April Update — The Biggest Release Yet
- updates
- release
This one is a big one.
Over the past month, with the help of AI-assisted development (roughly £92 in AI time), Blackpool's Grub Guide has had a huge upgrade — more new features landed in this release than in any previous one. Here's what's new.
Dark mode — easier on the eyes at night
The map now switches to a dark tile set automatically in dark mode. Markers and overlays adapt too, with softer borders and corrected contrast so nothing gets lost in the dark.
Smarter map markers
Two long-standing annoyances with the map markers have been fixed:
- Markers now scale with zoom level — when you're zoomed out to see all of Blackpool they shrink to small dots; as you zoom in to street level they grow to full size. The map stays readable at every zoom without the markers obscuring too much geography.
- Overlapping venues now stack randomly each time the map renders, so no single venue is always buried under another.
Markers also now show the correct tag icon inside the glyph when one is set, making venue types identifiable at a glance.
Shareable filtered views
Search, tag, and rating filters are now synced to the URL. If you find a useful filtered view — say, every highly rated pizza spot in the town centre — you can copy the link and share it directly and it'll open in exactly the same state.
BGG rating filter
Alongside the existing food hygiene filter, there's now a BGG Rating filter — letting you narrow venues by the site's own personal ratings: Avoid, OK, Good, or Amazing Rare Gem. Each option shows a count of matching venues so you know what you're filtering to.
Venue review pages
Venues that have been personally reviewed now have a dedicated review page showing the full write-up, a photo gallery of published images, a rating badge, the food hygiene score, and a link to the full venue profile.
Review cards also appear mixed into the news feed alongside regular posts, so recent reviews are surfaced without needing to hunt for them.
Pulsing locate dot
A small improvement with a noticeable difference: when you press Locate me, the map now shows a pulsing blue dot at your position rather than just recentring. It's much easier to spot your location at a glance, especially when the map is busy with markers.
Redesigned news and about pages
The news overview has been reworked with featured card treatments, hover effects, a "Latest" badge on the most recent post, and automatic "Coming soon" cards for future-dated posts. The hierarchy is clearer and upcoming content is surfaced without needing to update anything manually.
The about page has been rebuilt with a hero section, glow effect icon, site tagline, and dedicated cards for the project description, creator credits, tools used, and contact details.
What's coming next month
The next release will focus on two things:
- User logins — a way for regular visitors to have an account on the site.
- Working towards user reviews — the groundwork to let signed-in users leave their own ratings and thoughts on venues.
These are bigger features that need doing properly, so they'll arrive when they're ready rather than rushed. But they're the priority for May.
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As always, the full technical changelog is available if you want the detail:
/documentation-viewer#CHANGELOG
Thanks for following along. — Charlie