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Why is it so difficult to redesign personal sites?

Posted on by Clive Walker in Web Development Personal

I wrote this post a while back. The content can still be relevant but the information I've linked to may not be available.

A bit of a throwaway question I know. But, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to find the time to work on (redevelop) my own sites (this blog included, as you can probably tell).

I'm not sure why.

  • Perhaps it is because sites today need a lot of development. The core structure and CSS. The latest methods. Responsive testing. And CMS integration. When I started, things seemed a lot simpler.
  • It might be that I am feeling overworked from client sites so that my motivation for personal sites has taken a knock.
  • Or, perhaps I just have too many sites to keep up with.

I need to find an answer.

As a result, I'm looking for quicker ways of redeveloping sites. Web editors like Pinegrow. Templates from HTML 5 Up. Or Bootstrap themes. The Foundation 6 framework. Although I suspect that some of these may not turn out to be as quick as I hope.

Do you have the same problem? I'd be interested to know if it's just me.

And, have you faced the same issue and overcome it? How? Leave a comment below if you have the answer!

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Comments

  • 24 Feb 2016 18:37:59

    It’s a common problem Clive and I suspect it’s down to a few issues; the overly critical designer’s eye and the fact that no matter how simple the project it will always eat into time you feel you should be spending on finding new client projects.

    I find it helps to treat your personal projects like you would a client project. It might sound odd but write a proposal detailing what you’re going to deliver, set some deadlines and stick to them. Follow the same process you would for a client site.

    And make sure you email yourself asking to make that logo bigger! :)

  • 24 Feb 2016 20:36:45

    Working collaboratively with him on my son’s website as he has gone from a local self-trained sound engineer to student, now degree qualified sound engineer, we have gone from Google sites to WordPress sites and now a Squarespace site, changing his focus as he grew. We have now settled on a design with basic pages and an easily updateable news page with pages that easily populate social media for promotion. One of the hardest things is to keep the information up to date on the website, Linked In and stage jobs pro so that they all match.

  • 24 Feb 2016 22:56:05

    Building a website has got a lot more complex over the years. Some aspects are getting simpler – how to do layout etc but how your site works and what to say is a lot more complex.

    Perhaps one approach would be to buddy up with someone and do each others website…

  • 25 Feb 2016 10:49:31

    For me my own website is very personal, it reflects how I design and build sites so I could never outsource it, despite of how much of a pain or time consuming it is. Perhaps not as much of an issue if you are more of a dev, you could just outsource the design but still build it so it reflexs how you work. Reduce the daunting task.

  • 26 Feb 2016 10:16:40

    Thanks for your useful comments folks. It’s good to read your feedback.

  • 07 May 2016 08:53:43

    Many designers have that problem, and it often has to do with a disregard for the process that actually leads to results. Write yourself a brief, and produce the content you want to show. Without a brief containing goal for your new website, you’re designing for a beauty contest.

    Once you know the goals of the website and the content, you can design it like you always do. Find the best solution to your given situation, and execute it.

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