C0DEYSSEUS Redesign Case Study

The Process.

Mockups. Mockups. Mockups.

I gathered [tons of] inspiration and slapped it into Figma in a mood-board-esque manner, allowing me to quickly (and often) re-gather and push myself as I developed high-fidelity mockups.

Could I have thrown together something easy, breezy, and "lo-fi"? Totally. But then I wouldn't be able to nitpick things like accent colors and adjust section backgrounds and layouts based on content. Low-fidelity is great for a quick turnaround and a general basis, but sometimes you really need to know if the content is going to be two sentences... or two paragraphs.

Iterations.

I tend to be indecisive with designs (I get hung up on tiny details... and colors...), so iterations are a must for me. Sometimes I need to just see how a concept will look—that way I can do a side-by-side comparison.

I also tend to pick iterations apart in order to sort of "frankenstein" a new concept together. Sometimes it's a hit, and that's what I end up going with; sometimes it's a miss that leaves me with nothing but a laugh. That is, after all, why they call it a "process".

Overachieving.

Joking aside, I actually made more work for myself with this rebrand. Responsive design requires image optimization, which means "1 =/= 1". One image can need, at minimum, four versions. Unfortunately, this principle doesn't apply to me—I'm still only one person.

Regardless, I've proved to myself for the thousandth time that I'm willing to put in the hard work to achieve anything, always—no matter what.

Drafts & Concepts

Headers

Sections

Navigation

When I first built c0deysseus.com, the “thing to do” was keep visitors up-to-date with new content — and to lead them towards said content. This works well... when the website isn’t updated and maintained by a single person. Or at least works well if that single person updates the site regularly. Since I didn’t have a blog dedicated to this website — and I only added to my character pages once every *cough* eight months *cough* — I realized that the “What’s New” item wasn’t worth keeping. I also realized that I could repurpose that real estate to showcase the item I truly care about: Musings Of.

In doing so, I pulled “Musings Of” out and moved it up two whole levels in the new navigation. If this project is my life’s work, why was I keeping it buried under “Portfolio”... and then under “Game Design”?

Old Hierarchy

With “Portfolio” sitting at the top-most level in the nav as a point of interest (unclickable, however), you had to navigate through an entire drop down to get to the “Game Design” header item. Under there were two visible subitems: “Musings Of”, and “Concept Art”.

(In the rework, I also removed the “Concept Art” subitem and page, entirely — since it was a page dedicated to housing three whole project items. Lame.)

New Hierarchy

✨Wow!✨ Two whole levels, completely removed! I even threw in a sparkle emoji next to the “Characters” subitem to give it more emphasis... since that’s the page I care most about. I’ve got 45+ fictional children characters. I’m a little proud of them.