#+date:        <2023-01-03 Tue 00:00:00>
#+title:       Summary of Recent Structural and Visual Updates to This Website
#+description: Documentation of significant changes applied to site design, layout, and accessibility features to enhance navigability and content clarity.
#+slug:        recent-website-changes
#+filetags:    :website:update:accessibility:

* The State of This Website

Over the years, this website has changed URLs, styles, content focus,
and much more. However, it seems that I am never done, as I am yet again
changing this page to fit my current needs and wants.

While this site was already minimal (~12kb), it contained a lot of
disorganized content and some poorly chosen color schemes.

The recent updates attempt to fix these items while focusing on what I
truly care about here: the content within each page.

* Recent Changes

I've made quite a few changes to the style of this website today, both
in the CSS and in the HTML.

Here are some of the key takeaways from today's changes:

1. Reduce the width of the website from =60em= to =40em=.
2. Remove breadcrumb navigation and replaced with a simple "Return Home"
   link when visiting anything other than the homepage.
3. Remove syntax highlighting from code blocks. CSS now loads from a
   single file.
4. Move blog posts on the homepage to the top, pushing tertiary content
   down.
5. Update font-family from =monospace= to =sans-serif= for readability.

* Future Focus

** Accessibility

My main focus amidst all the changes this past year was accessibility. I
tried to improve the accessibility of all pages on this site as well as
I know how. For example, I added aria labels to identify different
navigation menus in November.

I want to continue this in 2023 and learn more about the accessibility
features I can utilize to help those who may need them.

** Content First

Beyond accessibility, I am making a concerted effort to bring the
content of this site to the forefront and push the tertiary information
(e.g., About Me, Services, etc.) down below the content.

Further, I want to review and edit previous blog posts for grammar,
accuracy, dead links, and more. Where necessary, I may even add a blurb
at the top of old posts that are no longer accurate or helpful.

** Style

As always, I will be searching for ways to reduce distractions and bring
a minimalistic approach to this site. While there are certainly more
drastic measures I could take, such as making this a
[[https://shinobi.bt.ht][Shinobi Website]] or a [[https://nocss.club][No
CSS Website]], I prefer to keep some modern features here.

Two ideas have been floating around in my head, but I am not sure how I
feel about these approaches yet:

1. Going all-in with Emacs org-mode and creating a script to
   auto-publish all my blog posts from org-mode to plain HTML files and
   then letting my CSS style it after the fact.
2. Focus on publishing for Gemini or Gopher and then utilize a
   conversion program to translate the pages to HTML.

* Looking Back

As I sit here and finalize the changes, as well as this post, I am happy
with the current state of this website. It's certainly a long way from
my first attempts (parallax background images, anyone?) and it's good to
see the progress.

I can only hope and work hard to ensure that I make more meaningful
progress by this time next year.