Amaranth

Amaranth Project Guidelines

What is Amaranth?

Amaranth is UNM’s Digital Humanities Studio emphasizing public humanities scholarship, student/faculty research support, and community engagement. The website serves as both a resource hub and promotional site for the studio’s services.

Primary maintainers: Fred Gibbs (director) + graduate student studio manager

Target audiences:

• Faculty creating websites for research projects or groups
• Students building personal portfolios
• Instructors running multi-semester class projects
• Anyone interested in digital humanities collaboration

Tech Stack

• Static site generator: Jekyll (GitHub Pages compatible)
• CSS framework: Bootstrap
• Hosting: GitHub Pages (amaranth-unm.github.io)
• Related project: Xanthan - the template system Amaranth helps people use

Running Locally

bundle exec jekyll serve

Then visit http://localhost:4000

Project Structure

├── _config.yml          # Site configuration
├── _data/               # Data files (YAML)
│   ├── events.yml       # Events listing
│   ├── team.yml         # Team member info
│   └── top-nav.yml      # Navigation structure
├── _includes/           # Reusable components
├── _layouts/            # Page templates (base.html)
├── assets/images/       # All images, organized by type
│   ├── headers/         # Page header/hero images (2000px max)
│   ├── events/          # Event images (1600px max)
│   ├── posters/         # Poster images (1600px max)
│   ├── projects/        # Project images (1600px max)
│   ├── site/            # General site assets (1600px max)
│   └── team/            # Team photos (1200px max)
├── scripts/             # Utility scripts
│   ├── optimize-images.sh
│   └── update-image-refs.sh
└── [content folders]    # websites/, audio/, 3d-printing/, equipment/, etc.

Content Guidelines

Tone & Voice

• Inspirational and approachable - we want to excite people about possibilities
• Avoid sycophantic language - no excessive praise or over-the-top enthusiasm
• Clear and practical - this is for people learning, so clarity beats cleverness
• Encouraging but honest - acknowledge that things can be learned without overpromising ease

Writing for the Audience

Remember readers may be:

• Unfamiliar with web technologies
• Nervous about trying something new
• Looking for quick answers to specific questions
• Deciding whether Amaranth can help them

File Naming Conventions

Markdown Files

• Use lowercase with hyphens: class-projects.md, oral-histories.md
• Keep names short but descriptive
• Match URL structure expectations

Images

• Use lowercase with hyphens: poster-printer.jpg, vr-headsets.jpg
• Prefer JPG for photos, PNG for graphics with transparency, SVG for icons
• Place in appropriate assets/images/[type]/ folder
• Run bash scripts/optimize-images.sh --preview before committing large images

Front Matter

Standard page front matter:

---
title: Page Title
layout: base
date: YYYY-MM-DD
header-image: /assets/images/headers/image-name.jpg
header-height: 60vh  # optional, defaults vary
---

Image Management

Adding New Images

1. Place in the correct assets/images/[type]/ folder
2. Use descriptive, hyphenated lowercase names
3. Preview optimization: bash scripts/optimize-images.sh --preview
4. Run optimization: bash scripts/optimize-images.sh
5. Verify images display correctly locally

Size Guidelines

| Type | Max Width | Use Case | |——|———–|———-| | headers | 2000px | Page heroes | | events/posters/projects/services/site | 1600px | General content | | team | 1200px | Portraits |

Navigation

Navigation is defined in _data/top-nav.yml. When adding new pages:

1. Create the markdown file in the appropriate folder
2. Add entry to top-nav.yml if it should appear in nav
3. Use disabled: true for placeholder/coming-soon items

Common Tasks

Adding a new page

1. Create folder/page-name.md with proper front matter
2. Add to _data/top-nav.yml if needed
3. Add header image to assets/images/headers/ if using one

Adding team members

Edit _data/team.yml and add photo to assets/images/team/

Adding events

Edit _data/events.yml and add image to assets/images/events/

Important Reminders

• This site should be maintainable by graduate students learning web tech
• Documentation and standardization are priorities
• When in doubt, favor clarity and consistency over cleverness
• Always test locally before pushing changes
• Xanthan (xanthan-web.github.io) is the separate template project we help people use

This site is open source. Improve this page.