After using Wix as my portfolio’s web provider for several years, I decided to switch to a new host and create a custom WordPress theme for a handful of reasons. The most glaring issue I faced was the poor performance of Wix’s services. While their web editor was relatively intuitive, the resulting pages were incredibly resource-intensive and featured many bugs which were difficult to troubleshoot. Additionally, I was paying incredibly high prices for their services, something that would prove unsustainable in the long term.
Finally, I wished to have greater customization over the look, feel, and functionality of my website. Creating complex shapes and designs proved difficult using Wix’s editor, but I could define the look and feel of my website with much greater specificity using WordPress. Additionally, this allowed me to test and implement custom CSS and Javascript, allowing me to use this website as a potential testbed for new UI ideas and concepts.
Due to the ambitious nature of creating everything from scratch, this website and theme are continuously being updated. Future additions, such as a blog and about me page, are higher on the priority list, along with greater accessibility features and overall design polish. As such, several features present in the Wix-hosted website have been scaled back or excluded to prioritize other aspects of the theme.
A more detailed account of the development can be found on the theme’s GitHub page, where up-to-date information and documentation will be posted as the site and theme evolves. Additionally, access to the previous version of the portfolio can be found here.