Six week progress report
2 minute read
It’s been several weeks since I began reimplementing the website. It’s been an interesting experience.
Perhaps it’s time to take stock.
What’s gone well? Let’s review the major accomplishments:
Overall, I’ve:
- 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, I’ve been able to fix things relatively quickly.
I actually feel good enough about the site to show it to others for their feedback. So that’s a positive change.
The site was originally created as a way to share writing samples with prospective employers. Now that there’s a solid foundation, I’ve been able to expand the scope beyond a few curated topics. It’ll be interesting to see how things develop.
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.)
Given that this is (essentially) a volunteer, spare-time project, I think progress has been good, especially given unexpected and competing demands: family, unplanned travel, and other challenges.
It’s also tempting to wonder if I’ve used my time as wisely as I could have. Again, this seems speculative.
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 evaluate and iterate to improve things over time.
I think the new foundation enables a number of possibilities that weren’t feasible with the earlier design.
In addition, I feel more engaged with the site…and more motivated to keep improving it. Perhaps that’s the best benefit for all.