Hello World
2015-08-31 | Portfolio Entry
Today is the big day when my new website is launched. I started creating websites around 2008 to publish my Sketchup models that were too big for the 3dwarehouse. It was through this hobby web development I learned how to write code which later led to my Sketchup plugins, so by now I'm really happy there was this annoying 10 MB size limit.
I've had a few different websites and if I remember correctly this one is the 5th one. Previously I've started working on a new site when I've learned about new technology such as using CSS instead of a framest to position a menu next to the content using or PHP instead of static HTML documents.
This time however the reason to start all over was rather a question of content and appearance, not playing with technology. My old site was quite technically advanced but had just gotten too big, too complex and too cluttered. The overall design was fine at the time I created it but doesn't give the professional impression I want when e.g. applying for a job as an architect. The internal message system was interesting to create and I absolutely learned a great deal from it but is totally useless with only one user. The web based CSS editor just made it harder to change the style because, well, it gave me another page to style.Furthermore the code was badly structured and not worth maintaining after all these years. It was time for a change.
Even though the plans for the new site started because of a practical need what really made me start writing code was as usually that idea of experimenting with some new interesting way of doing it. This time it was the idea of loading content with AJAX, replace it with an animation and use the HTML5 history API to handle the page address that caught my interest. I also think it works very well in this case with a minimalistic design where much of the atmosphere is created with subtle animations.
This very specific idea of the feel of the site is also the reason why I chose not to use a framework but write everything myself. I'm sure there is a framework out there that could be used but just finding it and adapting it could easily be an equally big project.
The main focus so far has been the portfolio which also will be updated during the coming weeks when I'll have a portfolio course at architecture school but I also hope I'll be able to frequently write about architecture, design, code and other interests of mine in this blog.