About

Sep 26, 2023 Jan 04, 2024 (IST)

A brief introduction to me and the site, including tips on how to use it (the site, not me ;).

About Me🔗

Where me = “Pranab” (he/him).

I have a formal education in design, with my current focus on UI/UX design, but I’ve also had an interest in computers since school, starting with Scratch and the like.

Some of my interests include:

• Reading: especially (science) fiction, but I read a lot of blog posts on various subjects, though I find good tech blogs the easiest to find.
• UI/UX Design: I’ve been looking into accessibility lately, and I quite enjoy a brutalist/swiss/functional style that relies more on text, though I try to infuse some popular aesthetics into it and play around with other styles.
• Writing: that’s how I maintain this blog ;) I can write nonsense about whatever’s going on in my head, but also notes on things I read or ideas I have, as well as short snippets of fiction. I might write a book someday.
• Shell Scripting: I’m fairly proficient in using the (Fish) shell and scripting, and I have a few small utilities I use here and there.
• Programming: I have a decent grasp of most concepts, and I can navigate code well enough, even if I don’t know the language, but I haven’t written or maintained a decently sized codebase.

Contact🔗

You can reach me via email or Mastodon¹.

Email: pranabekka@gmail.com

Mastodon: @pranabekka@mastodon.social

About the Site🔗

Built Using Zola (Static Site Generator)

Custom theme made by me. See choices below.

• “zettelkasten”-like
  • no categories
    • could add tags in the future?
  • backreferences
    • posts link to each other
  • flat structure
• 8px gap between interactive elements (where possible) to reduce chances of tapping adjacent element
• large-ish font size for people with poor eyesight
• no “flashbang”: dark theme
  • “flashbang” is when you suddenly load a bright page
  • might make a light theme eventually
• avoid full black/white to reduce glare effect (halation). not sure what other issues it might cause
• low contrast, while preserving AAA contrast compliance, to accomodate users affected by high contrast, and to be dimmer for night time users (like me). i need to add a check and control to increase contrast.
• show all posts in single page to make basic search easy
• three heading levels
  • inspired by edward tufte
  • not a hard rule, but easy to stick to
• number headings to match list of contents (“table” of contents)
• rounded inline code to show start and end, especially when spanning multiple lines (on mobile)
• higher contrast for smaller areas
  • highlight colour is brighter when used in underlines, than the colour used in the title
• “logo” in header and tab title to make pages from site apparent
• no custom fonts (imports) to save on page size and loading time

Site source

Usage Tips🔗

• index is a good place to search the site

  • it shows all posts, though only title and first paragraph

• search using the following snippet in your search provider (remember to replace <search term> with what you’re looking for).

  site:pranabekka.github.io <search term>
  

  This works with all major search providers.

• references to current page appear at the bottom

  • other related pages appear in the body

• page source can be used to view history. if you’re unfamiliar with github, select the history icon near the top left.

References to this page:

• PubNotes