Sometimes I like to play with the look of this website. Often it is because I’ve gotten bored or I’ve seen something I like somewhere else.
And sometimes it isn’t about my site, my vision, or my expectations.
I sometimes get the desire to change things up because something in the world changes and I need to respond.
In the WordPress community, there was a lot of change that came years ago around accessibility. When none of the people designing websites had issues with their vision, they didn’t worry about how people with different abilities to see would interact with websites. But once they found out
- that it is an issue, and
- it is one they could try to solve, then
- they could set about solving it.
We sometimes have to change our presentation to meet the needs of the moment. But that also doesn’t just happen. We work at it.
That’s why I dabble. I’m not a web designer. I am not fluent in html, javascript, or css. But I keep learning because the web isn’t singular. And it requires a multiplicity of voices to pull this whole thing off.
I’m also independent enough that I don’t want to hire somebody to do something if I can figure out how to do it myself. Which puts my values at odds: the values of independence and mutual dependence.
The Redesign
I’ve been working on a new theme. What prompted the redesign is a change in Google’s algorithm to preference speed. My site isn’t ridiculously slow, but I was able to get rid of some of it’s bloat. And my theme wasn’t heavy. But I wanted to see how I could make something lighter.
I was hoping to start from scratch, but I haven’t figured out how all of the backend parts work yet, so I redesigned a starter theme. Some of this is the easy stuff you learn at the beginning, but I tackled additional challenges, including moving parts that Genesis likes to lock in certain places.
My preference is to give the site room to breathe, so I hope you find it easy to work with and navigate.
One of the other tests I gave myself was coding Dark Mode into the theme without a plugin. This was a bit trickier than I imagined as I had to include several different hooks. I spent three days with a white strip of a widget area I couldn’t get rid of, only to delete a line of code that I was sure was necessary.
What’s Next
The thing about playing is that it lets you practice and prepare for what is coming. And in the WordPress world, it is something called Full Site Editing (FSE). If you aren’t working with a WordPress website this is meaningless to you, but suffice it to say that it is close to a full-scale revolution in how sites are made.
I have been playing with my own website for years for a variety of reasons. And, at the time, it is always one really significant reason. But it isn’t always the same one. That says something to me.
Expectations change and so do our needs. And I suspect that the more we play, the more prepared we are for when they do.