Andreas Hecht June 23rd, 2016

Hueman WordPress Theme: Free and Feature-packed

Hueman has over 70,000 active installations, making it one of the most successful free WordPress themes. This is more than enough reason for us to give you a close look at this theme. Let's find out together, what it is that makes this theme so successful, and what it has to offer. The pretty design can't be the only reason for the tremendous success. Gratis und voller Features: Das Hueman WordPress-Theme At first sight, the theme already sets itself apart from the rest. It has an appealing look, a very lovingly designed demo page, and no premium version, that you would have to buy for lots of money to receive essential functions. It's a very honest theme with many features that you'd typically only find in expensive premium themes. Additionally, there are Hueman add-ons, which integrate further functions into the theme.

1 - Hueman - the Important Links

Das Hueman Theme für WordPress

2 - What Application Areas is the Theme Useful For?

Hueman is very flexible, but not a so called "multi-purpose theme." Thus, it's not suitable for all purposes. This is not a disadvantage, but much rather an advantage. Themes that offer themselves for all application areas are mostly only really suitable for one or two areas, without additional work. Hueman is best used for magazines, news pages, and personal blogs. It's also said to be a great business theme, but for that, it lacks essential functions and areas. The theme doesn't allow you to create proper portfolios either. But that's not necessary. It's main strengths, being blogs and magazine, look very appealing when using Hueman, and that's where it shines.

3 - The Theme's Feature Variety

Hueman offers a lot of options for being a free theme. On top of that, it is prepared for the most important plugins, so that you don't need to be afraid of an evil surprise when activating one of the plugins. Hueman is Prepared for the Following Plugins: As I said earlier, the theme offers extremely much for being a free version.
  • Post Formats (All)
  • Related posts under the articles (category or tag principle)
  • Social links for your social networks
  • A slider
  • Highlighted posts
  • Google Fonts
  • Ad areas in the header, the sidebar, and the footer
  • Layout options - two sidebars (left, right, or left and right), one sidebar (left or right)
  • Boxed layout or full website width
  • An own logo
  • A background image is also possible
  • All colors can be fully customized
  • The website's width is adjustable
  • Custom, unlimited widget areas
  • Multiple menu positions
  • SEO: Structured Data Markup
  • Integrated compression of stylesheets
  • Website icon - Favicon and app icons
  • Feedburner link
  • Image border radius - roundings can be assigned to all images within the content
  • The sidebar layout is either assigned globally or via post/page for all articles
  • Footer: define a number of widget areas, an additional logo, own footer texts, and a lot more
  • Unique options for mobile views, like an own menu, for example
  • Three additional widgets - Hueman Dynamic Tabs, Hueman Posts, and Hueman Videos
  • Own page templates
  • A "help" button in the admin menu, used for the display of the documentation, and the support forum
  • With installed Hueman add-ons: a share bar for the articles, and theme shortcodes

4 - Impressions of the Hueman WordPress Theme

As you saw, the theme has a lot to offer. I find the integration of the help button to be very commendable. Beginners and users with less technological knowledge can get help instantly. [caption id="attachment_76501" align="alignnone" width="660"]Der Help-Button und die Seite, auf die er leitet. Hier findet der User dann den Link zur Doku und dem Forum. The theme's help page. Here, the user will find the links to the documentation and the forum.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_76502" align="alignnone" width="660"]Ein kleiner Teil der umfassenden Theme-Optionen im Customizer. A small part of the extensive options in the customizer.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_76506" align="alignnone" width="660"]Eine benutzerdefinierte Startseite mit dem Dynamic Tabs Widget in der Sidebar. A user defined landing page with the Dynamic Tabs widget in the sidebar.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_76507" align="alignnone" width="660"]Die Seite für die Suchergebnisse: noch verbesserungswürdig. The page for the search results: still room for improvement.[/caption]

Layout - the sidebar options

[caption id="attachment_76508" align="alignnone" width="660"]Der Standard. Eine Sidebar rechts und eine links. The standard. One sidebar on the right, and one on the left.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_76509" align="alignnone" width="660"]Das Theme mit einer Sidebar links. Hier kann auch ein zusätzliches Menü Platz finden. The theme with a sidebar on the left. Here, there's also room for an additional menu.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_76510" align="alignnone" width="660"]Das Hueman Theme mit einer Sidebar rechts. The Hueman theme with a sidebar on the right.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_76511" align="alignnone" width="660"]Hier sind beide Sidebars für die Anzeige links konfiguriert. Here, both sidebars a configurated to be displayed on the left.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_76512" align="alignnone" width="660"]Natürlich kann das Sidebar-Doppelpack auch rechts angezeigt werden. Of course, the double sidebars can also be displayed on the right.[/caption]

This is Where There's Room for Improvement

Where there is light, there is also shadow. The developers simply haven't considered two things that would've been critical. For one, a feature to integrate Google Analytics codes, and for another, an option to adjust text colors in the content area. Both adjustments could be made by developers in about ten minutes, making the theme feel a lot more "complete." Of course, it is also possible to manually integrate your Analytics code via a function. The text color is also changed easily. However, it would simply be better if these features were included.

For Completion: the Code for Both Functions

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/7831016ef571833ea5a41079f51a6d0e

Conclusion

Free themes from the WordPress theme index rarely get me excited. Hueman however, managed to fascinate me. It is almost entirely customizable to fit your needs, offers plenty of theme options, as well as a reliable code quality. On top of that, there's free support. All I can do is strongly recommend this theme. (dpe)

Andreas Hecht

Andreas Hecht is a journalist and specialist for WordPress and WordPress Security. He roams the web since its inception. He has published an ebook on WordPress Security, which you might want to take a look at.

5 comments

  1. This theme is really great and I have used it on a lot of my websites in the past.
    I can recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a great looking theme for their websites.

  2. Hi Andreas, I do agree with you about Hueman, it’s a fantastic theme.

    There is one of your two criticisms I would withdraw. Actually, it is even a good point. Analytics code, imho, are not theme relevant. They are structurally linked to the website, they are part of its fundamental options and should not change nor risk to disappear when you change theme. Which describes the kind of data that should be managed by a plugin.

    One of the problems WordPress faces is this messy structure where themes defines data for website, eg. through custom post types. An analytics code does not represent the same level of problem, when you change theme, but the point is : don’t store it theme_mods.

    What do you thing ?

  3. Can the black header to the right of logo take a ” niche” photo pertaining to your blog ? ( looks like banner area which is good for ads)
    Thanks

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