brand
Default register is brand: most surfaces (home, events, posts, About) are content-shaped and the design carries the community's identity. But this site has a real functional second life that should override the default on the relevant screens: at a live meetup it gets projected on a big screen so a presenter can walk the room through the night's topic list and open links for discussion. On the event/topic-list pages, treat the work as product and design for legibility at projection distance.
- First-time and prospective attendees browsing before they ever show up: deciding whether this is for them, when the next meetup is, and what gets discussed. They span every skill level, from the Bitcoin-curious to protocol developers.
- Regulars checking the next event and reading up on topics ahead of time.
- The presenter and the room, live at the meetup. The site is blown up on a big screen; the topic list becomes the agenda, and the presenter opens links in front of the group to anchor discussion. This is not daily-use software, but it is used in the room, under projector light, in front of an audience.
The job to be done: understand what Atlanta BitDevs is, when it meets, and what will be discussed, then use that topic list as a live reference during the meetup.
Atlanta BitDevs is a place for free and open Bitcoin education in Atlanta. The site is the public face of a recurring in-person meetup and the working agenda for each session. Success looks like: a newcomer feels invited rather than intimidated, a regular finds the next event and its topics in seconds, and a presenter can run the room straight from the events page without the screen working against them.
Clear, technical, and welcoming. Three words: open, grounded, credible. The voice respects the reader's intelligence without gatekeeping. It is Bitcoin-not-crypto: serious about the protocol, indifferent to hype. It carries a local, communal, grassroots fingerprint. Atlanta, in person, regularly. Tone is plainspoken and confident; it explains rather than impresses.
- Crypto / altcoin hype. No neon-on-black, no moon/rocket gimmickry, no speculative-trading energy. This is education, not a coin shill.
- Corporate SaaS template. No generic gradient hero, no big-number hero-metric blocks, no endless identical icon-card grids, no stock "enterprise" polish.
- Overdesigned / flashy. Restrained and editorial. Avoid heavy animation, glassmorphism, and decorative noise that competes with reading.
- Sterile minimal. Not so plain it goes cold or anonymous. Keep warmth and a human, local fingerprint.
The needle sits between the last two: editorial restraint with warmth, never flashy, never sterile.
- Welcoming on-ramp. Lower the barrier to a technical subject. A first-time visitor of any skill level should feel invited, oriented, and never gatekept. Approachability is a feature, not a compromise of credibility.
- Built for the room. The events/topic-list pages double as a live presentation surface projected on a big screen. Favor generous type, strong hierarchy, and high contrast so the agenda reads from across a room and links are easy to find and open mid-discussion.
- Credible, not hype. Earn the trust of protocol-literate builders through restraint and substance. Show real technical depth; never reach for crypto-marketing tropes to manufacture excitement.
- Local and communal. This is a real recurring gathering in Atlanta, not a faceless brand. Keep a human fingerprint: real photos from real meetups, a sense of place and people over abstract illustration.
- Content respects the reader. Long-form topics and posts are the substance. Typography, measure, and rhythm should serve sustained reading; chrome stays out of the way.
Target WCAG 2.1 AA: AA contrast minimums, full keyboard navigation, visible focus, semantic structure, and respect for prefers-reduced-motion. The projection use case reinforces this: high contrast and large, legible type are functional requirements, not just compliance. The community is explicitly open to all skill levels, and the interface should reflect that inclusiveness.