Project Title
Configuration Space Website
Project Date
I started and completed this project in July 2020
Project URL
Description
Given my interest in IndieWeb principles (especially controlling at least some of your online self-representation), I needed a website to represent my online writing persona. This web design project is part of a larger effort I’m undertaking to strengthen the intersection of online self-publishing and the IndieWeb. My next goal is to use this web design project as a launching point for creating no-code or low-code workflows and tools for other online authors who want to create their own sites.
Design Approach
For this project I leveraged a typography-focused aesthetic that doesn’t rely too much on visual imagery. This is because I want to reduce the potential cognitive load that creating and maintaining a website might pose for non-developers and non-designer writers. The one visual element that many online writers are likely to have are book covers, though, so I designed a layout that integrates the book cover as a visual focal point. I plan to generalize and apply this design approach to additional, open-source design layouts for online writers.
Design Challenges
The main challenges I experienced with this project happened at the content development and information architecture stages, in part because I’m new to publishing my own writing online. I wanted to keep the supporting website content as minimal as possible to let the writing itself shine, and it took longer than expected to decide on what did and didn’t need to be included.
Tools
Figma, Photoshop, Coda 2, MAMP, HTML & CSS
Inspiration
I’ve been going through a blue period lately, so a lot of my personal websites have included variations of it!
