I finished creating my website on WordPress for this week’s lab assignment. The website also has a my about page linked on it. I felt setting up the website gave me a better understanding of how WordPress works and how much control a website owner has over the appearance and organization of a site. WordPress made it easy to make different adjustments to my website, although the first time took me a little longer to understand each component of the dashboard.
I chose the Kadence theme and made some customization options, including the colors, header, and a couple others. I also added the Akismet plugin to help protect the site from comment spam. I used DevTools to inspect an element on my homepage and identify its HTML and CSS classes. I then used WordPress’s Additional CSS feature to change the appearance of the text on my homepage:
With this platform I could use the website to showcase some of my projects from this course or from other classes. I could also use it as a personal portfolio or a place to share future work. One major benefit that I can see with a self-hosting a website is the amount of control and customization it provides. I can change the design and code rather than being limited by a social media platform. A drawback could be the additional responsibility and work added to develop the site that I am looking to build.
Overall I thought one of the interesting parts of this was just being able to type a search engine and seeing the site that I just created. I thought this was interesting because most of my digital work is through another website or saved device, so having this platform to use where I can upload projects to or other information is interesting.
Jack, first of all I love the blue and maize on your website reminds me of Carleton colors (GO KNIGHTS!). I used kadence theme as well and I thought it worked really well on your site especially with the pictures you used in your site. I totally agree about how cool it is having my own website and how it’s a unique way to show our projects.
Jack, nice work on the site! Using DevTools to tweak that custom CSS for your typography was a fun touch. Like you mentioned, it’s definitely satisfying to see your own custom site live on the web and having that full ownership makes it a great space to showcase coursework moving forward.