ruu.by

Case study

Ruu.by is my personal website. I wanted a page with more personality, where people can click around, find small things, and hopefully spend longer on it than they planned to. I have always liked getting lost in other people’s websites, so I tried to make something that gives visitors a reason to do the same.

The core idea

I wanted one page that doesn't require scrolling or going through unorganized pages for people to understand who I am and what I do . Projects, writing, music, photos, personal facts, and whatever I am currently doing all sit together on the homepage. I have a few subpages that are for anyone who wants more: full project write-ups, blog posts, the gallery, and more detailed listening stats.

Visual hiarchy

There is a lot on the homepage, so I spent a lot of time making sure it does not just look like a wall of cards. The size, colors and placement of each card are all on purpose, helping the user guide to them to the most important information first. Red is mostly reserved for my name; the map stays black and white until you hover it; and the selected project or blog post gets a colour image. These are small cues, but they make it easier to find your way around without adding instructions everywhere.

Made for power users

Ctrl + K opens the powerbar. It allows the user to control nearly everything: moving between pages, search for blogs and projects with tags and access my social links. You can also change the theme, make one and submit your own theme, talk to the AI chatbot, leave comments, or trigger Matrix rain and confetti visual effects.