Today, a basic HTML/CSS site seems almost passé. So what if I have to repeat the navigation markup 8 separate times? It’s not that hard. It would surely be easier to do that with 8 simple, straightforward HTML files than with some custom WordPress installation that’s several versions out of date. I’ll hang with it for a while, but someday someone else might have to work on it. Who knows who will take over the site in the future.
Why do we need a CMS for an 8-page site? And for that matter, why even bother with Sass? Regular old CSS can do the job just fine. These are tools made by geeks, for geeks. Even hosted CMSes have a lot of cognitive overhead, and the content is trapped away inside someone else’s system. A typical CMS will need setup, logins, security patches, templates, and maintenance.
HAMMER VS CODEKIT GENERATOR
A static site generator usually requires knowing Markdown and esoteric commands and configuration. Then I started looking at those tools critically.
Let’s add a static site generator or a CMS! Let’s add Sass and a grid system! Let’s do more fashionable things! My next instinct was to apply our great modern web toolset to the site. In the end, I reduced a scattershot 25-page website down to about 8 focused pages written in a friendly tone. I spent around 20 minutes creating a simple design in HTML, and then several hours editing, rewriting, and refining the copy. The existing site was an outdated Microsoft FrontPage menagerie, so basically anything I did would be a big improvement. Recently I did a little side project to improve the website for a non-profit animal shelter in our town.
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