Photo by Vlada Karpovich from Pexels
My current satisfaction today is viewing my website.
I started working on my current website in the middle of 2021. If you asked me if I knew what I was doing, I would say no. At that time, I just received the Senate letter that I graduated. Furthermore, I was unemployed. I could have gone back to my former field of UI/UX but deep in my heart, I knew this UI/UX thing will not work out for me in the long run.
All I knew from my ikigai and my personality is that I want to continue doing art and writing. Unfortunately, I have not achieved mastery of both art and writing, but I know these two subjects have helped me to process my thoughts significantly. Other than that, I knew I need to get some of my thoughts in writing, as I notice some people search for content that might help them. Also, I have seen mediocre writings and art and are doing so well.
As I am outdated in my previous industry, I bought a WordPress theme to create my website. I did not want to waste time designing from scratch and I am weak in coding. After dabbling in coding for 9 years, I realised that I do not have the logic for solving coding issues despite my best efforts to learn. Therefore, I made the right decision to buy a theme. From there, I used whatever outdated UI/UX knowledge I had to build something that reflects me.
It was not easy to build something for myself. The landing page of my website was just thumbnails of my portfolio. It did not have a brief description of my site or a section to highlight snippets of my writings. I had to review WordPress demo templates and pick the right components for the site. Thankfully, it all came together. Now my website feels more complete, minimal and clear. Perhaps, the designers will criticize my website for not being aesthetic, but I need to show my colourful works. Hence, a minimal white and grey scale will highlight the bright colours of my works.
Also, web and app design has come a long way. In the past, I had to create flashy websites using Flash (which was dead since 2020) to create interactivity and animations. When a business starts an online business, they rely on blogs or start their own e-commerce stores. As time passes by, social media became big. People started sharing their products on Facebook and Instagram, alongside the website. Today, the website is functional as the ‘flashier’ apps like TikTok and Instagram take the centre stage. Now, most businesses do not need to build their own websites to sell their products. Instead, they put their shop on Shopee or Lazada. I have to admit that doing UI was not as interesting as last time. Most apps look almost like each other, except for certain differences. UX is still more interesting because it deals with people’s psychology, but in Malaysia, terms like UI/UX get mixed up with development. Oh, well.
Anyway, to show how satisfied I am with my website, here is the before and after of my landing page.
Before: lianne.my v1. There was no description or slogan to describe the type of website.
After: lianne.my v1.1. I wrote a sentence describing my values for this website.
The next task is to work on the portfolio pages. Yes, it is all published, but I still need to tweak it. For now, I shall let my perfectionism rest and be happy about current progress.
