While I’m currently in the worst shape that I’ve been in years, this title doesn’t apply to me but my website.
I’ve been planning/wanting to update my website for quite a while, but if there’s one thing in common with people who work on the web it’s that they often neglect their own website; be it due to time constraints, dealing with clients’ sites or a general lack of motivation, it’s just one of those things that often slips through the cracks.
While I was creating my résumé site and updating my portfolio of work, I became somewhat embarrassed of this site. Barely any usage of HTML5 elements, lots of IDs, messy CSS, and no mobile version…it was definitely time for an update. However, I knew I didn’t have time to for the complete redesign and overhaul I’d been planning, so I had to compromise.
Face lift
While I kept the majority of the look the same, I updated it with the following changes:
- redesigned top navigation links to resemble tabs and moved them down
- removed contact link from the top navigation, added resume and archive link and search box
- increased the size of the logo
- moved the TL;DR about me out of the way to the footer
- added pagination for the post listing
- adjusted the type treatment, spacing, and generally made it less flat looking
The major redesign will happen, it’s just a matter of time.
Tummy tuck
Since I spend most of my days working on Django projects, it seems reasonable my personal site should be built on Django too, but for the time being I’ll have to stick with WordPress – and honestly for what I use it for it works great. The PHP files, among everything else just needed to be updated.
The underlying HTML was updated to semantic HTML5 elements and the CSS was completely stripped to utilize BEM. While changing the site to be responsive, I took it one step further to be mobile first.
It’s always good to eat your own dog food.