Developer Portfolio

The main requirement for my deveoper portfolio is simplicity, across all domains. It should allow:

1. Easy configuration and design
2. Adding new content with minimal overhead
3. A quick read for visitors, while also provide more detail for the curious

Open Source

Interested in using the Portfolio Website, or building upon it? Check out the source code on GitHub. It is available under the CC BY-NC-SA¹ licence.

Easy Setup

Astro provides the perfect toolbox for building a minimal but fully customizable website. It generates a static website, so no backend is needed, while also being highly performant. For dynamic content like blog posts, the setup is also straight forward.

The developer creates a collection (for example the blog) and specifies the frontmatter (metadata) a post can contain. Then, a single file called a slug defines how any post of the collection is rendered. This is enough to build a complete portfolio like this.

Adding Content

There is a neat, official integration called MDX. MDX combines Markdown and JSX. Markdown is a minmal syntax to style documents, with the ability to add code along with it. Using MDX one can add new content without coding anything. A simple text file with markdown is sufficient. Allowing the developer to spend their time perfecting the posts and the projects, instead of fiddling with the website.

Quick Read

Using MDX and abstaining from complex components and fancy decoration already minimizes visual clutter. To simplify more, I also add minimal pictures and use no colors. The only color is used for marker style highlighting, which points the reader to the key points.