It’s not as easy as it looks.

When I set up this site I relied on WordPress’ default setting of displaying the latest posts on the homepage. Engaging and updated content drives traffic and provides an insight into the creation of the site as I settle upon what HumanPlaylistr can potentially do.

I decided that the homepage needed to provide a much sharper insight into the concept, quickly getting to the heart of the potential and immediate access to public playlists. However, I also wanted a blog that could be kept up to date. At the moment my posts tend to revolve around building the site, musing on the art of the possible and the latest updates. In the future, once the site is more complete, I’d like them to be more industry aligned, music-related and focussed on the playlists. For now I’m happy for them to exist as a sketch pad whilst I build the service.

Two things have come out of my experience when building a homepage and expanding the site:

1. Designing a homepage isn’t easy. I want the site to look different, interesting and (I hope) exciting. I want it to feel personal. I am both designer and customer so only have myself to please when it comes to colours, layouts and structure. This is both liberating and frustrating as I tend to be a harsh critic of my own work. It’s also a technical challenge; the site needs to be responsive to tablets and mobiles. WordPress has some great features to help with this but can take time to test.
2. Deciding what actual content to put on the homepage is a constant quandary for me. Too little and the site makes no sense, too much and it’s overwhelming.

The design and choice of colours are intentionally dark-themed. Some of the transparencies were easy to achieve, others less so. The visual carousel of the latest posts on the homepage includes some subtle hover transparency when viewed on a desktop browser; fortunately the WordPress template takes care of the CSS to achieve that effect.

I hope I’ve provided a good place to start on the homepage. I still haven’t decided if it’s finished or correct, but I have the luxury to mull it over whilst it’s quiet. HumanPlaylistr revolves around events and venues. I’m not exactly inundated with queries. Quietly building playlists, ensuring they’re the high quality I’m aiming for and keeping the website updated are tasks I can fit into evenings and weekends, all the while refining the offering.

Why not have a look round the sample playlists, full playlists or the Events and Venues page for some inspiration?

Please do just get in touch if you have a requirement I can help with.

I look forward to hearing from you!