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Recently, while talking to a friend who hosts her website on Wix, I noticed that she was using it as a portfolio website and I asked what wix-specific features

Recently, while talking to a friend who hosts her website on Wix, I noticed that she was using it as a portfolio website and I asked what wix-specific features she was using and her answer was "domain management" and this got me thinking...what if the steps were pretty straight-forward, could someone who is not a web dev or technical get a website up on github? So I started putting together a template that looks very similar to her website and also includes instructions on how to host it on Github Pages for $0/year versus what she is currently paying Wix at around $100/year. The template is here: https://github.com/usmanity/rose https://github.com/usmanity/rose

mdrzn 3y ago
"Prerequisites -Github account -Familiarity with markdown (learn more here) -Ability to run node.js and npm on your computer -Optional: a domain name." Definitely not the same as using Wix, and definitely not usable for non-technical people.
TZubiri 3y ago
Just let her use the tool designed for her demographic and you use the tool designed for yours.
- eyelidlessness 3y ago
  There’s no harm at all in putting effort into building a tool which might suit the former, on top of the latter. That’s more or less how all software for non-technical people is built: simplifying a more complex technical solution to make it accessible for the intended audience.
rollcat 3y ago
My partner (who is very non-technical) went through registering a domain, making a Github account, installing VS Code, slapping some HTML together by hand, and putting most of these things together before she even mentioned to me that she wants a website. Of course it took us a bit more work to polish it, but 90% of the work was hers (I helped with things like setting up Hugo, Netlify, writing some template code, fixing the CSS on mobile, etc). The biggest pain point of making a static website is just wrangling the generator. We wanted an image gallery with a couple selected works showcased on the front page, and the combination of various Hugo features to achieve that exact effect turned out to be non-obvious. There was probably a way to make it simpler, but we haven't found the time to find it. I think most non-technical people can easily get the first 90% of the work done by themselves with the currently available tools, it's just the other 90% where you find yourself struggling ;) (https://alida.gallery/ https://alida.gallery/)

mdrzn 3y ago

"Prerequisites -Github account -Familiarity with markdown (learn more here) -Ability to run node.js and npm on your computer -Optional: a domain name." Definitely not the same as using Wix, and definitely not usable for non-technical people.

TZubiri 3y ago

Just let her use the tool designed for her demographic and you use the tool designed for yours.

eyelidlessness 3y ago
There’s no harm at all in putting effort into building a tool which might suit the former, on top of the latter. That’s more or less how all software for non-technical people is built: simplifying a more complex technical solution to make it accessible for the intended audience.

rollcat 3y ago

My partner (who is very non-technical) went through registering a domain, making a Github account, installing VS Code, slapping some HTML together by hand, and putting most of these things together before she even mentioned to me that she wants a website. Of course it took us a bit more work to polish it, but 90% of the work was hers (I helped with things like setting up Hugo, Netlify, writing some template code, fixing the CSS on mobile, etc). The biggest pain point of making a static website is just wrangling the generator. We wanted an image gallery with a couple selected works showcased on the front page, and the combination of various Hugo features to achieve that exact effect turned out to be non-obvious. There was probably a way to make it simpler, but we haven't found the time to find it. I think most non-technical people can easily get the first 90% of the work done by themselves with the currently available tools, it's just the other 90% where you find yourself struggling ;) (https://alida.gallery/ https://alida.gallery/)