question.

Once your doubts are addressed and you are satisfied, go ahead and purchase the theme. If the theme author does not respond to multiple tries of queries, be very careful on whether you wish to proceed or go ahead with a second choice. Because an unresponsive theme developer is a red flag for me at-least.