I’m trapped at home with my website. Or maybe it’s trapped at home with me. While some are using the weird lump of time provided by lockdown to indulge in baking, dancing, painting, singing, I’m using it to play around with code.

我 被自己的網站困在家里。 又或者它被困在家里。 盡管有些人使用鎖定提供的奇怪時間來沉迷于烘烤，跳舞，繪畫和唱歌，但我卻在用它來玩代碼。

My site has been hosted by Squarespace (you know, from adverts, all the adverts) for over ten years now. I’ve lost count of the wild variation of iterations it’s been through in that time. Thanks to the ease at which the platform allows you to edit the appearance and structure of your site, there is a constant temptation to mess with it. It’s my own private little sandbox, somewhere to try out new approaches, new aesthetics. Most of the time, back when time actually meant something, I would simply dip in and give it a tweak here and there. But perpetual indoorsiness has seen me dipping in more often, making more significant adjustments. It’ll start out harmlessly enough — maybe I’ll try out a new typeface, shift a column or two, maybe add some pages and … before I know it I’m wading in and breaking and fixing and changing everything.

我的網站由Squarespace(從廣告中了解所有廣告)托管至今已有十多年了。 我忘記了那段時間經歷的瘋狂的迭代變化。 由于該平臺使您可以輕松地編輯網站的外觀和結構，因此不斷有誘惑力來干擾它。 這是我自己的私人小沙盒，可以嘗試新方法，新美學。 在大多數情況下，當時間真正意味著某種意義時，我會簡單地浸入其中并對其進行調整。 但是，永久的室內環境使我更加頻繁地投入，進行了更重大的調整。 它會以無害的方式開始-也許我會嘗試一種新的字體，移動一兩列，也許添加一些頁面，然后……在我不知不覺中就涉足并破壞，修復和更改了所有內容。

There are a number of preset themes to start you off, all of which can be customised. Most basic cosmetic changes can be done with sliders and menus, but this approach can only get you so far; to really get into the design you have to delve a little deeper and open the CSS editor.

有許多預設主題可以讓您開始，所有這些主題都可以自定義。 大多數基本的外觀更改都可以通過滑塊和菜單來完成，但是這種方法只能帶您深入。 要真正進入設計，您必須更深入地研究并打開CSS編輯器。

And this is where I start meddling in things I don’t completely understand.

這就是我開始干預我不完全了解的事情的地方。

As with countless other designers who remember the heady days of life before Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, I have Myspace to thank for my rudimentary understanding of CSS. Back then, way back then, if you weren’t content to project your online persona through music lists alone, you could sneak in through a back door and add code to try on some garish new colours, backdrop or type. This relatively radical notion of editing the CSS of a site — even if it was just a few lines — resulted in a slew of tutorials, shared knowledge and new skills. Sure the results were, without exception, awful, but at least they were your results. Once you get a taste of that godlike power to change a site’s appearance, it’s hard to go back

與無數其他設計師一樣，他們還記得Facebook，Twitter或Instagram之前的生活，我感謝Myspace對CSS的基本理解。 那時，那時候，如果您不滿足于僅通過音樂列表來投射在線角色，則可以潛入后門并添加代碼以嘗試一些華麗的新顏色，背景或類型。 編輯站點CSS的這種相對激進的想法-即使只有幾行-導致了大量的教程，共享知識和新技能。 當然，結果肯定是可怕的，但至少它們是您的結果。 一旦您了解了改變站點外觀的神力，便很難回頭

Skip ahead fifteen or so years and I still know just enough to mostly not break anything too important. With some trial and error, I can pop the bonnet and make this little style over here look like what’s in my head. Which can be incredibly satisfying.

跳過十五年左右，我仍然知道，幾乎不會破壞任何太重要的內容。 經過反復試驗，我可以打開引擎蓋，使這里的小樣式看起來像我的腦海。 令人難以置信的令人滿意。

The problem is, this piecemeal tinkering approach doesn’t take place within a larger plan. It’s more like mutation than design. Incremental cosmetic changes gradually, imperceptibly eat away at the fundamental structure of the site, and I find myself questioning the purpose of the whole endeavour; goalposts constantly shifted by aesthetic half-accidents. Well this type hierarchy would look simply darling in a minimal type-only blog context, I’ll ponder, maybe I’ll give that a go. It’s upside-down design, bad habits I know I should avoid but fall into anyway. The tail is pulverising the dog.

