Hi friends ๐๐ป
In between client projects, I'm still working โ incrementally โ on the refresh of the Blue Hills Digital website that I started talking about in May.
I started pushing some updates live last week, and decided to keep a public changelog of these updates, to keep me moving forward, and to give you some insight into all the steps it takes to overhaul an existing website.
This is part of a series in which I'm writing about the process of refreshing the Blue Hills Digital website.โ
I introduced the project in my Digital Landscape email on May 20. If you missed it, read that email here! And for updates, keep an eye on the project changelog here. |
Want links to recent emails or a sign-up link to share? Go to The Digital Landscape sign-up pageโ
A client project, vs. this project
When I'm working on redesigning a client's website, we work behind the scenes, with all the work hidden from public view.
Eventually, when we feel good about the redesigned site and everything looks great I flip a switch, and the old site disappears and the new site takes it's place. All the change happens at once.
Because this project is on my own business website, I don't have to follow these normal rules. I can allow the changes to happen incrementally, bit by bit. So long as the website doesn't break, or provide a terrible user experience, it's ok for me to have some fun with it.
Breaking a website overhaul into manageable chunks
If I'm going to spread this project out over several months and launch little bits at a time, the key is breaking the process down into chunks. Chunks where making one change isn't going to break anything else.
Last week, I put together some functionality that allows me to launch new components only on specific sections of the website.
This is super-helpful, because it avoids the need to have everything ready all at one time (like I would for a client project).
For example, I built the website header for the new design, and you can see it live, but only on one specific page (for now).
Check out the changelog
If you're really curious, you can go check out the project changelog, where I'm publishing quick updates as this project moves forward.
Currently, this page is the only URL on the site where you can see the new header in place. I'll be applying the new fonts and color scheme on this page next, and then I'll be ready to move on to applying the updated design components to other areas of the site.
This page also features logo inconsistency ๐ฑ to the horror of all the branding people reading this email. I'll give a public shout-out next week to anyone that can spot the difference between the logo in the new header and the old logo that remains in the not-year-redesigned footer.
Until next time โจ
โ Ed Harris (your digital strategy guide)
โ
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