17 comments

  • Dan PerreraDan Perrera, almost 6 years ago

    Hi everyone, glad you're enjoying my site and big thanks to Ken M for posting it! I'm happy to answer questions if you have any.

    10 points
    • Joe CJoe C, almost 6 years ago

      Really great site Dan, the navigation was pleasing enough to get to go through and read most of your content. Great job.

      Did you have any influences/inspiration in particular you looked to with the redesign? Also, did you have a key goal in mind with the redesign? Hiring, exposure, platform for your writing etc.

      2 points
      • Dan PerreraDan Perrera, almost 6 years ago

        Thanks Joe, that's great to hear! I guess my website is a bit of a reaction to the heavy-handed animation that I've been seeing lately — I was hoping to achieve something a bit more delicate that highlights the content. I was also experimenting to see if I could achieve the feel of a "content application"(where it feels like the web is going) without sacrificing design or progressive enhancement. My hypothesis is that it might create a more engaging reading experience and, if you're any indication, it seems like it worked.

        As far as inspiration goes, aesthetically I've been very interested in minimal British and Dutch design. I don't think I can point to one individual example but I was attempting to capture their sensitive use of whitespace, scale, contrast, and typography in my redesign.

        2 points
        • Joe CJoe C, almost 6 years ago

          That's a really interesting approach, seeing your site as a "content application". Now that you mention it, it does feel like it's somehow insulated, like the content all lives together in this flexible box. I feel like there is a real physical relationship among the content, the way it stacks in the timeline and moves back and forth into view.

          Thanks for the insight, Dan!

          1 point
    • Adam SzakalAdam Szakal, almost 6 years ago

      How was it working with Atomic CSS (or is it some other similiar library)? Why did you choose that path?

      0 points
      • Dan PerreraDan Perrera, almost 6 years ago

        I've been using Tachyons and I absolutely love it. I initially dismissed the concept of functional CSS because I didn't like the aesthetics of having a lot of little classes but I've really come to appreciate the stability and the velocity it gives me as a designer.

        It's not without tradeoffs — you need to know when to break out of the framework — but because of the way it's designed, that becomes obvious pretty quickly.

        1 point
  • Stefano Vitagliano, almost 6 years ago

    Finally something new.

    4 points
  • Joel CalifaJoel Califa, almost 6 years ago

    I think you might need to make this less great. I've just been moving back and forth between blog posts for the past 5 minutes.

    3 points
  • Tim SilvaTim Silva, almost 6 years ago

    I wish more people would have timeline-based websites as apposed to time-agnostic chunks of content. Dan's site is both slick and full of rich history. Awesome find!

    2 points
  • Jamie LovelaceJamie Lovelace, almost 6 years ago

    Really enjoying like this, the navigation between each post is real nice too

    1 point
  • Alex CampAlex Camp, almost 6 years ago

    Clean site and tasteful animation

    0 points
  • Ollie BarkerOllie Barker, almost 6 years ago

    (No, not that one) lol

    0 points
  • Andrew Parker, almost 6 years ago

    Lovely.

    Would be great to hear a breakdown of the dev stack it's built on?

    0 points
    • Dan PerreraDan Perrera, almost 6 years ago

      Thanks Andrew. I wrote up a little bit about the tech stack in my redesign post.

      The TL;DR is it's a combination of Jekyll to build the site with Barba.js to set the groundwork for the transitions, plus a mix of Anime.js and regular old CSS3 transitions to achieve the actual animation.

      0 points
      • Andrew Parker, almost 6 years ago

        Cheers Dan,

        I'd not come across Barba.js before - definitely one to bookmark for the future :)

        Would you consider selling the Jekyll theme as a template? I've been trying to find time to build my own Jekyll blog for a couple of years now but didn't like any off-the-shelf themes - this one is just perfect.

        In an ideal world I'd build my own - but client work keeps me way too busy!

        0 points
        • Dan PerreraDan Perrera, almost 6 years ago

          Thanks! I don’t think I’ll be putting it up for sale. I worked hard to design and build something unique to my content and personal style.

          0 points
  • Paul van Oijen, almost 6 years ago

    Really digging that navigation.

    0 points