Getting to this point seems a bit surreal. I’ve been focus on designing and developing this site for so long that it doesn’t feel like I should be shifting my focus off of it. So many starts and stops, in hindsight, that created a lot of unnecessary work.
This doesn’t mean the site is done with getting updates. There’s a few features I still have in mind and I’ll mention them later in this post. Also there will always be small bugs and room to optimize the code.
I had a few goals in mind while developing this site which I’ve hit all of them thus far:
_ Using no frameworks like bootstrap. ( Created my own system for better or worse. )
_ Hand coding nearly everything up to this point.
_ Relying on zero WordPress plugins. ( Until the store is put in. )
_ Easy to re-color aka theme a page. ( Which should help with that itch to redesign the site. )
Why did it take so long to get to this point? I wouldn’t call myself a programmer but at this point you could argue I am. I had to upgrade my skillset on a few things… WordPress itself, CSS3, PHP and JavaScript.
Also sitting down and really thinking about what I would want out of a website. It’s not just about the design but functionality of how the user would use it and how I interact with the site to add content. This site feels like my first one that doesn’t rely on a heavy influence. Time and experience starting to shine through here I must say. Side note here, with all the tools, themes, and different platforms out there… I don’t recommend this path unless you want to be a website dev.
What’s changed with 3.0 since I’ve last gave an update with 2.3? Frankly, everything. Every page has been updated and/or reworked.
Changelog
+ New custom post types Music and Art.
+ New archive grid system for all content. ( Music, Art, and News )
+ New single pages for Music, Art, and News complete with share and third party store links. ( Custom repeater fields. )
+ New Linktree page. ( Instead of relying on third party company, made my own. )
+ New favicon set.
+ Each section can have it’s own theme / colors. + Lightbox feature, works great on mobile too.
+ Custom scrollbars. 🤵 + Reworked backgrounds for About and Connect page.
+ Reworked “Latest” homepage , everything that feels like it should be clickable, is.
+ And so many small improvements that aren’t worth their own callout in a changelog.
These are Features/Goals for the future that show up slowly overtime.
– Full functioning web store.
– Reaction button for posts/product pages.
– Add related posts to Music / Art pages.
– Another custom post type for Merch products.
– Create an Admin/Setting page for the theme.
– Custom color panel that is click and select for theming instead of CSS code.
– If the theme becomes robust enough, package it and offer it on the marketplace.
As I already said, moving forward I’ll be redirecting my main focus on building up content for the site. I’ll keep my eye on analytics a lot closer and look for options about posting content on other platforms.
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