Six week progress report
3 minute read
It’s been several weeks since I began reimplementing the website. It’s been an interesting experience to say the least. It’s fun to create something new and watch it come together. It’s also a little aggravating to find things that slipped through and need to be cleaned up. It’s also educational to overcome bits of friction to create a better experience.
Perhaps it’s time to take stock.
What’s gone well? Well, here’s a high-level look at the recent changes:
- Migrated the site to a new stack (changing from MKDocs to Hugo)
- Learned (and adapted) a new template (Docsy)
- Tweaked and fixed a few layout choices
- Added navigation improvements
- Rewritten several topics to reflect my current style (while adding new topics)
- Fixed a number of (relatively) minor CSS bugs/choices
None of these tasks have been unexpected.
Some have been trivial; others have required a bit of investigation, experimentation, and patience. (All good qualities to bring to any migration.)
To be honest, I’ve been a bit surprised that things haven’t been more difficult. Yes, there have been a few missteps and glitches. However, most things have been relatively easy to take care.
I actually feel good enough about the site to show it to others for their feedback. (And, yes, that’s an improvement over the previous design.)
The site was originally created to share writing samples with prospective employers. Now that there’s a solid foundation, I’ve been able to expand scope beyond a few curated topics. Now, you can get a sense of my design thinking, my organizational approaches, and even a bit of my personality.
What could have gone better?
Some problems might’ve been avoided with more mindful planning and more rigorous testing. (This seems a bit speculative and/or obvious.)
I think overall progress has been good, especially when factoring in competing demands: family concerns, unplanned travel, and other challenges.
It’s tempting to wonder if I’ve used my time as wisely as I could have. (Again, this seems speculative.) I suppose the most honest answer is “Maybe…?” Time value depends on perspective. And I try to prioritize the most important things in each moment. You’re free to disagree with my choices, if you like.
Armchair quarterbacking aside, I’m not sure there have been many major issues. Yes, broken links should have been noticed during unit review. And, yes, some of my initial organizational ideas haven’t been as successful as I’d hoped.
However, these seem like natural artifacts of the agile development process. We do what we can in the time available and then we iterate to improve things over time. Whatever missteps I’ve made, things have clearly improved.
I think the new foundation enables a number of possibilities that weren’t feasible with the earlier design.
I will say this: I feel more engaged with the site…and more motivated to continue improving it. Perhaps that’s the best benefit of all.
Let’s see what happens, shall we?