Does my ass look fat in this?

A somewhat rhetorical / trick question usually used to go fishing for compliments. Why ask it? Because this site has gotten a revamp and i’m open to feedback. seanmacentee.com is now a landing page showcasing my services and portfolio of work, the blog is now located at seanmacentee.com/blog…

The shoemaker’s children go barefoot

Although I’ve been doing freelance web development for years, I’ve never had my own website showcasing my skills & services. Sure, I’ve always had the blog, but that’s more of a personal thing. Businesses want to know what somebody does and how he/she can help them. A blog demonstrates knowledge and personality but it’s not a short, one page description of what somebody has to offer. This isn’t a big deal when all of your clients come from word of mouth referrals but it’s still the right thing to do. It helps me to keep track of projects i’ve worked on and helps prospective clients figure out what i do and what i can offer them, before they get in touch with me.

Beauty

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” – if that statement is true, I’m sure we all think we know quite a few people who are therefore doing a good job of hiding the fact they’re blind. The more I learn about design and more specifically web design, the more i realise that beauty is quite simply removing things that don’t serve a purpose or don’t serve an important enough purpose to justify existing. So that’s the sort of deep thought that went in to the new design.

Do i need a like and follow button in the sidebar that take a couple of seconds to load? No. Do i need the latest ‘x’ images pulled in from my flickr in the sidebar? No. The purpose of this blog is to document my thoughts on things, so all emphasis should be on the content. Stuff that isn’t content or doesn’t help you find content is just a distraction.

That’s why i like this new design. It’s frustratingly simple, yet still beautiful. Your choices as a reader are to read the articles, click on menu items that bring you to pages or click on my social links which bring you to more of my content just on different channels. If i remove any of that stuff, I effectively remove or restrict your access to my content – so that’s how I know I’ve reached the limit of what i can remove.

A lot done, more to do

It’s all a bit of a work in progress but i’m determined to ensure that this site is kept up to date and accurately describes everything i do online. I’ll be adding more screenshots and photos of my work in the portfolio section and i want to go in to more detail on all of the services on offer too. Rome wasn’t built in a day though, so some parts of the site may remain a little bare for the time being.

Overall, my goal is to fuse the work and time i spend on other projects with this site. On all projects you learn new things (about technology, people, businesses etc). You also discover new problems and come up with solutions… so NOT documenting that stuff in some format just seems like a missed opportunity.