I didn’t realize how much creating something like this, The Inside Shift platform, can bring up so many mixed emotions. Talk about imposter syndrome. I know it’s normal to feel a sense of hesitancy when dipping your toes into the unknown and the uncertain. But alongside the insecurities comes a quiet sense of pride, courage, and confidence. It’s week 4 of my dream project, and I’m still here.
Overcoming Elementor
For the first 2 weeks of this expedition, it was Elementor – several, Jessica – 0. Week 4 has us on more even ground. I took a step back and realized that just because it’s not as intuitive as I hoped, it didn’t mean I was a dummy, just meant I needed more learning. Fast forward to today, and I have the makings of a beautiful, interactive platform base, complete with a home page, the beginnings of the framework page, and placeholders for what’s to come.
Thanks to Elementor’s vast Knowledge Hub, I was able to drill down to exactly what I wanted my site to do, without sacrificing beauty. I had a moment where I almost traded what I really wanted to achieve for the easy, familiar Squarespace, but I’m glad I stayed, got uncomfortable, and stayed the course.
A Week of Writing, Reading, and Watching
The Writing
One of my promised deliverables this week was the first full rough draft of the platform’s foundational essay. It’s the bedrock of the platform’s why and sets up The Inside Shift’s 5-part framework. The essay argues that as designers and communicators, we don’t just make content; we shape attention, behavior, and belief. It calls on fellow practitioners to recognize our influence and use it intentionally, from wherever we sit inside the systems we work in, even when our power to change things is small. And even if the only shift happens inside of us.
Next week, I’ll be editing, rewriting, reviewing, and editing some more, along with triple-checking my sources and continuing to annotate the entire platform’s bibliography. A revised draft 2 will be part of week 5’s deliverables.
The Watching
I consumed a lot of content this week, including the Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma. Its message is foundational to The Inside Shift. It explores how social media platforms use persuasive design and data-driven algorithms to capture attention, shape behavior, and influence individuals and society — and features the very people who invented these things. I was able to pull a wealth of knowledge that supports both the essay and the framework.
The Reading
I spent some more time with James Williams’ Stand Out of Our Light and dug deeper into Mike Monteiro’s Ruined by Design. Williams gave me more insight into the real cost of our attention, versions of ourselves we’ll never know, and Monteiro reminded me of the power of collective action and of being with and creating community. Both books point to the crisis of attention, give practical advice, and offer hope. They are both integral research that supports the platform.
What Was Created and What’s to Come
This week I was able to draft the full essay, dive deeper into research and understanding, overcome my website platform struggle, and lay the foundation for something meaningful and beautiful. You can flip through this week’s deliverables PDF below.
As you may have noticed, I’ve been including behind-the-scenes collages at the end of these posts. I was also able to begin some light user testing this week, and you’ll see the feedback in this week’s collage. While they made me laugh, they were more helpful than they could imagine.
Next week brings another draft of the essay, a revised and more fully built framework, the remaining webpages laid out with placeholders, and the beginning drafts of the future-casting one-pagers. And likely, I’ll expand my user testing, collect more valuable feedback, and keep plugging away trying to become acquaintances with Elementor, if not finally friends.
AI tools supported proofreading and editing for this post.