問題是，這種零星的修補方法不會在更大的計劃中發生。 它更像是突變，而不是設計。 漸進式的裝飾性變化會逐漸掩蓋現場的基本結構，而我發現自己對整個嘗試的目的提出了質疑。 審美半事故不斷使球門柱發生變化。 好吧，這種類型層次結構在純類型的最小博客上下文中看起來似乎很可愛，我會思考， 也許我會同意。 這是顛倒的設計，我知道我應該避免但要沉迷于壞習慣。 尾巴把狗弄成粉。

In the last few weeks, my site has been: a one page portfolio with nothing but some images and a few lines of contact details; a resurrection of long-abandoned blog posts stretched back over the last fifteen years; a fresh new blog just waiting for content dedicated to some yet to be decided niche subject; a pseudo-tumblr endless stack of cool images; one enormous type-only quasi-twitter link-dump incorporating three thematically distinct blog feeds (don’t ask). It’s been minimal, maximal, stylish, garish.

在過去的幾周中，我的網站一直是：一頁的投資組合，除了一些圖片和幾行聯系方式外，什么都沒有； 在過去的15年中復活了被遺棄的博客文章； 一個新的新博客，正在等待專門針對尚未確定的利基主題的內容； 偽圖像無窮無盡的漂亮圖像堆棧； 一個巨大的僅準類推特鏈接轉儲，其中包含三個主題截然不同的博客供稿(不要問)。 它是最小，最大，時尚，華麗的。

I’ll be happy for a few days and then I’ll pop back into the editor to nudge something a couple of pixels to the left and then the whole process starts again.

我會開心幾天，然后回到編輯器中，向左微移一些像素，然后整個過程再次開始。

There is nobody there to stay STOP. No client, no deadline, no hovering art director. And it doesn’t end at the boundaries of my URL — the direction of my site starts influencing my approach to associated social media timelines. My Instagram is a constant victim of this fickle online identity, a grid of images reflecting something that refused to sit still. The project has no boundaries or deadlines or scope whatsoever. Nothing is right or wrong or finished or good enough.

沒有人在那里停留。 沒有客戶，沒有截止日期，沒有徘徊的藝術總監。 它并不僅限于URL的邊界-網站的方向開始影響我對相關社交媒體時間軸的處理方式。 我的Instagram一直是這種多變的在線身份的長期受害者，網上的一堆圖像反映了拒絕坐著的東西。 該項目沒有任何界限，期限或范圍。 沒有什么是對，錯，完成或不夠好。

I convince myself it’s a productive exercise, a means to keep that design muscle moving in my own corner of the internet, somewhere to fidget and distract myself from everything. If I had regular visitors, the constant flux of my site would be a disorienting experience. Fortunately, the analytics — which I learnt long ago to not care about, lest I go insane — suggest I have nobody to worry about. I’m doing all of this for an audience of one. And he’s a pain in the arse.

我說服自己這是一個有用的練習，一種手段來保持這種設計肌肉我自己對互聯網的角落移動，地方坐立不安和一切分散自己。 如果我有固定的訪問者，那么網站的不斷變化將是一種令人迷惑的體驗。 幸運的是，我很早以前就學過的分析法，以免我發瘋，以至于我沒有人擔心。 我正在為一個觀眾做所有這一切。 而且他是個混蛋。

At some point I do need to stop though. Tinkering is encroaching on whatever time I can carve out of lockdown life to do genuinely productive endeavours. My sandbox has become quicksand. Whatever shape it takes, the bottom line is that my site is meant to be a shop window that leads to work; if the window is forever under construction, it’s of no use to anybody. Somebody please just take it off my hands and let me get on with this new normal that everyone is raving about.

在某些時候，我確實需要停下來。 修補匠正在蠶食我可以在鎖定生活中付出的任何時間，以進行真正富有成效的工作。 我的沙箱已變成流沙。 不管形狀如何，最重要的是我的網站應該是通向工作的商店櫥窗； 如果窗戶永遠在建造中，對任何人都沒有用。 有人請把它從我手上拿開，讓我繼續接受每個人都熱衷的新常態。

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Daniel Benneworth Grey is a freelance book designer based in York. As well as writing his own blog, Daniel writes a regular column for Creative Review and creates “Meanwhile”, a newsletter about design.

Daniel Benneworth Gray是總部位于約克的自由書設計師。 除了撰寫自己的博客外 ，Daniel還為Creative Review撰寫了定期專欄，并創建了有關設計的新聞通訊“ Meanwhile”。

Loz Ives is a graphic designer, typographer and drawer of things. In 2012 he co-founded design and technology studio Fieldwork.

洛茲·艾夫斯 ( Loz Ives)是圖形設計師，版式設計師和事物抽屜。 2012年，他與他人共同創立了設計和技術工作室Fieldwork 。

Umbrella Studios is a creative agency and co-working space that champions freelance creativity in all forms. #FreelancersUnite

Umbrella Studios是一個創意代理和共同工作空間，可倡導各種形式的自由創意。 #FreelancersUnite