Organizing this personal site, one question at a time
A project note on separating the homepage, brands, development, channels, journal and tools, and putting contact invitations where they help.
A personal site can hold projects, brands, useful tools and thoughts that have yet to become complete answers. As that collection grows, the relationships between those things need attention too.
This is a note on organizing this site. The aim is to introduce Hamilton first, then let visitors follow their interests into projects, articles or a useful resource.
Introduce the person on the homepage
The opening belongs to a personal introduction. What I do, what interests me now and why those interests belong here make a useful starting point for a first meeting.
Partner brands come next, followed by links to development, channels, the journal and tools. Full brand stories, project preparation lists and payment guides live on their own pages. The homepage helps people choose where to go.
Visitors can continue to About me or head straight to Brands. Both routes should feel natural.
Give each section a question to answer
A section name helps only when its content matches. While organizing the site, I checked each entry against a question a visitor might ask:
| Entry | The question it should answer |
|---|---|
| Home | Who are you, and what are you working on? |
| Brands | Which brands are here, and how are you connected? |
| Development | What can we build together, and what should I prepare? |
| Channels | Which collaboration directions fit my business context? |
| Journal | How do you approach problems and make decisions? |
| Tools | Where can I find a useful official platform or resource? |
For example, Development groups development work, Channels organizes business directions and topics, and Tools collects platforms and documentation. Related links are welcome, while the page keeps its main purpose clear.
Explain the project process and its limits
“I built a website” tells a visitor very little about the work. A useful introduction explains the original problem, what changed, why that choice was made and how it was checked.
For this site, the problems were a crowded homepage and the same large contact invitation repeated across pages. The changes assign content to clear sections and reduce repeated invitations, giving brands, projects and articles room to develop.
A project description should also state its limits. The tools page currently collects official platforms and resources. Payment and multicurrency articles explore product and system design with explicitly hypothetical numbers. They do not describe a live funds system on this site, current exchange rates or actual transaction results.
Place contact invitations in context
Someone finishing an article may want another article. Someone exploring a project may be ready to discuss it. Repeating the same large banner at the end of every page gives these different journeys the same ending.
The full invitation now belongs on the homepage. About has direct contact details, project details keep a button for the current topic, and articles end with a smaller invitation to discuss what they cover.
Visitors can finish reading before deciding to get in touch. Brands, development, channels, articles and tools each have a more natural ending too.
Check the structure through three reading journeys
Starting with a visitor’s goal makes the organization easier to judge:
- Get to know me: move from the homepage to About, then choose an interesting brand or project.
- Explore a development idea: open Development, choose a direction, read its scope and preparation notes, then discuss a concrete situation.
- Read an article: enter the journal directly, perhaps through exchange rates and actual cost, then read about multicurrency ledgers or return to a category.
These journeys help check that links, headings and page content agree. They also need a real pass on a phone, especially the menu, long titles, tables and page endings.
Maintain the content and the pages together
This site has Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and English editions. New articles keep matching addresses and corresponding section order so readers can switch language and continue in the same place. Lists, search and the table of contents need checking together.
As the project grows, one question remains useful: does a new addition answer a new question, or move something that has already been said to another place?
For this reorganization, the clearest standard is whether each entry tells people what they will find next. Clear introductions, specific projects and carefully written experiences can gradually give this site its own character.