Gonalizo: My Portfolio Website

The saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” means that images can tell a story more effectively than words alone. In other words, visual representations can have a powerful impact.

While even the best resumes can only contain a small fraction of that “thousand words,” a portfolio website is the ideal way to showcase my work. It allows me to include detailed explanations, images, videos, animations, and more.

An online portfolio also ensures I’m easily discoverable by potential clients or employers, allowing them to find me through search engines or when reviewing candidate applications.

I also wanted the website to reflect my personality and core values, which are the foundation of all my professional relationships: responsibility, simplicity, and functionality.

Because I enjoy challenges, I decided to build it using technologies I was unfamiliar with, this allowed me to learn new skills while creating the site.

Technologies used

I was going through a difficult period while working on this project, but I persevered and successfully overcame both personal and development challenges. I may share more about that experience in the future. In the meantime, here are the technologies I used:

• HTML, CSS, JavaScript: For portfolio’s structure, styling and dynamic functionalities.
• TailwindCSS, Tailwind CSS Typography, daisyUI: For customizing Astrofy theme to my personal preferences.

This project at www.gonalizo.com is already deployed, and the source code (under the MIT License) is available on GitLab.

Key features

• Modern Design and Technology: Leverages the latest technologies with a responsive design and a modern theme

• Comprehensive Content: Includes sections for projects, paginated blog posts, a CV, and an RSS feed, all while maintaining SEO best practices. Content is managed using images, Markdown, and YAML files

• Print-Friendly CV: Offers a formal, simple, and minimalist CV (available in English and Spanish) that is printer-friendly and easily convertible to a PDF resume

• Seamless Page Transitions: Utilizes the new View Transitions browser API to update page content without full-page refreshes, providing smooth animations between pages.

• Easy Language Switching: Allows users to switch between available translations (English and Spanish) by clicking the language buttons in the sidebar, below my profile picture.

• Multiple Contact Options: Displays contact buttons at the bottom of the sidebar, providing visitors with various ways to get in touch.

Results and Impact

I invested significant effort in this project, anticipating that it would take many months to see tangible results. To my surprise, the website is already performing well in search engine rankings, even though there’s still room for improvement.

The site is also attracting organic traffic, including four potential client leads. I expect this traffic to increase as I continue to add more content.

This is just the beginning! Seeing the finished portfolio website on my phone and realizing it’s generating traffic is incredibly rewarding. It provides me with immense joy, satisfaction, and inspiration for this and future projects.

Lessons Learned

As a passionate creator, seeing a project deployed is always a dream come true, especially when it involves so much learning:

• Front-End Development Skills: Gained proficiency with the Astro web framework and gained practical experience with Tailwind CSS

• Web Hosting and Deployment: Gained practical experience deploying a website with a hosting provider

• Server Administration Fundamentals: Refreshed my understanding of system administration fundamentals by creating deployment scripts and monitoring web server logs

Collaboration

If you encounter any issues or have suggestions, please feel free to open an issue in this project’s repository. I strive for excellence in all my projects, and I believe frequent feedback is essential for success, so I greatly appreciate any recommendations.

Don’t forget to explore my portfolio website. I’m always available to help bring your visions to life.