Reflections on this site's evolution

by: Ricardo E. Gálvez

Thinking about how this site will be structured is all fine and good, but what about the content? Beyond these ramblings, I think it would be good to present a better picture of what kind content will be on this site.

I don’t mind the way the old site is, with portfolio centric content. I do plan on integrating more coding experiments as I improve my skills with Javascript, S(CSS), SVG, and animations. I am interested in learning some backend skills as well, mostly with NodeJS, Go, Processing, and Python.

As an aside, I should come up with good reasons for wanting to learn these languages. Processing is “easy”: its a de facto language for artists working with data & code to create unique works of art. Concerning Go and Python, my interests would be in the data visualization and creative realms. NodeJS makes the most sense since its an extension of my efforts w/ Javascript.

A few points about the site’s content. It should be a repository of all my creative endeavors. For example, I would demonstrate my Creative Coding, Plastic Arts, Industrial designs, etc. The site should be accessible, not only will that make evident good faith for any potential viewers, but it will be great practice in implementation. Overall the whole point of this exercise to get better at web development in general w/ an emphasis on front-end development

Some things that still need doing before long:

  • Typography needs improving
  • Better layout for various viewports
  • Serving images to the site
    • Set up a CDN. Possibly Cloudinary?
  • SVG Placeholders with SQIP / SVGO
  • Documentation of the evolution of the site
    • It would be cool to have screenshots after each commit
    • Shell script(s) for deployments
  • Fix the about page
    • There should be a combination of bio and resume, w/ a downloadable resume, and have a well-wrought print.css file set up.
  • Move this site and “logogogo” out of my NYPL GitHub account
  • Do a better job of documentation in general
  • Sharpen up language and grammar
  • Create some subtle animations
    • Slide outs, fade-ins, etc.
    • SVG
    • CSS