“A person’s website or blog is a window to their soul” as the web 2.0 proverb says. For people like me who build sites for a living it might occasionally become hard to get in touch with our soul, especially when we see web building1 as something to be sold for money. /shudder An old Greek proverb says “Show me your web home and I will tell you who you are”. Well it might actually say “your friend”, but if you are in our field shouldn’t your personal web space be your friend? I for one think so. Then why so many of us don’t treat our sites that way?
While browsing personal sites I find myself wondering why a lot of these feel the same. Why there is a number of trends that we all seem to follow at any given time? Why so very few sites are memorable 8h later? Why no individuality? Why just shameless self-promotion and link building under a nice but generic web 2.0 guise?
When designing for a client there are time and budget restrictions, style and brand guides we need to follow, the dreaded backwards compatibility2, the limitations the spec and the client requirements often pose. Few of us are lucky enough to have clients that will let us experiment with styles and technology, huge budgets in time and money.
Many a time this lack of “freedom” makes me feel so restrained that I often wish for projects that I could have free reign on. As these projects are thin on the ground what better opportunity is there than your own personal site, where you can really and truly do anything you want, within usability limits of course, unless by personal you mean that you are to be the only person that uses your site.
Tonight is proving to be proverb night and I know that many of you are now thinking “the cobbler’s children…” (Or possibly stopped reading cause you fell asleep) Whenever I hear this when it comes to personal websites I can’t quite agree. I find it hard to imagine a cobbler that has the same passion about his work as me and many of you have for our job. So why go without a website that rocks? And by that I mean a site that you feel rocks. Because you are your own client and you should be happy with what it looks and does.
The reasons to have a personal website are many. Somewhere to experiment, somewhere to test out new things, somewhere to develop your skills without bringing down another 50 client sites because you misconfigured Apache and forgot to configtest. I started this site years and years ago, purely to have a space to develop my skills, in my own time, out of personal interest.
Working on a personal project allows you to break out of the box. You can achieve great (if momentary) happiness when something works, when you squashed a bug or 50, when you’ve enjoyed writing a blog entry from the heart and not because you’re doing it to a client’s spec, because you have to. You can make mistakes and learn from them or you can make mistakes because you can.
Over and above the personal satisfaction and development, in these times where the world has become “sans frontières” because of internet penetration and social networking, while recession is still gripping us, a website that reflects your passions, your skills, your interests and your capabilities and more importantly your style, can be a great introduction to potential clients or employers.
Linkedin profiles are great, twittering away like a maniac and sharing pearls of wisdom3 will get your name known, but once that link to your site you always add to your profile is clicked, then it’s make or break time.
Use your site to introduce yourself. Show your passion for your job and your hobbies. Show you’re not afraid of learning new things. That you got a personality by being a little bit different than all the others. That you don’t mind spending time outside the predefined and payable 9-5, by making something that makes you proud without fiscal benefits.
Make an impression. Be yourself. Show off a little bit, but with what you do and not what you say. Be passionate. Be individual. It’s good for your soul and might bring in some extra leads too. Or at least try…
just dawned on me that the same way mark passed on his virus to me 3days later, I might have infected everyone @bluestormdesign with it :S
1 hour, 31 minutes ago, from TweetDeck
Follow me on twitterI have a dream that all my websites will one day exist in a Web where they will not be judged by how they look and behave in each browser, because all browsers will follow the same standards and display them the same.
This is my hope. With this faith in Web Standards and Accessibility for all people and devices we will be able to make a better Web. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of the browsers to a beautiful symphony of design, functionality and content. With this faith we will be able to work better, to play better, to struggle less, knowing that all devices will treat our work equally & with respect.
©acidsmile (unless otherwise stated)
the views expressed throughout this site are my own
and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer