Parsa Kamalipour

RA & TA & Master of Computer Science at Concordia University @ Algorithms & Complexity Lab.

Website Improvements Documentation

This document outlines all the improvements made to benymaxparsa.github.io to enhance user experience, accessibility, performance, and SEO.

🎨 Visual Enhancements

CSS Improvements (assets/css/main.scss)

  • Smooth scrolling: Added scroll-behavior: smooth for better navigation
  • Enhanced focus states: Improved focus visibility with 2px solid outline for better keyboard navigation
  • Button animations: Added hover effects with transform and box-shadow transitions
  • Page load animations: Implemented fadeInUp animation for content
  • Image transitions: Added opacity transitions for lazy-loaded images
  • Link styling: Enhanced with border-bottom transitions
  • Code blocks: Added border-radius and box-shadow for better presentation
  • Archive items: Added hover effects with transform and shadow
  • Masthead: Added subtle shadow for depth
  • Footer: Added colored border-top
  • Tables: Added border-radius and shadow
  • Form inputs: Enhanced focus states with border-color and box-shadow
  • Blockquotes: Improved styling with left border and background color
  • Scroll-to-top button: Floating button with smooth animations
  • Copy code buttons: Added for code blocks with clipboard functionality
  • External link indicators: Visual indicators for external links

Responsive Design

  • Mobile optimizations: Improved button container spacing and font sizes
  • Breakpoints: Enhanced spacing for screens under 768px

♿ Accessibility Improvements

Semantic HTML & ARIA (_pages/about.md)

  • Structured data: Added Schema.org Person markup with itemscope/itemtype
  • Navigation landmarks: Added <nav> with aria-label for main section links
  • ARIA labels: Added descriptive aria-labels to all navigation buttons
  • Section headings: Added proper heading hierarchy with IDs
  • Article structure: Wrapped news items in <article> tags with proper headings

Focus Management

  • Enhanced focus styles: Improved visibility of focused elements
  • Skip links: Already present and enhanced with better styling
  • Keyboard navigation: Added ESC key support to blur elements

Reduced Motion Support

  • Prefers-reduced-motion: Implemented for users with motion sensitivity
  • Animation overrides: Reduced animation duration for accessibility

High Contrast Support

  • Prefers-contrast: Added support for high contrast mode
  • Border visibility: Enhanced borders for better contrast

🚀 Performance Optimizations

Resource Loading (_includes/head/custom.html)

  • DNS prefetch: Added for cdnjs.cloudflare.com and cdn.jsdelivr.net
  • Preconnect: Added with crossorigin for faster external resource loading
  • Lazy loading: JavaScript implementation for images with fade-in effect
  • Intersection Observer: Used for efficient lazy loading

Image Optimization

  • Loading attribute: Added loading="lazy" to images
  • Fade-in effect: Images fade in when loaded
  • Loaded class: Added for styling loaded images

🔒 Security Enhancements

Security Headers (_includes/head/custom.html)

  • X-Content-Type-Options: Set to “nosniff”
  • X-Frame-Options: Set to “SAMEORIGIN”
  • X-XSS-Protection: Enabled with mode=block
  • Referrer policy: Set to “no-referrer-when-downgrade”
  • rel attributes: Added “noopener noreferrer” to external links
  • Security attributes: Automatically applied to all external links

📱 Progressive Web App Features

Manifest (manifest.json)

  • PWA configuration: Added manifest.json for installability
  • Icons: Configured 192x192 and 512x512 icons
  • Theme colors: Defined for consistent branding
  • Display mode: Set to standalone
  • Categories: Marked as education, research, academic

🔍 SEO Improvements

Robots.txt (robots.txt)

  • Search engine guidance: Created with proper Allow/Disallow rules
  • Sitemap reference: Added sitemap.xml location
  • Crawling optimization: Allowed important pages, disallowed archives

Existing SEO (Already Present)

  • Meta tags: Open Graph and Twitter Cards already implemented
  • Structured data: JSON-LD schema markup present
  • Canonical URLs: Properly configured
  • Site verification: Google, Bing, etc. tags present

💡 Interactive Features (assets/js/custom-enhancements.js)

User Experience

  • Smooth scrolling: For anchor links with focus management
  • External link enhancement: Automatic security attributes and titles
  • Copy code buttons: One-click code copying from code blocks
  • Scroll to top button: Appears after scrolling 300px
  • Skip link enhancement: Improved keyboard navigation

JavaScript Features

  • Clipboard API: Modern clipboard functionality
  • Intersection Observer: Efficient lazy loading
  • Event delegation: Optimized event handling
  • Keyboard shortcuts: ESC to blur, improved navigation

📐 Print Optimization

  • Hidden elements: Masthead, sidebar, footer hidden in print
  • Full width content: Optimized layout for printing
  • Clean output: Removed unnecessary UI elements

🎯 Configuration Updates

Jekyll Config (_config.yml)

  • Custom scripts: Added after_footer_scripts configuration
  • Script loading: Custom enhancements loaded after main scripts

📊 Testing Recommendations

Accessibility Testing

  • Run WAVE or axe DevTools for accessibility audit
  • Test with screen readers (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver)
  • Verify keyboard navigation (Tab, Enter, Escape)
  • Check color contrast ratios (WCAG AA/AAA)

Performance Testing

  • Run Google Lighthouse audit
  • Test with PageSpeed Insights
  • Verify lazy loading with Network throttling
  • Check Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID, CLS)

SEO Testing

  • Verify structured data with Google Rich Results Test
  • Check sitemap.xml is generated correctly
  • Test Open Graph tags with Facebook Debugger
  • Verify Twitter Cards with Twitter Card Validator

Browser Testing

  • Test on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge
  • Verify mobile responsiveness
  • Test with different viewport sizes
  • Check dark mode compatibility

Manual Testing

  • Click all navigation buttons
  • Test scroll-to-top button
  • Try copy code buttons
  • Verify smooth scrolling
  • Test external link behavior
  • Check lazy image loading

📝 Summary of Changes

Files Modified

  1. assets/css/main.scss - Enhanced styling and animations
  2. _includes/head/custom.html - Performance and security headers
  3. _pages/about.md - Accessibility and semantic improvements
  4. _config.yml - Custom script configuration

Files Created

  1. assets/js/custom-enhancements.js - Interactive features
  2. robots.txt - SEO optimization
  3. manifest.json - PWA support

🌟 Key Benefits

  • Better User Experience: Smooth animations, intuitive interactions
  • Improved Accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA compliant features
  • Faster Loading: Lazy loading and resource optimization
  • Enhanced Security: Security headers and external link handling
  • Better SEO: Structured data and proper meta tags
  • Mobile Friendly: Responsive design improvements
  • Future Ready: PWA capabilities for installation

🔄 Future Enhancements

Consider these additional improvements:

  1. Service Worker for offline support
  2. Dark mode toggle
  3. Multi-language support
  4. Advanced search functionality
  5. Blog post reading progress indicator
  6. Social sharing optimization
  7. Comment system integration
  8. Newsletter subscription
  9. Analytics dashboard
  10. Content recommendations

Last Updated: January 4, 2026