Moving away from website builders and learning to build my own website.
Updated to 2.0 (current site), the old design can be found here.
I've always wanted to design my own website. I've only ever used Squarespace and Adobe Portfolio. Also, played around with other builders like Webflow, Framer, Wix, etc. I finally made the move after spending about a month researching. Here are a few reasons why I decided it was time to move away from website builders.
- Lack of customization and control
- Poor support and update cycle
- Not very cost-effective for low-traffic site
Of course with the move, it meant I had to learn a lot of things I wasn't familiar with. I have working knowledge of HTML & CSS and can usually figure out how to do something with Google. So it was going to take some time before I could build what I envisioned.
The one portfolio that I kept going back to was Brian Lovin's. The design and organization of information was great. I found out that Next.js and Tailwind CSS were the frameworks used to build the site. I knew that I needed some sort of template to help me get a better understanding of those frameworks.
I stumbled upon Timothy Lin's blog template, which had all the frameworks I was looking to learn. There was a lot of googling and figuring out how to fix bugs/errors. I now understand why people have hundreds of tabs open... It was rough the first week of trying to understand the blog template.
I knew the site would be a work in progress and would probably never be complete. There's always something new to learn. This site will help me keep track of my progress. It will serve as a playground for testing ideas and trying to implement them. Below is the old site on the left and the new one on the right.
I can now sort of prototype with Next.js and Tailwind CSS. Still learning and figuring out TypeScript/JavaScript. I have a better understanding of building responsive websites. And I have a greater appreciation for how developers problem solve. Some useful links that helped me navigate.