I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Designing your own site can be one of the most frustrating projects you ever undertake (until it comes time to re-design).

I have a directory full of never-finished Photoshop mockups for possible designs, and only one or two complete and strongly considered from the last few months. I might talk about the previous mockups and what I found wrong with them, but for now, a few words about the new layout.

Really, the starting point for this design, the key concept, was information presentation – I’ve eliminated a menu, relying instead on a few condensed content blocks. The idea here is, all of the information a user would be looking for is presented on the landing page – without clutter. There is little depth to the front end of the site, as I’ve brought all of the necessary information to the surface, and I’m very happy with this approach.

The color scheme was all about brown – I’ve passed through numerous beautiful sites with a brown palette, and I love the earth-y feel they have. The background makes me think of the foam on the top of a milky coffee or some $7 Starbucks super-frappe-mocha-cappa-choco-chino (been there, seen that), the dark brown text providing perfect contrast & legibility.

I went with a Lucida Grande font family, Helvetica (narrow, if the user has it) for some headings. I’ve always been annoyed by the limitations in web font selection, but I’ve developed a fondness for this combination. I considered going the HTML5 route, but let’s be honest, support is sketchy at best outside of designers & developers who are always on top of their browser updates.

A change in title

I remember reading about the web designer/web developer distinctions and failing to pick a side, sticking with “web designer/developer.” Well, while that title could apply in some cases, it wasn’t right for me – I’ve decided I can be perfectly described as a front end web developer. That encompasses my design & code interests and skills, so it’s sticking.

Thanks for reading, I’d love to hear what you think!