It’s been nearly two months since I started working on my new site, and there has been progress, although at times it feels really slow, like I’m going backwards. However, this week feels like there’s been some real progress.

I’ve been using mostly ChatGPT to assist me with coding my site. Perplexity and Claude have so many limitations, it’s become almost impossible to get anything done. o1 is clearly smarter but also reaches its preview limits pretty quickly.

I’ve added some subtle animations to the site. They’re really understated, but that’s exactly what I want. The animations are barely noticeable, which is how I believe animation should be used.

I’ve started adding a lot more content—now you’ll notice more images everywhere. Using compressed images has been a game-changer. I highly recommend using an online app like Squoosh and converting them to WebP. I’m reducing some images by 90% without any noticeable loss in quality.

The more images I add, the more layout issues I encounter. I’ve been adding different images for desktop and mobile, which involves a lot of extra work. I haven’t found a system for this yet, but since this is a personal project and a passion project, everything is custom.

This means a lot more work goes into creating each layout. I know the mobile layouts are a bit of a mess. I’m hoping most people view the site on desktop, but if they do check it on mobile, I hope they understand. The information is there—it’s just a little disorganised.

The work section still has a long way to go, and I’m adding one case study a day, so keep an eye out for major updates. The writing is mostly solid; I’m just adding more screens and figuring out the right layouts for mobile.

The lesson I’ve learned going forward—after being caught off guard with an outdated site when I lost my job—is to always keep my portfolio up to date, whether I’m employed or not. I’m committing to dedicating at least one weekend a month to keeping the portfolio sharp. You can’t let the work get stale. There’s always room for improvement, even if it’s just writing broader articles that expand on the work.

I still have a long way to go, but I believe I’m building something pretty great. Hopefully, you’ll start to see the love going into this site.