Damn it
UX/UI is something I'm no good at: I work with a highly talented designer for all of my HCI needs, so I don't deal with it too often. I went with the pre-set Wordpress templates for ease of use with their free plan, so I'll likely need to 1) upgrade to a paid plan and then 2) talk to a web designed who knows CSS to make some of those changes.
On your second point, that could be an interesting concept. I've gotten this as feedback before, but never really thought of a possible implementation. As per usual, I'll also check with some of my readers to see if they'd like me to try something new; there are some ideas that I have in mind for addressing this. Thanks!