cmc/cleberg.net

 1#+date:        [2023-01-03 Tue 00:00:00]
 2#+title:       Website Updates 2023
 3#+description: A rundown of recent changes to the site design and structure.
 4#+slug:        recent-website-changes
 5#+filetags:    :personal:web:
 6
 7* The State of This Website
 8
 9Over the years, this website has changed URLs, styles, content focus,
10and much more. However, it seems that I am never done, as I am yet again
11changing this page to fit my current needs and wants.
12
13While this site was already minimal (~12kb), it contained a lot of
14disorganized content and some poorly chosen color schemes.
15
16The recent updates attempt to fix these items while focusing on what I
17truly care about here: the content within each page.
18
19* Recent Changes
20
21I've made quite a few changes to the style of this website today, both
22in the CSS and in the HTML.
23
24Here are some of the key takeaways from today's changes:
25
261. Reduce the width of the website from =60em= to =40em=.
272. Remove breadcrumb navigation and replaced with a simple "Return Home"
28   link when visiting anything other than the homepage.
293. Remove syntax highlighting from code blocks. CSS now loads from a
30   single file.
314. Move blog posts on the homepage to the top, pushing tertiary content
32   down.
335. Update font-family from =monospace= to =sans-serif= for readability.
34
35* Future Focus
36
37** Accessibility
38
39My main focus amidst all the changes this past year was accessibility. I
40tried to improve the accessibility of all pages on this site as well as
41I know how. For example, I added aria labels to identify different
42navigation menus in November.
43
44I want to continue this in 2023 and learn more about the accessibility
45features I can utilize to help those who may need them.
46
47** Content First
48
49Beyond accessibility, I am making a concerted effort to bring the
50content of this site to the forefront and push the tertiary information
51(e.g., About Me, Services, etc.) down below the content.
52
53Further, I want to review and edit previous blog posts for grammar,
54accuracy, dead links, and more. Where necessary, I may even add a blurb
55at the top of old posts that are no longer accurate or helpful.
56
57** Style
58
59As always, I will be searching for ways to reduce distractions and bring
60a minimalistic approach to this site. While there are certainly more
61drastic measures I could take, such as making this a
62[[https://shinobi.bt.ht][Shinobi Website]] or a [[https://nocss.club][No
63CSS Website]], I prefer to keep some modern features here.
64
65Two ideas have been floating around in my head, but I am not sure how I
66feel about these approaches yet:
67
681. Going all-in with Emacs org-mode and creating a script to
69   auto-publish all my blog posts from org-mode to plain HTML files and
70   then letting my CSS style it after the fact.
712. Focus on publishing for Gemini or Gopher and then utilize a
72   conversion program to translate the pages to HTML.
73
74* Looking Back
75
76As I sit here and finalize the changes, as well as this post, I am happy
77with the current state of this website. It's certainly a long way from
78my first attempts (parallax background images, anyone?) and it's good to
79see the progress.
80
81I can only hope and work hard to ensure that I make more meaningful
82progress by this time next year.