Yep, I've redesigned my website using simple HTML and CSS code, which means no more lurking around for website builders. I always wanted to design a simple site for myself, so I planned to do it last weekend and actually finished it. The site was made from one of the codes I used while learning CSS, so it may look ridiculously simple, but that's exactly what I was going for. The updated website is now live, so do check in and send your feedback.
[Image gallery would show the new design here]
Why the familiar look?
The new site may look and feel similar to the old one. That's because I didn't want to change the blue colour scheme, it's become part of my digital identity at this point.
This is the first time I've updated my website since I started it almost a year ago, and I'm really glad I finally did it. All this time, I was using Microsoft's Small Business Office Live service to build and host my site.
The Microsoft Office Live experience
Got to say, the service was really good apart from one or two drawbacks:
The Good:
- The interface was solid
- No downtime (unlike Google Sites, which had its moments)
- SkyDrive integration was totally awesome
- No bandwidth restrictions I could find
- 500MB storage allocation, five times more than what the best free webhosts offer
The Frustrating:
- The builder doesn't have a preview mode, so every time you make changes, you have to save to the live site to view them. Not ideal.
- You can't tweak the code much (or at least I couldn't figure out how, maybe I didn't learn enough)
I'll be using the old website for a while before deleting it totally.
The learning journey: from builder to coder
Moving away from Office Live forced me to confront something I'd been putting off actually learning to design websites properly. No more drag-and-drop safety nets, no more pre-built templates. Just me, a text editor, and the fundamentals of web design.
The CSS learning curve
When I first started learning CSS, it felt like trying to solve a puzzle where the pieces kept changing shape. Positioning elements, understanding the box model, getting colours to work consistently across browsers, each small victory felt massive. I remember spending an entire evening just trying to get a simple navigation bar to look decent.
But here's the thing: every frustrating hour taught me something valuable. When you're hand-coding, you understand exactly why elements behave the way they do. No more mysterious spacing issues or layouts breaking for unknown reasons.
The design philosophy shift
Building from scratch made me think differently about web design. Instead of asking "What template should I use?" I started asking "What do I actually need this site to do?" Turns out, the answer was refreshingly simple: showcase my work cleanly and load fast.
The bottom line
Sometimes going back to basics is exactly what you need. Hand-coding HTML and CSS might seem old-school in 2011, but there's something satisfying about having complete control over every element on your site. Check it out and see the differences for yourself.
Cheers.