Designing for the user?

I’m aware of the importance of “contents first, style later”, yet I’d still argue that picking a design that suits your personal style is paramount. When it comes to developing a personal wesbite, it’s important to be super clear on what you will use it for. Is it a personal blog i.e., a safe place for dumping your everyday thoughts, or is it a professional webpage with resume & portfolio that you can potentially use to show to recruiters?

The choices didn’t come natural to me. Previously I had tried designs that are a mixed of both, however with those certain styles I found that I could not be myself authentically. That is, those designs didn’t completely evoke a feeling of safety and happiness that allow my thoughts bleed freely onto the page. The design was aesthetically pleasing but the functionalities did not meet my needs as the end-user. The design is not to be blamed of course, because the user is not always clear on the goals.

So it comes down to what you need a website for? For me, I want a safe place where I feel happy to visit everyday to organize my thoughts about school, work, and everyday life, rather than a professional personal brand online. It took me a while to settle on a design I like. Eventually when I found one that I love i.e., the style is clean, simplistic and helps me focus on the writing, I find there is almost certainly a linear correlation with motivation and productivity to create content. That said, searching for a suitable website design is like a personal journey of clarifying my goals, purpose, needs, likes, dislikes. In the end, the user is human, and humans can change in terms of their likes, dislikes, short-term, even long-term goals. With that, the product-market fit is never 100%.