[1.1.1] - 2023-11-08
Added: Canonical Urls, Mobile UI Improvements in Figma, New Case Studies
Canonical Urls
Listening to Mutemath 2013 - You are Mine (LP). Such a solid song. On to trabajo. I am adding canonical urls to all pages, posts and any other thing that needs to be indexed by Google. I sparingly use AI for writing as it takes the spice out of my work. However, adding SEO strategy to my marketing mix is to be expected. This strategy of sending resumes to countless companies are an utter waste of hours and unfair to my family. Instead of doing that, I am taking on side work which is broadening my skills set in weaker areas such as cold outreach and such. However, applying my own ux to my own platform is working wonders. UX really does work. Plus, inbound marketing through Content creation is so much more natural for me. There is very little value, in sending random "pick-me's" to busy professionals. I will be transparent; when I used to interview UX level 1 and level 2 Designers, I hardly read their cozy profiles; all I cared about was the work and if they can actually work with other people and not try to be a lone wolf. While I do think politics has PLENTY to do with why talented resources are unfavorably let go, I also know that sending random resumes to tired recruiters who are tired of hearing about kittens, and how cool of a UX person they are, this can get tiresome. So implementing SEO is a natural next step for me. Plus I do get fired up about working on a Team on UX and with thinkers, coders, data architects and whatnot. Thats my jam.
Mobile UX Improvements in Figma.
Revamping Joncreative's mobile experience in Figma. I've returned to using Local Styles, which saves a ton of time. As for mobile, I'm confident people aren't too thrilled about a hero section with just "Joncreative" on it. Who's really interested, right? But, to the point, diving straight into content is the way to go. That's why I ditched all the fancy animations in favor of articles. I've been studying YouTube's mobile content strategy and remember someone saying, "sweat more than you watch others sweat." With that mindset, I'm mimicking YouTube's approach. No need to promote or share.
On another note, my local headless CMS instance is up and running. I haven't dabbled in Docker yet, but I've used homebrew to get NVM working and to version to earlier Node.js versions for my CMS. The local platform serves as my sandbox. Mobile navigation is the top priority, especially search. People want to find topics easily. Search will be integrated throughout the site, emphasizing mobile flow. There's a lot of work ahead, but I've got some efficient flows that could speed things up by weeks, if not days. More details on that soon.
I apologize for the somewhat cheesy mobile menu. Balancing development work isn't simple, but it's enjoyable. Plus, I've got a family to support, bills to pay – not a carefree bachelor. I love it. Hopefully, I'll look back at this not-so-changelog-changelog and appreciate the grind. The challenges are real, but I'm confident the Lord will see me and the Joncreative platform through. I've seen designs make companies millions, so reworking a navigation bar? Come on, totally achievable. Lets get it.
New Case Studies.
Added some new Case studies to the docket. I am also working on a Sales project that is going to be nothing short of amazing. Also binging on Alex Hormozi. Genius.
Thats about it. More to come soon. Stay tuned. Here is a link to mutemath from 13 years ago. I am almost 40 and I played this way back when I was still in my mid 30s.
I am embedding the video in markdown, practicing my coding skills:
[1.1.1] - 2023-11-04
Added: Changelog, New Headless CMS
Changelog.
I am adding a changelog to this Platform to let everyone know about changes to the underlying technology as well as to keep a note on significant platform changes when I hire Engineers. Transparency is key.
New Headless CMS.
The former joncreative was built on a monolithic wordpress blog attached to a mixup of really bad coding I put together sometime around 2018/2019. After wrapping up the large projects with a recent Enterprise Client I decided its time to implement some new tech. Enter headless CMS. It was an idea I pitched to my former Team. Glad to now be on the headless cms. In fact this changelog is written within a markdown doc within the headless cms.
Since moving to the headless cms, I am learning:
- handlebars.js
- advanced css like flexbox
- node.js
- homebrew.js
- html5
- markdown
- prompt-engineering
No doubt about it, transitioning away from my previous client's team marked a significant shift. However, this change has rekindled my passion and drive as a CEO, an employee, a father, and an experience architect. There are no longer any constraints.
Removed: Subscriptions
Subscriptions.
Until I grow this platform into a big enough force in the Software space, I will not be allowing any new subscriptions. I rather give away some value upfront to win your trust, then later, when you have a product or service that requires wrench-time; we will get working on putting that framework into motion.
Until the next update, haste luego!