Website redesign, branding, and long term structure

[thescientist13]

As we plan for the next set of features to get Greenwood to a 1.0 release it would be to start discussing some related issues around structure, navigation, discoverability, and design.

Some previous related issues on this topic were

• website layout, organization, and navigation #325
• improve the responsiveness and user experience for mobile sidenav / shelf #112
• articulate Greenwood's vision / value through the home page #268

Some things we would like to consider are:

• Show casing more examples / starters / boilerplates on the home page somewhere
• Would like to create a simple design system, using CSS Custom Properties
• Rebrand / theme the whole website

[thescientist13]

One thing I would like to better articulate is our plugin system, mainly because I have allowed the word plugin to become an overloaded term. It can mean two things:

A way to hook into Greenwood, e.g. a server plugin

class MyServer extends ServerInterface {
  constructor(compilation, options = {}) {
    super(compilation, options);
    ...
  }

  async start() {
    ....
  }
}

module.exports = (options = {}) => {
  return {
    type: 'server',
    name: 'plugin-myserver',
    provider: (compilation) => new MyServer(compilation, options)
  }
};

And, a way to provide said hooks to Greenwood, e.g. one of Greenwood's custom, the polyfill plugin

const polyfillsPlugin = require('@greenwood/plugin-polyfills');

module.exports = {
  ...

  plugins: [
    polyfillsPlugin()
  ]
}

---

I think maybe the "hooks" should just be called APIs, and then plugins can just be any usage of 1 or more APIs?

[thescientist13]

Added a blog section FYI - #503

[thescientist13]

As the project grows to accommodate an #708 and becomes less of "just" an SSG, the tagline on the home page won't apply anymore

__

So would like to use this as a way of generating new ideas for a Greenwood tagline; something that encompasses the spriit of the project as covered in the cards at the bottom of the home page and on the about page. I guess I'm mostly torn on if the "supporting web component based development" is beneficial or not.

Either way, up for brainstorming so, here goes 🤞

---

• web dev, refreshed
• get more HTML out of your JS
• focus on your work, not the framework
• All you need is web
• nothing between you and your code but the browser (that's maybe pushing it but something along those lines, but basically where not a framework per se, more of a lightweight dev environment if that makes sense)

[thescientist13]

Opened a PR with a decent amount of these suggestions in place.
#877

[thescientist13]

(extracting this convo from Slack)

In our State of GreenwoodJS - 2022 blog post PR, I think I may have found a really nice tag line for Greenwood

Your workbench for the web

Which I think fits nice with the project name, and maybe helps thread the needle a bit on how to position ourselves since we’re not a traditional framework in the classic sense. Was wondering if it might be useful as inspiration for a new logo? Something that conveys the web + carpentry / building / craftsmanship? Could maybe be the G with a gradient from unconstructed (WIP) to finished, like going from wood to “web” or something like ? Or maybe a new logo / icon all together?

Was thinking of a similar logo someone made for me for my personal blog, in spirit at least. The concept tied into a theme within the project, but I think the spirit of transition, digital to organic, etc carries over.

[thescientist13]

Moved to #978