Project: My Online Portfolio
This case study is about this very website. (So meta!)
I wanted to overhaul my original PHP website for multiple reasons.
- to give the site a newer color scheme, to match my logo
- to showcase my greatest and my most recent projects
- to start a proper blog to share my knowledge with others
- written in Markdown to streamline content management
- to develop practical experience working with Next.js 🔗 and React.js
The Website
Before I started, I sketched up some ideas of how to arrange my portfolio, reviewing the online portfolio of various other developers and incorporating ideas into my own vision for this site.
I also assessed the features I wanted to implement, so I could maximize my effort 🔗 toward tangible progress.
The design is, ironically based on Free CSS 🔗 itself. While Free CSS offers dozens of fancy eye-catching designs, I was seeking something simple and practical.
Starting from a create-next-app template, I explored the design philosophy of Tailwind CSS 🔗's approach to CSS, and used Next.js documentation to set up dynamic routes to handle both my projects and the collection of tags. I also reviewed various Markdown-to-HTML tutorials, settling on React Markdown 🔗.
All the while, I maintained my feature list to guide my efforts based on time and value estimates. (For example, adding a Dark Mode was a nice to have, but implementing tagging would improve the usability of this site.)
The Result
As of this writing, the website has all of the core functionality: a gentler color scheme, a collection of pages showcasing my work (with crosslinking), and a demonstrate of my breadth of experience. Along the way, I was able to practice website design, practice working with modern front-end frameworks, and practice project management.
If you’re looking to hire an experienced web developer in the Seattle area, reach out to me on LinkedIn. #shamelessPlug