Having just returned from Apple Learning Academy and with a week off for spring break, I’ve decided to reboot my personal portfolio page. This is partly due to inspiration with a new direction to head, it’s also partly due to the previous portfolio page simply not working out, i.e. little content was being produced using the format.
What I learned from building the previous portfolio website
The previous portfolio website was built using a combination of technologies:
- Python
- Flask
- Bootstrap
- Docker
- NGINX
- Linux Ubuntu server
- Notion (as a database)
Creating the personal portfolio website this way was certainly a labor of love and gave me the opportunity to flex my technology muscles (and build them, too!). The most challenging task, which became a project apart from the portfolio, was using the Notion API plus a Python wrapper to create a package that would allow the website to use a certain site in my Notion as its database. All I would need to do is add content to my Notion, and the updates would appear on my website. Neat, right?
In theory it was great, but somehow it didn’t work out so smoothly. Making the website appear nice took a lot of work and handling technical issues related to writing the Notion integration package started to become time-consuming. The bottle-neck for putting content up quickly became making sure it showed up correctly rather than producing it.
What I learned from this was that when it comes to creating a blog or portfolio, it’s the content that matters and should priorities my desire to demonstrate technical abilities. Only in the case of being a front-end developer would there really be merit to creating one’s portfolio from scratch; in all other cases, the path of least resistance to getting the content out is what should be taken!
Applying these lessons moving forward
As a result of what I’ve learned above, I decided to make this page using WordPress on a server that I’m already paying for as I’m hosting other WordPress sites on it. Originally I thought I would simply create a separate instance of Notion and just use it to host the website. However, Notion isn’t really intended as a blogging platform and I have a lot less control over UX/UI. WordPress, on the other hand, is specifically a blogging platform with lots of amazing templates (like this one!) that allow me to relatively quickly make an aesthetically pleasing portfolio website.
Most important of all, it’s any ease interface for me that makes it’s straight-forward to post content. Hopefully, from this point going forward, the bottle-neck for posting content will no longer be distractions around the content correctly displaying on the website itself.
