This post is part of a series on the open redesign of brianmuenzenmeyer.com using atomic design and Pattern Lab.
A major facet influencing the decision to redesign this site was a lackluster content strategy on my tumblr. Some amount of restructuring could have gotten me closer to a desired state - but it would not have repaired a hastily-planned and executed design (see: the about section in the bottom!) Publishing convenience betrayed coherence of message. So, the itch grew, to consolidate and retake a stronger control on the publishing process, the structure, and the foundations of any good personal site - content that is relevant to me.
The redesign already has a lot of content on it already, but it’s now cataloged instead of decorated, a hub for all the things. Here’s the content inventory, literally a list of things I want to be available to myself and visitors:
- Short biography
- Picture
- Writing
- Projects
- Featured Highlight (like the open redesign)
- Labs / Codepens
- Social links / contact
- Speaking / slides
Previously I had no connection from brianmuenzenmeyer.com to Crunchy Owl, my small web design and development venture. Decoupling Crunchy Owl from my personal site does not make a whole ton of sense, as I am not fooling anyone with the size of the shop (I dropped the royal we a while ago.) So really, the content inventory needs the following too:
- Crunchy Owl
- Logo
- Services
- Showcase
- Contact
Great - a decent list. With this in hand it’s pretty clear to determine if the content exists. If it doesn’t - it must be created. If it does, it needs to be soon structured with the proper markup. A note, this list is roughly prioritized, but it’s not set in stone yet. Next steps, perhaps conducted parallel with some exploratory style tiles, will be to create some content reference diagrams to chart out a relative content hierarchy and evolve a mobile-first layout.