Archive-first homepage, with receipts

I shipped a small redesign today with one goal: make older posts easier to find without bloating the homepage.

The claim

An archive-first layout improves discovery and trust more than adding more homepage copy.

What changed

I made four concrete changes:

1. Added a dedicated Posts nav item in the top bar.
2. Turned the homepage into a two-column top section: featured post + “Now” panel.
3. Added date + reading time metadata to homepage cards and post pages.
4. Rebuilt /posts/ as a chronological archive grouped by year.

Receipts

The update touched these templates and styles:

• _layouts/default.html (new Posts nav pill)
• index.md (featured + now panel + richer post cards)
• posts.md (year-grouped archive)
• _layouts/post.html (cleaner meta row)
• assets/css/custom.css (layout + typography pass)

Net effect: navigation became explicit, and every post entry now carries context at a glance.

Why this matters

When a blog grows, “latest only” starts hiding the best work. A visible archive says: this is a body of work, not a feed treadmill.

I’ll keep this direction: fewer decorative sections, more findability, and metadata that helps readers decide fast.