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First Web Build Launched

Working on your own website can be tough. After finishing up my “sprint” to get a website in place for my new consulting business, I thought back on the process through the eyes of a potential client. It was actually one of the things that really helped me move quickly – as a web developer I want the BEST code, I want neat and orderly organization of my web files, and I want a thousand cool demonstrations of my web capabilities in place before I launch my website. In this case though, my need to have a website in place outstripped my need to have an entirely custom, super organized website packed to the gills with features. All of that can and will come through progressive enhancement. I had to keep thinking of myself, somewhat abstractly, as a client who needs a website up yesterday. It was extremely helpful exercise to help me push past my perfectionist coder side.

So my website right now is a combination of WordPress and Bootstrap. Very briefly, WordPress is a “content management system” that allows for fast blogging, content updating, and a general method of organizing a website. Bootstrap is a framework that provides fast prototyping of mobily-responsive websites and grid based design that “doesn’t suck” (like HTML table based design from ’99.) The Bootstrap folks provide some great template packages, so I grabbed a few and set out to Frankenstein everything into something usable for my first website build.

In an ideal world. I’d have as many hours as needed to build everything on my own, to control every last line of code. It’s a somewhat outdated mindset, but I have found some serious advantages to having the “build it all myself” mentality. If a developer is willing and able to do all of the work themselves, if the desire is there, then every packaged template has to compete with the brilliant but totally imaginary code envisioned. The bar gets set pretty high.

I’m pretty happy with the final result – roughly a week or two to get something in place is pretty great. Though I am very eager to “roll my own” website, this is the kind of agility you can get away with when you work with the raw stuff. I’m a committee of one, extremely agile and able to pivot with my site very quickly. Its taken me some time to move from the code perfectionist to the agile, get SOMETHING in place now and improve-it-over-time guy, but the transition has been totally worth it.

This is what you need in a web guy, a blend of old and new. There’s a school of thought that stretches development time out to make sure all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed, which is sometimes important but often unnecessary. In some cases, developers find a portion of their project already outdated when finally released! You need something in that happy medium. If you’re not on board with a progressive enhancement approach to your web presence, it’s time to consider a new way.

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First!

Welcome to my first blog post! I should probably call it a “labs” or “laboratory” post, but I’m not trying to disguise what this section of my website is. All websites (that want to be successful) need a section like this in their website. The premise is simple – show Google (and other search engines) that your site is kept “fresh”, updated with new content regularly to keep visitors coming back to your website.

It sounds nice in theory. But as with many things on the web, once the idea has taken root, the tactic becomes that much less effective as pretty much everyone else is doing it. So now the race is on the content itself – be funnier, share more wisdom, invoke more emotion, tell a great story, all at the same time and BETTER than everyone else attempting to do the same thing.

All this sounds pretty daunting – I chuckle as I write this, no pressure or anything, right?? This is why I’ve titled this section of my website “The Digital Laboratory”. If you want to pour time and effort into your blog, you’re better off trying to come at it from an angle that showcases your unique voice. My plan is to “show, not tell”, as is often required with web work. This area will be used to showcase not only blog posts, but web tools that I build or active demonstrations of what all can be done with a website. So keep an eye on this page, check back every now and again for some demonstrations of the crazy web capability I can provide.