Personal Portfolio and Blog
Creating an online portfolio is more than just showcasing work—it's an opportunity to reflect your unique style, skills, and personality in a space you control. I recently built my own portfolio website to share my work, insights, and updates, featuring a landing page, blog, portfolio, and contact page. Here’s an inside look at my approach and the tools I used to bring my vision to life.
Key Features of My Portfolio Website
To make my portfolio functional and engaging, I structured it around four main sections:
Landing Page: The first impression is crucial. My landing page features a clean, minimalistic design that reflects my brand. It highlights my skills, recent blogs, and some of my top projects, inviting visitors to explore further.
Blog: I created a dedicated space to share articles on tech, design, and development. The blog is a great way to showcase my knowledge and stay connected with visitors by offering value in the form of tutorials, insights, and industry news.
Work (Portfolio): My portfolio is where I present my completed projects, detailing my role, the tools used, and the outcome. Each project has its own page, with images and descriptions to help visitors understand my capabilities and the quality of my work.
Contact Page: A contact page encourages engagement and makes it easy for potential clients or collaborators to get in touch. I included a form, powered by Resend, which ensures that messages reach me without any issues.
Technologies I Used
Building a portfolio website from scratch allowed me to select the best tools for both functionality and scalability. Here are the main technologies that made it possible:
Next.js: Next.js was my framework of choice for this project because of its performance and flexibility. Its built-in server-side rendering and static site generation allowed me to create a fast, SEO-friendly website. The framework also enables easy page routing, making it seamless to expand or change sections as needed.
Contentful: Managing blog posts and portfolio projects is essential for a portfolio website. I chose Contentful as my content management system (CMS) to easily update and manage content without touching code. With Contentful, I can write, edit, and publish new articles or projects with a user-friendly interface, keeping my site fresh and relevant.
SCSS: To ensure my website had a unique and polished look, I used SCSS for styling. With SCSS, I could leverage variables, mixins, and nesting, which streamlined my styling process and kept my codebase maintainable.
Resend: For the contact form functionality, I used Resend to handle the email submissions. This tool offers reliable email sending and tracking, ensuring that messages from potential clients or collaborators never get lost.
Challenges and Solutions
Throughout the development process, I faced a few challenges, but each presented a learning opportunity:
Performance Optimization: Balancing visual appeal and performance was a priority. By leveraging Next.js’s image optimization features and using lazy loading, I was able to keep the site visually engaging without sacrificing speed.
SEO: SEO is my highest priority to reach a wider audience through search engines. To optimize for SEO, I utilized Next.js’s server-side rendering and static site generation, allowing search engines to index my pages effectively. Additionally, I focused on adding relevant meta tags, alt text for images, and structured content for improved search visibility.
Styling Consistency: SCSS was a great choice for styling, but ensuring consistency across multiple pages required a solid design system. By creating reusable SCSS variables and mixins, I maintained a cohesive look and feel across the site.
Final Thoughts
This website represents my skills, creativity, and dedication to quality. Using Next.js, Contentful, SCSS, and Resend allowed me to build a fast, engaging, and easy-to-update portfolio website that reflects my personal brand. As I continue to develop my skills, I look forward to updating this space with new projects and insights.
Building this website has been a rewarding journey and an essential addition to my professional portfolio. Thanks for reading, and feel free to reach out or explore my blog and projects—I'd love to connect!