Brandon Dreslin

Personal portfolio website

Combining design tools and his website development skills, Brandon took it upon himself to create a portfolio website that captures his skills, experiences, and interests all in one accessible and visually-pleasing site. He wanted his portfolio to be an extension of his résumé and a way to reach new people online. Over the course of six months, Brandon undertook the design, planning, and development of his site to make it uniquely his.

Affiliation:

N/A

Deliverables:

Website

Project period:

6 months

Team members:

Preview:

https://www.brandondreslin.com/

The challenge

In 2018, Brandon created a rudimentary personal website built on Wix that mainly featured his photography and video production endeavors. As his knowledge and skill set expanded, he desired a new portfolio website that shifted away from his personal interests and towards his professional presence. The problem was that before 2022, he had no clue how to make a professional portfolio. Disliking how website builders watermark user websites with brand logos, Brandon needed to find a way to make his own site.

The solution

Beginning in May 2022, Brandon formulated his plan to design and develop this novel portfolio. 6 months and two other successful website deployments later, he learned the ropes of developing with industry-approved technologies and frameworks.

Node.js & Tailwind CSS

Node.js (a runtime environment) and Tailwind CSS (a style framework) add more functionality to the site that previously would not be possible. Additionally, they allow for easier file organization and smoother site maintenance. Used in larger companies that produce complex dynamic websites, these two technologies make managing the site's 8,000 lines of code effortless.

Project portfolio

Many of the sites that Brandon evaluated displayed their pricing through an unordered list, which simply does not attract attention. Pricing cards are a great way to show users service pricing while also blending the native color scheme into the site. Additionally, these cards grab visitors' attention to quickly make them aware of how the pricing compares against other businesses.

Blog posts

Usually, frequently asked questions are on a page with no context other than the questions themselves being the precedent for most of the page content. However, for visitors only looking for one or two specific questions, being bombarded by a list of questions will likely compel them to close the tab and call or email the business instead. The whole point of a FAQs section is to avoid that! Creating segmented FAQs separated by topic will keep users engaged so they can find what they are looking for.

Tablet with segmented frequently asked questions