I've always loved the idea of creating my own space on the internet. A digital garden where I can share what I enjoy, keep notes on different programming topics, and experiment with new tools.
After playing with code for almost 3 years, I decided to transition into a technical role. I created this site to make it easy for potential employers to find my work. One of those leads came from Vercel, the company I am now working for.
Since this site has been so beneficial for me, I wanted to share an overview of how I built it — how I chose the stack, how I made design and content decisions, the resources I found helpful, and my future plans for it.
Tech Stack
When choosing the stack, I made decisions based on three things:
- Speed - I needed to publish quickly and avoided tools with steep learning curves.
- Experience - I wanted to use what I personally enjoyed, because side projects should be fun.
- Learning opportunities - Once I got the basic information out there, I also wanted to experiment with new tools and use my site as a playground.
In the end, I settled for Next.js, MDX, Tailwind, Prisma and Typescript.
Next.js
Next.js is a React.js framework that handles the setup and requirements of building modern websites.
I personally enjoy using Next for a few reasons including:
- It’s flexible enough to handle my current and future content and data requirements.
- It helps with things that are normally tedious to set up such as Webpack, Babel, TypeScript and ESLint.
- It comes with in-built performance benefits such as code-splitting, image and script optimizations, flexible options for data fetching methods, and API Routes.
- It offers a great developer experience with little to zero config such as fast refresh.
What I have appreciated about Next.js over the years is that it has allowed me to implement advanced features that would normally be outside of the league of a solo developer and following its recommendations has naturally led me to build better front-end applications.
MDX
MDX allows us to use JSX components inside markdown files. This ability makes MDX a great blogging solution for me because I eventually want to create highly interactive articles and demos.
I think of each post as a unique project and MDX allows me to include whatever compelling interactive components I need to best explain the subject of the post.
Tailwind
Tailwind is a utility-first CSS framework that allows us to style components using predefined class names. Tailwind was easy to pick up and significantly sped up my workflow. There are a few reasons why getting started with Tailwind was frictionless:
- Easy-to-navigate docs - not just in how it's structured but also how polished their search and examples are.
- Guides on how to set up Tailwind with CRA or Next.js.
- VS Code extensions: Tailwind CSS IntelliSense for its excellent autocomplete which reduced the number of times I referenced class names in the docs. Headwind (third party) which re-orders class names on save.
- clsx - A package that makes it easier to use conditional class names.
Having both the structure and style of my component in the same file meant…
- Making stylistic changes didn’t involve constant switching between files to sync class names with their CSS declarations.
- I didn’t have to come up with my own class names for every component. E.g
.component-wrapper.component-header.component-body-image - I didn’t have unused CSS rules lying around when I deleted a component I was no longer using.
TypeScript
TypeScript is a language built on top of JavaScript and essentially helps you validate your code is working in the editor before it runs.
There are many perks to using TypeScript with VS Code and the benefits compound when using it in combination with tools that have great type support such as Prisma.
TypeScript has seriously increased my speed and accuracy. I spot more errors as I edit (rather than it breaking in the browser when run) and I find I don't have to look at documentation as much because I can tell a lot about the requirements of a function or component right in the editor.
Prisma
Prisma is a tool for interacting with databases and is a delight to use.
With Prisma, the complexity of building a back end is reduced. I can easily define my schema and use the Prisma Client to make database queries. Add Next.js and I can query my database directly inside my pages with getStaticProps / getServerSideProps or write my endpoints inside API Routes (here’s a great guide from Prisma). All without leaving my front-end repository.
Furthermore, Prisma Studio gives me the ability to see and edit my data. So the only thing I have to worry about is what database to use and where to host it.
Which brings us to the database. I’m using Postgres, a relational SQL database which can be hosted on Heroku - a cloud platform that has a free plan for side projects.
In the future, I’d like to explore PlanetScale - a serverless friendly database platform that has easy integration with Vercel and eventual support in Prisma. 👀
Vercel
Vercel is a deployment and collaboration platform for frontend developers.
Whenever I push a change to my main GitHub branch, it is automatically deployed to my website using Vercel's GitHub Integration. This allows me to focus on coding and lets Vercel take care of continuous deployment and all the complexities of hosting a performant globally distributed website.
Design
My main focus when designing this site was hierarchy - putting the information and call-to-action people needed to see first.
I don’t consider myself a strong designer and naturally gravitate towards minimalist websites that emphasize content. But just because a design is simple, it doesn’t mean it should be plain. Design is an extension of the identity of a company or a person. It’s a form of communication, and as one of my colleagues recently shared with me, it makes people feel something.
I wanted people to be delighted when they visited my website, so I added a set of animated annotations to the hero text of the landing page using a library called RoughNotation. This allowed me to animate keywords when a user visited the site. It was also a way for me to infuse a bit of my personality as I love taking notes. 🌈
While adding the feature itself was not technically demanding, it was what I received the most positive feedback for. One thing I realised in this project is that before someone delves into your technical prowess, they might make a quick judgement call by how things look. This is especially true for recruiters who don’t have a lot of time. So adding visual elements that capture the emotion you’re trying to convey can make all the difference.
Content
Knowing what to include and most importantly, leave out, is hard and it depends on the target audience.
Initially, my target audience were recruiters so this website followed a layout similar to a portfolio. One resource that helped me immensely was Josh Comeau’s free eBook “How to build an effective Dev Portfolio”.
Now that I have a job, my focus for this space is changing more to passion and value. What are the things that I’m passionate about and excited to share with others? What value can I provide back to the community?
The Future
I want this to be a place that grows with me and hopefully helps others on their journey. I don’t have an answer to how I’ll go about doing everything yet and expect some iterations, but for now, I’m happy with the starting point.
If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions for this site, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or GitHub. I’d love to meet you!