The Squarespace Plugin Paradox

Just a quick note before we jump into the heart of this article. Many of our regular followers will be asking the question right now, ‘With Elwyn's legendary love of alliteration, why did he not go for the PixelHaze Plugin Paradox? ‘ Well, to set your mind at ease, I'd seriously considered that option but chose to go down the route of boosting our Google juice by using the phrase 'Squarespace Plugin' in the title.

If you don't know why that's important, then I'd strongly recommend that you take a look at some of our SEO-related articles, or check out the soon-to-be-released Squarespace SEO SOS course. If you do know why gaining Google juice and increasing our keyword density with words like Squarespace is important then you know I've been a complete sellout - sue me!

What is this PixelHaze plugin paradox that you speak about?

Plugins are amazing, PixelHaze plugins, especially so. Why? Because they are a great way to allow us to enhance our websites and in this case, Squarespace, to ensure that our final builds look thoroughly bespoke, fresh, and in many cases, somewhat playful for the end-user. They can enhance visual aspects, add technical elements that wouldn't have existed without the help of third-party code. When installed correctly, they can make navigating your website fun, and we all want some fun when navigating websites!

When can installing plugins go wrong?

Think of it as walking a tightrope. Yes, again, if you know me, you will also know that I adore the use of visual analogies when talking through some of the more technical aspects of web design and in this case, have taken it a step further and have created a little infographic for you below.

Imagine you're walking a tightrope with a balancing bar that you are adding elements to. Too many and that balance will tip, throwing you off the rope, which will almost certainly lead you to your impending death. Okay, that got a bit dark a bit quickly, but what’s the point we’re making here?

Balance! We need to balance the use of these plugins with good usability practice. Whilst you have the devil on one shoulder saying, "Go on, we can add another plugin," on your other shoulder, the angel says, "Yes, but is it necessary?"

You’re probably thinking - wait a minute; you've been telling me that I need to install plugins and most importantly, buy Squarespace plugins from the PixelHaze store. But now you're telling me that I shouldn't use too many; I'm somewhat confused!

Okay, fair point; let's take it back a step. One of the biggest risks is the potency of plugins when you see them on our PixelHaze store. They all look so shiny, and we think, "Ah yes, I could really do something with that plugin; I can really enhance my website giving it that whimsical feel that I've been dreaming of for some time now.”

But then you quickly become addicted to using plugins. You add one, then a second, then even a third on the same page, and all of a sudden without you knowing it, the website becomes a complete mess. It has lost its simplicity, has become difficult to navigate, and has visual styles that are fighting against each other for priority and position on the page.

So far from the original aim of using Squarespace plugins to enhance your website, you find that your website is being hindered by the very same elements, which of course, none of us want. So let's rewind back to the beginning and I'll take you through a step-by-step process of how we use plugins at the PixelHaze Studio.

Step one - Shop around

We like to shop around and look at a wide range of plugins on a regular basis. We use many of the plugins from our own store, as you would expect, but we also use some third-party plugins like some great ones from SQSP themes. We make it our job to have a rough idea in our head of the type of plugins that are available to us.

Things like the option to lightbox any content element on a page or we can use our fan-favorite Alternating Timeline plugin to tell the history of a company in an 'About' page or simple, enhanced button plugins that have playful hover effects, or our most popular Exit Sign plugin. Once we've had a good grasp of what's available to us, we then proceed to the next step.

Step two

Complete the website blueprint. The website blueprint is a lecture and a soon-to-be course that I'm creating on PixelHaze Academy that takes students through the entire process of how to plan for a professional website in under an hour. Within this process, we're going to add aspects like sitemaps, look at content prioritization - ruthlessly deciding what content appears at the top of the page and what appears further down, and then move into the final stage of the web design blueprint and that is wireframing.

I love wireframing. It's quick, easy to pick up, and gives you some method to the madness of planning for a website. Here we can use these complementary tools to structure our website flow, initially on the homepage and then through other key pages. These will give us all the indications we need and the combination of keeping those plugins in the back of our minds allows us to use them on a case-by-case basis.

Good practice

There's certainly no harm in counting the number of plugins you are instilling into your designs at the planning stage; because that will give you an idea of whether there will be any clashes or potentially over-designing going on. Obviously, the more you design websites, the easier this type of balancing act becomes.

But when we're picturing our tightrope walker, we want to make sure that we are balancing every plugin with an opposite simplistic navigation element. Or at very least the thought process of ensuring that our end-user will find navigating your website a joyful experience.

So to wrap up, yes, use plugins, use lots of plugins, and buy them all from the PixelHaze store, but also keep it in moderation on a case-by-case basis on your websites and make sure that every plugin you install is there for a reason. Do this and your website will retain and be enhanced as a joyful experience for your audience.