Look, I updated my site! I had a few goals:
- I wanted to flex my front-end web skills and get a feel for current practices.
- I wanted a responsive design that would look good on iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
- I wanted to move to a CMS, so I could make tweaks and edits from anywhere.
- I wanted a place of my own to write & share links to things relevant to my work.
Not quite mobile-first — mobiltaneous?
The first version of adamrice.org was a single page with just enough info to justify using my adamrice.org email address. I built it using 960gs, an early grid layout framework.
For this update, I tried a few WordPress gasp themes and then a couple “reset” style frameworks, and then resolved to really dig into Bootstrap. I was hoping to understand what it offers in terms of layout and styles for forms, navigation, and so on, and especially in terms of responsive design.
My old design didn’t do anything smart on iPads and iPhones. It was usable, only because Safari on iOS is awesome. It didn’t reflect my background & continued interest in building websites, or my concern for great user experiences. So I settled on porting my design to Bootstrap, hoping to pretty easily win a fully responsive site.
WordPress
I was a blogger before we had words like ‘blogger’, and I grew to love Six Apart’s Movable Type software so much that I eventually worked for the company. In all things I’m loyal to a fault, and I’ve had to drag myself kicking and screaming to WordPress.
But nothing lasts and a lot of great sites are built with WordPress and running a site by hand was getting a little ridiculous and it couldn’t hurt to have some marketable knowledge of the world’s most popular CMS.
So I overlook that WordPress is basically pigs-wearing-lipstick all the way down, and hope that I’ll someday learn to forgive Matt’s appalling early indiscretions.
Highlights
- I had fun putting together the map on the rates page. I used Mapbox to generate the map and outline the area I can reach in 30 minutes of driving. I also customized the map with a tile set I really like called ‘Toner’ by Stamen.
- I wrote a custom WordPress shortcode to put a link to my iMessage address that uses the appropriate protocol for iPhones or Macs based on the browser’s user agent.
- I pulled over all my posts from my Apple-focused Tumblr to seed the blog here. I’ll continue posting occasional links and news items, with the intention of avoiding the news-cycle noise and content farming that even the best Mac publications have succumbed to — no blurry pics of leaked case prototypes here, I promise! I’ll also do some writing about interesting problems I’ve solved for clients and share my favorite tools and tips.
I’ll probably be tinkering for the next few weeks. If you see anything odd or have any feedback, please share!