Barbara Schendel is the owner and senior designer/developer for Wizzy Wig Web Design and her specialty is fully custom WordPress websites for small to medium-sized businesses. Barbara is speaking on Create Your Own WordPress Theme at WordCamp Minneapolis.

What got you into working with WordPress?

I used to do static HTML development but clients wanted a way to edit their site content. I used a few tools to accomplish this, but then a colleague dragged me to WordCamp 2010 and I discovered custom themes — from then on everything changed!

What do you like best about WordPress?

What don’t I like? Anything is possible! I think the existence of third party plugins would be my favorite thing, though. They save me an immense amount of time on every project. This is particularly huge when dealing with something like e-commerce.

What WordPress project has been your favorite?

A custom web application for Get Waisted (a plant-based weight loss plan. Think: Weight Watchers meets myfooddiary.com). It features weekly menu plans, online memberships (including a user type called a Director which can create sub-users under themselves), and the ability to enter the food you ate that day to track your calories, fat, fiber, protein and even antioxidants.

What’s your WordPress design preference?
○ Starter Theme   ○ Free Theme   ○ Premium Theme   ○ Framework   ○ Other

Custom theme

What would we not guess about you outside of WordCamp?

My part-time obsession is reading and teaching classes about plant-based nutrition. I am also an amateur theologian with a particular love for apologetics and the biblical mandate for Creation Care.

What do you like about WordCamps?

Picking up new tools and tricks… and the swag. 🙂