Learning about UI/UX

After deploying the first publicly available version of my site I had to go through the process of explaining how to navigate and interact with it for every person I showed it to. I quickly realized that my UI/UX was awful to anyone who wasn't me and decided to migrate to different blog template.

Old Site

The first version of my blog had a unique approach to visual design that was basic and with a 90s aesthetic. Unfortunately, this didn't lend itself well to a good UX, with it not being clear what you can interact with. For example, to select a blog post you had to either click a photo or select the title of the post, but I didn't add any special coloring or attributes to title text so it isn't clear that you can select it.

Once you're in a blog post there's very little to interact with and the post picture dominates the view, especially on desktop. Overall, it was a less than ideal experience for the user of my site.

Mobile

Desktop

Current Site

The current version of my site is a day and night difference over the original. It's clear how to enter a blog post with the "Read More ->" element and there's much more to interact with once a user is in a post. Additionally, the new template has a nicer color scheme that is more consistent with what can be interacted with.

After updating to the new experience I haven't had to explain how to navigate the site at all, people intuitively understand how to navigate the website.