The raw and unedited redesign process

I’ve been reading/talking/thinking a great deal about information and ideas lately. Mostly about how readily information is available, and how well guarded ideas can be.

We’re so obsessed with answers, the end product, that the process, the development often gets lost. I’m trying to change that, at least for myself. And I thought I’d start with this website.

Sometimes I wonder what clients think about the web design process. They see designs fairly early in the timeline, sign off on a direction then wait for the final product. I’m going to let you peek behind the curtain.

If you’re viewing this shortly after this post was published, this might look like a website void of any styling or design whatsoever. You’re right. I’m starting from scratch and am going to work through the design and development process. All live.

So, if you check in often, you’ll see my progress, process, and mistakes. Here’s to being transparent in my design process.

Timeline-wise, this could be a bit slow. I’m no longer a full-time freelancer, so (at least) eight hours of my day are dedicated to my current, wonderful employer, Wendt. Feel free to give me a hard time about my snail’s pace via the comments on this post.

On the tech side, this is going to be one of the first sites I develop using HTML5. I’ll be using various CSS3 properties and will be integrating everything, beginning with this post, with WordPress.

If you want to view my work, feel free to visit the old site. Drop me a line in the comments area or shoot me an email, if you like. Otherwise, enjoy the process.

3.29.11 Update: I divided my <article> into two columns using CSS3. If you only see one column of text, it’s time to update your browser. I also added the lovely orange bar to the top, some texture behind and started playing with @font-face to stylize my headline text. Hooray, Chunk!

9.6.11 Update: Hoofta. I had a floating issue that effectively killed my CSS for a while there. Fixed now, so I can get back to business. Told you this would be slow…

10.14.11 Update: Still missing some essential pieces, obviously. But I published the second post I had been sitting on and incorporated the Facebook comments widget. It’s different from your typical “comments” area on blogs, but I think it may be more effective, at least initially. Agree? Disagree?

jP