jameswboyce.com Research & systems
Making a website that joins the work together.
The thinking behind this site, and why the project stories now have a home of their own.
Project statusPublic website
How it came about
This website has to bring together work that does not sit neatly in one box. Aviation, consulting, software, research and writing are all part of what I do. The challenge is to make the connections understandable without asking a visitor to decode a long list of roles.
I wanted the site to give that work room: clear typography, a restrained palette and space to look at the projects. The blog lets me go beyond a short portfolio description and explain the decisions behind a build, while keeping the main pages straightforward to browse.
The difficult part
A portfolio card has very little space. It can tell someone what a project is, but it cannot do much justice to the decisions, mistakes or practical lessons behind it. Trying to squeeze all of that into the homepage makes the page harder to use.
There is also a credibility problem to watch for. A prototype, a private tool and a public product should not all sound like the same stage of development. Screenshots need to show the relevant experience without exposing the records that happen to be inside it.
What I learnt
I have learnt that a project story needs more than a list of features. The useful questions are why I built it, what made it difficult, what I changed my mind about and what remains unfinished.
That is what this blog is for. Some of the projects are products, some are experiments and some solve a small problem in everyday life. Each deserves a clear account of what it is, without pretending they all need to become the same kind of thing.