Hello!
Today nears the 2-year anniversary of Unfolding Bytes’ launch. Since then, I’ve been steadily making improvements to the front and back-ends of this website to help improve the experience for everyone in the loop. I’ve also been listening to feedback, fine-tuning my writing, and introducing additional categories to better organize my work and make it easier for people to seek out what’s important to them. Here’s an overview of what I’ve been working on and have shipped to this site over the past year.
Article Content Optimization
As part of my ongoing efforts to lower the barrier into tech knowledge, I’ve added features to help people consume content more efficiently and with greater intent.
Time to Read
On articles where it’s a relevant metric, you’ll now see an estimated reading time below the post description. You can use this to gauge if you want to read something now, or save it for later.
Progress Bar
At the top of the screen, there’s now a progress bar that scrolls as you read, so you can easily see how close to the end you are.
Table of Contents
Easily find what you’re looking for with an expandable table of contents and one-click navigation to any heading in the text.
Skip to Guide
On relevant articles, there’s now a one-click button to skip the introductory information and get right to the instructions.
Review Notices
The more I began posting content surrounding software products, the more I worried that people may view this site as a promotion-centric hub for that type of work. I wanted to make it clear that my original values haven’t changed, and that those articles weren’t influenced or sponsored by the companies or people designing the software I was reviewing.
New and existing articles that fall under such a category are now clearly marked with a banner informing readers about the intent behind the writing with a link to read the full disclaimer. I’m also making it a priority to balance the type of content on this site to avoid swinging the pendulum too far in that direction.
Excerpts in More Places
Small teaser snippets now live under the title on the post page itself, and bundled with the newsletter. I don’t know why they weren’t there before. Anyway, they’re there now.
Article Surveys
I want to hear from you! There’s a new questionnaire at the end of each article with a few checkboxes and an optional text box. You can even answer just one of the questions and click submit. Knowing what people are thinking is what enables me to improve.
Categorization & Newsletter Lists
Categories have gotten a facelift, and are continuing to help separate content that’s tailored to different audiences. If you’re a subscriber, they’re now being integrated into your newsletter. If you’re over (or under)-whelmed with the amount of emails you’re receiving, just click the Manage Emails link at the bottom of any email to fine-tune your updates.
Speed Improvements
This site can be sluggish at times when opening articles and switching between pages. I’ve made several improvements to page response times, so your visits should be snappier.
Dark Mode
This site’s always had a dark mode, it was just never fully complete. You had to manually toggle it, and it only worked for the article text, breaking other things. Fortunately, that’s all been papered over. Its implementation is now uniform across the site and enables automatically if your device is in dark mode. 🎉
Quick Share Links
You can now share articles directly via email, sms, or social media at the end of posts. If you don’t see the option, a content filter may be blocking it.
Mobile Got Some Love
In addition to all of the above improvements, I’ve squashed several bugs and rough edges related to the mobile site’s appearance, speed, and functionality. You should now notice a more responsive, polished experience.
That’s all for now. I’ve spent a lot of time refining things and tinkering with the ins-and-outs of WordPress, and it means a lot to have people who are excited to learn about the insides of the tech products they use every day. Thanks for being a supporter, and I hope to see you again soon!
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