I've been away for quite a while on this project, mostly overcome with the workload from my final semester of University. But I'm in my final weeks now (1 assignment due this Sunday and 2 exams next week), and so I have a bit more "free" time to spend. Looking through my old projects I wanted something fun to get me back into the rhythm of creation again, and I felt inspired to redesign devpad - mostly because the hyper-minimalist aesthetic was a bit too minimal for my liking.
Inspiration
I went through and found some examples of sites that I like the look of. The sites below are mostly portflio/blog sites, so converting their design into a software application might prove a bit tricky, but that's the fun of software engineering - a good challenge. Below are the 3 sites that I like the look of.
Design Features
I noted the similarities of the 3 and tried to dilute their main appeal to me
- Flat background colour
- Text is all similar size
- Use text colour (dimming/bright) & font weight to draw attention
- Different fonts for different elements (headings, links, dates)
- Mobile-width padded out on larger screens.
Challenges
Despite the sites as a baseline, there are still a couple things left to figure out
- How to do input forms
- What information is relevant for list view
- How to format the task updating screen (diff view)
Feature Ideas
Of course, inspiration took me by storm as I was planning my new design, so I have some features that I want to do. Ironically, it would be great if I could keep this in a proper todo list application!
- Command pallet/shortcut menu
- Calendar view (list, weekly, monthly)