Website Redesign for 2016

Published: Feb 29, 2016 by C.S. Rhymes

What’s the best way to show what you can do? With your own website of course! That’s why I’ve decided to redesign my website.

Foundation 5

Previously, I was using Foundation 5 as a frontend framework. It’s a great framework and is so easy to use and is well documented. This was perfect when I wanted a quick site that I knew would work in the majority of browsers and had loads of features built in that I could jump in and use. I got the barebones of my site up and running in a few hours, which allowed me to concentrate on what pages I needed and to start writing blog posts.

My issue is that it’s not a great showcase of my design and development skills. If someone were to look at my site they would have a feeling of dejavu, of another site that looks the same as everyone elses and uses the same plugins and base styles. That shows someone that you can use a framework, but what does it say about your design skills?

Web Design

One of my aims for 2016 is to learn more about web design. I want to be able to create and define my own sense of style and learn what works and what doesn’t work. I could have started with a framework such as Foundation or Bootstrap, but I wanted to start with a blank canvas and try and use my own imagination. It may not be great to begin with, but by starting from scratch it means that I can build upon what I have already built and understand completely how it works and why its built that way.

Very often, a site redesign is a series of one off projects in the lifecycle of a website. The redesign is complete and then the new site is launched. This is usually the only way a large comapny can run as it moves its focus from one project to the next. Improvement projects then use the set of styles and guidelines from the redesign project, until the next redesign a couple of years later when the new guidelines are produced.

Luckily, I am an individual and I can do whatever I want.

Agile Design

So, this site is a work in progress. I don’t have the ability to dedicate weeks at a time to redesign the site and launch it all at once, so I’m launching it as it is and then improving it as and when I get time.

Not to say that I’m umhappy with the way it is, but I’m trying out a more agile approach to web design than the traditional waterfall method. So please stick with me and if you have any constructive criticism please let me know in the comments section below or via twitter on @chrisrhymes