The Comma Directory Concepts Design

Today, Andrea and I designed the Concepts page. Looking around at other personal wikis, our shared sentiment was that there is a lot of amazing content, but that it can be hard to navigate because of the overwhelming amount of information served in a rather flat layout.

By using a hierarchical structure, we are able to better break it down into sub-categories that are easier to navigate. The top has:

And under them there is a subcategory and finally the topic. Each log entry uses a tag underneath, so we are still able to display the same log entry in multiple topics, if necessary.

To design the layout, Andrea and I started to look for inspiration. I am rather infatuated by the old lisp machines, and especially the Genera Symbolics lisp.

Old image of a Lisp Machine, portrait aspect ratio
Fig 1. Symbolics LM-2 Processing System. Source.

I love the portrait aspect ratio and the black and white look. So, I wanted the design to make an homage to its beauty.

Searching for its design elements, we came across this.

Symbolics OS Documentation with three sections
Fig 2. Symbolics Computer Documentation. Source.

Andrea and I both find it beautiful. If you head over to the Concepts section, you can see how that served as inspiration for the design. We are very happy with the result.

- Marc