Managing Web Design: Notes from Building This Site

Most personal sites get stuck at the same place, the visual design is done, the structure is in, but the content is still last year's resume bullets. I started this one the same way, and most of the editing was about replacing scaffolding with real work.

Plan the rooms, not the furniture

The structure matters more than any single page. Once I had Projects, Writing, About, Experience and Contact as separate routes, not anchors on a single scroll, every other decision became easier. Each route earned its own metadata, its own job, and its own pacing.

Let the content design itself

Case studies that follow the same shape, challenge, insight, strategy, execution, outcome, learnings, next steps, read like a series. I stopped trying to make each one look unique and let consistency do the work.

Tone over decoration

Restraint reads as luxury. One accent color, one typeface family, one rhythm. The most aggressive design choice on the homepage is what I left out.

If a case study doesn't say something, no amount of layout will save it.