Last time we chatted about my web development, I was focused on simplifying the back-end to make it easier to grow the site, while also making it more accessible. This is an ongoing process which I have made great progress before, but we need to lay out some details. So what? Where do we go from here? This post offers a layout of the vision I am holding for this site in terms of the content and the user experience that form my digital garden. The developments of my portfolio have slightly lost track of the original inspiration I outlined at the start of which I felt more drawn to the functionality than design, and I believe this has rubbed off on my content.
The long-term plan for this website is to serve three pillars:
Due to these goals, and my focus on keeping agency of my content at a low price-point through developing a static site, my site won't be interactive like a traditional blog. Instead I plan to allow used engagement by creating UI/UX to encourage exploration both on and off my website. Speaking to Bahar, I was inspired to think about ways I could Introduce a "recent posts" feed somewhere easily found by new viewers to attract them to my content if they are not interested in my personal projects. Luckily, middleman makes it easy to list the X most recent articles. I was also recently inspired by James' Coffee Blog which I stumbled upon while researching for my cafe-nated project. I was inspired first by his "garden" of several blog formats following a similar UX goal to my own goals since conception. Particularly his IndieWeb Posts, Moments of Joy, and IndieWeb Posts; the last of which is what I am roughly going for with my special interests post. I see my site shifting towards this format where under a "Digital Garden" navbar tab, I could host multiple blog formats to attain this organization. One staple that I plan to add sooner is to incorporate "devlogs" (development logs) to accompany relevant projects, sort of like I did for the media story.
To increase engagement I would like to add elements that make it easy for users to quickly share one of my pages, or maybe click a button to register a "thumbs up" of sorts that gets stored on a counter somewhere. James has a fun list of personal website ideas that summarize a lot of what I have enjoyed browsing independent websites and some new ideas. Adding a sparkline for post frequency adds a fun flair for others to see, as well as holds me accountable for consistent updates. As I introduce content that goes beyond this course, I will need to be able to include citations rather than solely hyperlinks. One way of doing this that I love is adding sidenotes for the audience to explore as they get curious. I was first inspired to include this when reading one of my supervisors PhD thesis which was very pretty and efficient.
I plan to host event photography like I already to in a projects page, with the thought that if I pivot towards more professional photography I can easily add a specific section to the navbar which those clients would filter to. On the creative side, I think I need to give more energy to curating personal creative photo albums that I can share for their aesthetic and to showcase my work. These would be too high in multiplicity, and as such would need their own habitat. The work by Ali Bosworth is most aligned with how I would like to present my work in the future. I see this becoming another navbar tab which would let the audience explore curated sections. I think the random "heap" function that Ali provides if fun and doable in a static site. To keep the navigation approachable I will likely have to move some items like contact to the footer, and condense other items.
Hopefully this will provide some clarity and direction to where my site is headed long term. It will not be strictly a digital garden full of blog posts, resources, and essays. Rather I intend for it to be a home to more classical portfolio elements (photography and project outcomes), as well as a network of digital gardens that I can curate and share with others while affording curiosity and exploration.