If you’re reading this on the website (and not in an RSS reader or the like) then you’re seeing the new version of the website. Similar to the old one in general terms, but re-built (again) from the ground up using LESS and a dusting of jQuery. There are new features and content pages coming, but for now, I wanted to stop procrastinating and put this version – the eighth since the site was resurrected in 2006 – online. I want to get back to writing and posting more often.
I’m not going to go on about the details of the design for hours, as there’s not much to it: an inspiration from Marcel to simplify, a wish to harmonize all of my sites and social media accounts (listed at mhm.li for now), and the irritation that the huge images and ineffective galleries of the previous version weren’t working well. I didn’t want to re-invent the wheel, so the inspiration for the galleries is (obviously) Flickr.
I chose to switch the main highlight colour from red – a favourite which I’ve been using since the early 2000s – to green. It’s partially inspired by Spotify, and partially by the colour scheme of our bathroom at home! The green really pops on modern screens and works well with the darker navigation and gallery elements.
The navigation has been improved in order to provide the most important links prominently at the top of the screen and free up space in the main content area for other content elements. (Many of which will be implemented stage by stage.)
The best find during development was the jQuery.mmenu plugin by Fred Heusschen, which has allowed me to implement a simple menu for visitors with small devices (like iPhones and Android devices). Users with these devices won’t have to work out how to navigate: instead, the principles of popular apps like the one provided by Facebook apply.
As to the lack of a commenting function: that’s deliberate. I have received so few comments over the past two years – and these almost exclusively from just three people – that there’s no point to it. If you’d like to give me feedback, please do get in touch via Twitter or email.
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