[Process Post 2] About, Vision & Mistakes

Familiarizing with WordPress

After WordPress was downloaded, installed and added to the site. I began my exploration down this digital pathway. Exploring the backends of a website, learning about what posts, tabs, themes, and plugins that can be morphed into what I desire. This part of my personal cyberinfrastructure creation process definitely allowed me to experience first-hand of what Audrey Watters (2015) mentions the “begin[ning] to have an understanding of the technologies that underpin the Web, including how their work and their data circulate there.”

Themes

I started clicking through the different features, learning about the different theme templates and how they each have their own unique characteristics. I opted to find one that has the most flexibility with editing, visually pleasing and simple, while also has the capability to incorporate accessibility considerations. Customizations has always been an enjoyable process, and this was exciting to play around with the features.

A Close-Call Mistake

When I say excited, I really do mean excited. I dived right into the various templates and sifted through several different themes. While some would be fun to have, I had my vision and content in mind as I did so. They had to ‘fit’ with what my content on this site was going to be about. Once I had a theme applied to my site, I began fiddling with the minor details. After spending a couple hours doing this, I realized that when I changed to another theme, my previous small changes would be lost. This was my close-call mistake – Not creating a Child Theme.

I followed the steps outlined on posiel to make a child theme. I had to troubleshoot some of the steps along the way, but I was able to safely change themes after creating a child theme and re-linking the theme to under it. This was quite the close call! I do not want to imagine after spending so much time editing a theme to only realize it was all going to be erased.

Plugins

During PUB 101 class and my exploration of themes, I noticed I had the option to add extensions to my editing platform. Assuming my understanding of plugs were the same as Chrome extensions, these plugins include thwarting login attempts, better customization programs and Analytics.

At the moment, the plugins I am going to use and have included is Google Analytics and Elementor which I will explore both further. Definitely look out my future process posts when I do so!

A useful resource I have found for getting started with Elementor is this tutorial:

About Section

As part of every new meeting and greeting with a stranger and new friend, an introduction must be made. Every proper site has an introduction — the About page — where it briefly introduces the person. At first, I wanted to create “About the Author” page – mirroring my favorite book covers tab with the introduction of the author. I drew inspiration from Who We Are | Cult of Pedagogy as a basis to my About section. However, it occurred to me that not all sites operate the same. I looked into different sites as large as Britannica and Simon Fraser University to personal blog/portfolio sites like Peter McKinnon.

These observations and experimentation inspired me to form “About the Author” page and “About this Site” page. While my name itself may give an inkling to what my site is about – Having a page dedicated to this seems important to allow me to express and explain what my goals and objectives.

Vision Board

The progress so far has been a relatively positive one. With a few bumps in the way (in the technical side of things), it is going quite well. As indecisive as I may be sometimes, I am satisfied I was able to settle with one for now that fits into my vision for this site in terms of design and visual aesthetics. I will further explore and polish this as needed. As Erin Glass states students should be allowed to “write themselves into being”. The way we convey our information, our own thoughts and processes are involved in every aspect of the way. Not only in the words, but also in other components of my consideration. Here is my vision board I created last week.

I have identified colour, content and design as important aspects to branch out and brainstorm my ‘vision’. Some of these aspects have been achieved, while others will need to take more time. I am glad I was able to customize the right colours and achieve a template where it is simplistic as well. My goal was to have a readable aesthetic that is comfortable for the eyes and audience. Navigation and accessibility were another part of my considerations which I will need to further develop. Some aspects like content will require some more time to bring into fruition. I will keep posted in my future process posts in regard to this.

Next Steps

• My future steps will be to start writing content-related posts to populate my site and explore this avenue of expression.
• I will also explore other edits and website designs to accompany my vision.
• I will also consider having a logo – perhaps a penguin – to build a brand
• Last but not least, I will also follow the next week’s objectives from PUB 101 as well.

Thank you for reading and see you in my next process post!

References

• Audrey Watters. 2015. “The Web We Need to Give to Students”
• Erin Glass. 2015. “Why We Need Social Paper”