Website redesign, December 2024

I seem to redesign my website 2-3 times per year.

I do it at all times of the year, but I always seem to be redesigning around Christmas: in 2021, 2022, 2023, and now.

There’s more versions in between these screenshots too, but I consistently seem to be tinkering on winter break.

And this winter break is no different! I started in the airport on 12/25 on the way to Charleston, South Carolina, and I pushed it live a day and a half later.

What’s it look like?

I’ve done this enough times to realize that I should be taking more screenshots for posterity. In addition to the one above, this is what an individual blog post looks like on my December 2024 redesign:

Why a redesign?

Here’s what my previous iteration looked like:

I really liked it, especially the sidebar, but writing on it started to feel precious. The posts were styled to look upright and professional.

For this new iteration, I wanted something that felt less precious. The new feed of posts on the front page makes me feel like I can fire off posts.

The ultimate intention is always to write more. We’ll see.

Architecture

It’s an Astro site, with posts written in markdown (via content collections), styled with Tailwind, and with icons from Phosphor.

I always start by initializing a new repository, starting fresh with npm create astro@latest. I don’t know why — it just feels cleaner to start fresh and then move the markdown over. It’s like cleaning your house by buying a new one and moving all the furniture.

I’m often tempted to switch back to a CMS, or (even worse) build my own CMS, but I’m in reality glad that I’ve kept everything in markdown in recent iterations. It makes my writing a lot more portable. I’m also enjoying MarkEdit for writing posts in markdown.

I’ve also moved the domain from ben.page back to benborgers.com, but that’s a story for another time…