August 18, 2026
Why I designed my website like a dashboard
Writing this because I am not entirely certain why I did this either. Mostly unstructured rambling through some thoughts.
Having made around six different portfolio sites throughout my 10+ year career as a professional designer, I'm over it. Though, it's worth acknowledging that being over it may be a privilege. At the moment, I am fortunate enough to be comfortably employed.
Portolio sites aren't job getters
I have come to believe that portfolio sites rarely complete the goals they aim to achieve. In the past, I have went as far as hooking up analytics and attaching UTMs to the links I was sharing with potential employers to track just how many viewed my site. Boy, was that a let down. Most interviews I was getting were not stemming from or with a portfolio site visit. After passing through the screener, few hiring managers and/or team members looked, either.
In one interviewing instance for a design role, I even fully reconstructed the website of the employer (down to the pixel). I animated all of the existing site content into content about myself, my experience, and my work upon landing. The hope was this approach would completely eliminate any doubt or risk in hiring me. It was undeniable that I was able to work within the business's design system and hit their quality bar, quickly (I built this in under a week). This company was not some jabroni company with a shit website. This still did not result in an offer.
Due to these experiences, I don't think there's value in continuing to solely orient my website in such a way that I predict potential employers seek. It has not been all that fun or useful for me outside of learning fringe-ass effects like page transitions.
If not a portfolio site, what is the point?
Coming to this conclusion, the logical next question would be:
Okay, what the hell am I doing sitting inside, using an IDE outside of work hours? Go outside or something...
The unfortunate truth is I love doing this stuff. As in, I truly enjoy learning new things, trying it for myself via code and writing. At the same time, I despise pursuing social validation and sharing content.
Seeking (and earning) virality and/or people's hearts seems like a lot of responsibility and pressure of which I do not seek in an environment where I learn and document.
Though, due to the prominence of "personal brands" in today's age, a concious choice to decouple making from sharing feels odd. Like, why not share if it has already been made? Am I leaving cards on the table?
I hold very few rigid opinions. Any of my beliefs and processes are subject to change. The act of sharing feels like it warrants some degree of certainty in itself? Maybe this is just a result of mass media and politics. In any case, I don't care to be indoctrinating or debating.
Mostly, writing helps me think. A place to play helps me learn. If other people want to peek in, I guess that's ok. Moreso, if I take a picture or write and want to share with my family—to me, this is a fun way to do it.
So why a dashboard?
Dashboards can house just about anything. I can easily construct a space to write, post pictures, or cook up a multi-turn LLM chat interface.
That is not very designery of you
Now, I could have done this on a normal website and made it unique or witty—but I'm not really interested in being clever for the sake of it.
Nearing 34 years old, I think it's time for me to stop pretending that I care about setting trends. That's not to say I don't appreciate visual wit. Personally, I am not that intrigued by the pursuit of it. I would much rather make something that's well designed within reach—an efficient process resulting in something highly functional that looks respectable, but is not necessarily visually novel.
In this process, I don't have to swirl around crafting details beyond the scope of my current interest. Unless of course, I want to.
Aside from that, lately, I have been wondering whether the rise of LLM interfaces may at least be in part due to our embellishment of web interfaces? Could it be that all of the decoration we have historically prioritized as screen designers has amounted to distraction in the eyes of users? This, culminating in the rapid adoption of an interface that removes nearly all whimsy.
This could have been shorter
To conclude, I chose to design my website like a dashboard so I can throw a bunch of shit in it without having to consider how to throw that shit in it. Here, I can document anything rather easily in an organized fashion without scratching my head on what the pattern should be.
Under the hood, this site is mostly powered by a 11ty, Tailwind, and markdown. The editing experience is similarly simple and traditional.
There are likely many holes and contradictions in the thoughts above.