Building in Public: The Journey of Redesigning My Site
What better way to fill a blog than by creating a series that explains how the site was created?
Since I’m putting significant effort into this site, I might as well document the process and share it with the world—or at least with those who are interested.
When I shared my initial thoughts with Claude (an AI assistant), it suggested creating a “live build” series. The idea resonated with me immediately, and here you are, reading the first post in that series.
In my Hello World post, I touched on the personal reasons behind redesigning my site. Since this is the inaugural post of the build series, let me elaborate on why I’m undertaking this project.
The Business Case
When a person or business decides to redesign their website, there’s usually a solid business reason behind it. At least, I hope so—most business owners don’t wake up one morning thinking:
“I feel like spending thousands of dollars on a website redesign today!”
While I’m not spending thousands to develop my personal site, I am investing considerable “man hours” into this project. On a good day, I can bill $100 an hour for my services. Every hour I spend on this site is an hour I could have spent providing freelance services to clients and actually generating income.
There needs to be a compelling reason for this investment—and there is.
My Reasons for Redesign
As mentioned in my Hello World post, I’ve decided to move away from premium themes and builder plugins. While this ecosystem helped me create several sites, I’m ready to tackle more custom designs on my own. With Gutenberg blocks being quite capable in 2024, I no longer see the need for additional builder plugins.
The primary motivation for this redesign is showcasing my latest work, particularly my growing involvement in e-commerce projects. Technical SEO migrations, Magento optimization projects, and analytics configuration have become significant parts of my work—none of which were highlighted on my previous site.
I also want to properly display my design portfolio. As I gravitate back toward website design, it’s important to demonstrate that I have a serious design portfolio—one that would stand up against any senior designer in today’s market. My previous site didn’t reflect this aspect of my work at all.
Finally, I want to give back to the community. I’m doing exciting work with LLMs (Large Language Models) and actively optimizing and building e-commerce stores and WordPress sites. I have methods and tactics I’d like to share, hoping this leads to better networking opportunities online.
If you’ve read this far, I truly appreciate your time and interest.
Bryan Mull, signing off.