It’s still a little hard to believe it, but apparently I have been doing this CodeCreative thing for 6 years. It was back in May 2015 that Sarah and I put together the original brand mark, video intro, and the first website iteration. Things have come a long way since then. We’ve experimented with different content like courses, guides, and live streaming. We’ve helped mentor people into the industry and helped others land jobs. It’s been a bit of a messy and experimental process but a lot of good has been done along the way. Towards growing that good, today I am excited to share some of the changes coming to CodeCreative!

Brand Design

The first and likely most obvious change is the brand refresh courtesy the Unfold team. I absolutely love the results of the brand refresh! It is beautiful and everything that I hoped it would be. The Unfold team was fun to work with, knowledgeable, and amazingly talented. I am not a professional designer, so one of the joys of working with them was getting to watch them work through different iterations. And just so we’re clear, that’s a customer review and not a paid advertisement. They are wonderful.

The Unfold team set me up with quite a few assets to keep the design consistent which was one of my previous struggles (aside from OMG GREEN). In addition to the brand mark, color palette, typography choices, and site design, I also have a variety of social media assets, images, and most importantly some PowerPoint designs and guidance on how to carry the brand into other content assets. This is going to help me standardize some of the design and delivery so I can focus on the content, much like how my webinars and Knowledge presentations typically go outside of CodeCreative. So I am definitely excited to start putting some of the new brand assets to use!

Updated Mission

To go along with the brand refresh, I also updated the Mission, Vision, and Values. That stuff often goes unnoticed but between you, me, and the rest of the internet… I wrote those for me more than anyone else. But for those who want to know why I do what I do, swing by the about page. I wrote them down a while back and periodically I reread them to remind myself. Because, honestly, some days I think about joining Maverick and Goose at that truck driving school.

Content Channels

I’ll also point out that the brand refresh has some pretty slick alternate palettes for the different content channels I publish to. One of my goals is to get some better structuring, purpose, and attention to the individual channels. Each one is designed for a different purpose and has slightly different target audiences. Here are some things you can expect from each:

Notebook

So this is a new channel being launched with the new site. Notebook is going to be much more wiki like in approach and is based on notes straight from my personal notebook. I have a feeling I will be refering to these as much as anyone and I look forward to my notebook being indexed by search engines. Overall, the Notebook channel is designed for folks looking for the quick answers and reference material. The pages in Notebook will be updated as I learn new things, refine knowledge, and grow as a developer and architect. So whether you are more experienced or just like to learn the hard way through random chance and intellectual wandering, Notebook will be a great channel to keep your eye on.

Blog

The blog channel will likely shift a bit in the types of content you will see. Obviously it will still be a blog with articles that are published and generally go stale over time. The blog articles will likely be more announcements and topics that are more subjective or require discussion. I may even start working in some of the business, consulting, and process conversations that go on inside my mind and work. You may see some of the technical topics start to shift to some of the other channels though.

Guides

My hope is that the more freeform Notebook will help me organize a little better and lead to publishing more Guides. The Guides channel is really designed for folks who prefer a more step by step approach to learning. And if the Getting Started on Service Portal Course and Guide taught me anything, a lot of people learn this way. You may also notice some similarity between CodeCreative Guides and the ServiceNow Developer Site Guides. That’s not a mistake. I love how ServiceNow setup that section of the site and frankly it was kinda fun taking their code for a change. It made me feel villanous. I did the finger tippy taps. I even let out an evil laugh.

Live

CodeCreative Live will be resuming on Twitch and Youtube. In fact, I’ve even got links from the website to those pages to help people find their way. I’m currently working on integrating this channel more tightly with the website so stand by for improvements on that. Live is likely to be a place where I do more advanced development, research, reverse engineering, and other fun things. This channel is great for folks who really want to dig in. Joining in the chat means you can participate, ask questions, and guide where some of the conversation goes. And of course, I’ve renewed Sarah’s contract for another season. She drove a hard bargain but the show just isn’t the same without her.

Recordings

The pre-recorded videos is a channel I am hoping to resume a bit more. I have a few ideas that I am working on for this channel along the lines of podcast style, webinar style, and quick lesson formats. These will be more structured like Guides (as opposed to the Live free-for-all) but directed more towards audio and visual learners.

No More Subscribing

Lastly, you might notice the subscribe block is missing. I’m temporarily (maybe indefinately) shutting down the subscription and email notifications. Overall, I am working towards purging the remaining personal data I have collected from MailChimp subscription and course registrations. Until I can work out a better process, purging the lists is less maintenance and risk than handling a bunch of individual requests for removal. Less maintenance, more time on content!

Conclusion

So that’s what I have been working on since around April. Again, special thank you to the Unfold team! If you are on the market for a digital design agency, I highly recommend them. And be sure to let me know what you think of the changes.