A theme is the final piece of the puzzle, when presenting content. A theme is the colours, the spaces, the links, the effects, and above all a "brand". It's the subtle elements of design which sit on top of the logic and the content to give you something special.

In simple terms though a theme is the polish. It's what most people see or think of when they think of web design. People expect to see a logo, colours, different sizes of text, maybe even effects when you move your mouse over links. All this should (in our opinion) live in a theme layer.

Why is a theme important?

If you can separate the content and design, a make the content "semantic" then it has so many benefits. The first is that google and the other search engines will understand your site's content much better, and no one doesn't want to appear in the search engine results. The other major benefit is that you can then change your design (using for example css style sheets), to keep the look and feel of your site up to date, without having to redo all of the content.

A good theme, helps people use your site

The last benefit we'll mention for now, is that it helps people - real people - use your site. People like to know how to find what they want, and how to do things, it makes processes more effecient and enjoyable. It's why 99.9999% of doorknobs work in the same way. When you find a new one, you have to think .. and no one likes to think.. well not unless it's on purpose.. So help the people you're building the site for find what they want.

So think about the theme on this site.. it's fairly simple, you found the information you needed didn't you? And It's fairly easy to read the content.. Looks like the theme is doing its job... Simple, not overstated.. just professional clean design.

A picture paints a thousand words

It's an old line and not one of ours, but a picture really does paint a thousand words. Take a look at the image on this page, It's the same content, but we've "styled" or "themed" that content in a few ways. Which looks better to you? Which would help you read the content? What stands out for each of them?

Colour and size have very strong emotional impacts on people, and there is no "best". Everything has to be considered in relation to everything else. For example a website that has only 2 pages can afford to have much bigger buttons and simpler navigation (or maybe even more complex navigation). A site that only ever shows a few paragraphs at once (www.mbtshops.co.uk) and no images, can be designed differently from a site designed to have lots of information (e.g. www.dancedating.co.uk)

Good design doesn't overstate itself, it's almost a zen thing.. it's when there is no design that design has worked.. After all don't you want people to notice the content, not the design.. (strangely.. not always.. )

So what is a drupal theme?

A drupal theme consists of files, which "style" the conent, in the display layer. A typical theme will include some php files, some css files, some image files, which are usually received in a zip file or tar ball. (basically an archive).

The Drupal theme can be uploaded onto the server, and then enabled through the admin menus in drupal. There are several themes provided as a default. And many free themes, but you will probably find that they need customisation and that is where many of the free themes can let you down.. but don't worry, that's where Professional Drupal Themes come in..