After I finish writing this post, I am closing down the laptop, putting it in carry-on and heading out to the airport to attend the South by Southwest conference. I am particularly excited to get to hear discussion about the latest trends and techniques, and being able to network with like-minded peers who all share the interest of better web design. Four days in 80 degree Austin won’t be bad either. Here’s my Upcoming.org page if you are going to be there, so you can find me and tell me what I can be doing better with this blog.

The January issue of Fast Company lists the 10 Hot Jobs for 2007, and on the list is Web Designer. I also have experience with viral marketing, art direction, blogging and experience designing, so I am all over the hot map.

10 Hot Jobs for 2007

This is Robleto.com 5.0, the fifth major overhaul of my website all about me. Each previous redesign updated the look and feel of the site, and improved the code underneath. This latest addresses goes even deeper, addressing the purpose of the site and how to handle outdated content.

Previously, Robleto.com delved into numerous personal topics including who I am, my interests in theatre and travel and what books I recommend. These areas of the site, while providing a strong reflection of my identity, all too frequently fell into decline from lack of updating and made the entire site feel abandoned

In trying to rectify this situation, I asked myself which areas on the site (or the web) that I do actively keep up-to-date. I found three:

• My Blog - What you are reading right now, driven by Blogger (for now).The focus has changed from personal to referential to profession, but it has been kept updated on average once a week for the past four years.
• My Links - In order to be able to reference links at home or at work, I have abandoned browser Favorites/Bookmarks and cite any site that is of interest to me by tagging it to del.icio.us.
• My Photos - Having recently gone Pro, I am actively growing my Flickr account as my primary source of displaying and organizing all of my photos and images.

So, when I committed to a redesign, I decided to focus solely on these areas. I have removed the static pieces of Robleto.com that were never updated and seldom viewed, and radically simplified the site. It is now only three pages: my blog, my photos and my links.

This choice is a complete shift in the approach to this site. It veers away from the previous brochure style which literally stated who I am and what I like spun whatever way I chose, in favor of this new approach. This site, as you see it today, doesn’t really state anything extensive about me directly, but by aggregating content that I actively keep up-to-date, it should paint a pretty good picture of who I am and what’s important to me.

Enjoy!