🚀 How I Built My Developer Portfolio — and What I Learned Along the Way

#nextjs #portfolio #javascript #tutorial

When I started building my personal portfolio, I didn’t just want a digital resume — I wanted a reflection of my thought process as a developer. Every component, layout, and animation had a reason behind it.

In this post, I’ll walk you through how I built my portfolio, the tech stack behind it, and lessons learned that can help you create one that feels professional, personal, and performance-focused.

🎯 The Goal

As a software engineer at Paytm Payments Bank, I spend a lot of time thinking about design systems, user flow, and performance. I wanted my portfolio to represent those same values:

Fast and responsive across all devices
Clean and minimal, without unnecessary clutter
Built with reusable and readable code
Easy to update and deploy

It’s live here → Portfolio Website
Codebase → Code Repo

🧱 The Tech Stack

I kept the stack modern but simple:

Next.js → Server-side rendering, static generation, and routing made easy.
TailwindCSS → For clean, responsive, and utility-first styling.
Framer Motion and GSAP → Smooth animations that enhance the user experience.
Vercel → Seamless CI/CD and global hosting with almost no config.
Contentful → For saving and fetching all the data. Dynamically updates the UI with new contents.

Each choice made development faster and more maintainable — no over-engineering, just a clear focus on what mattered.

⚙️ The Building Process

Inspiration I explored numerous websites on Awwwards to gather ideas and inspiration for my own design. I was particularly inspired by Huy Nguyen’s work, his use of color, layout, and clean animations really stood out to me. Definitely check out his websites!
Structure First, Style Later I began by mapping out the page flow — Home, About, Projects, and Contact — using simple semantic HTML and minimal CSS. Once the layout worked perfectly across viewports, I started layering in Tailwind styles.
Component Reusability Every repeating pattern became a component. For example: A generic ProjectCard to display each project dynamically. A shared Layout component for SEO and structure consistency. This kept the code DRY and made future updates painless.
Animations with Purpose Animations are subtle but intentional. For instance: Fade-ins for project cards as they enter the viewport. Smooth transitions between routes using Framer Motion. Also added Lenis Scroll for the smooth scroll effect. They’re not flashy — just enough to make navigation feel fluid.
Performance Tweaks After deployment, I focused on Lighthouse metrics. Lazy loading images, prefetching links, and compressing assets boosted performance significantly. My load time dropped by almost 40%.

🧠 Lessons Learned (That Might Help You)

Start simple. You don’t need every fancy library. Build the structure first — polish later.
Think scalability. Even for a small site, proper folder structure and reusable components matter.
Add personality. Your portfolio shouldn’t feel like a template — write in your voice, include your hobbies, and make it uniquely yours.
Performance matters. Recruiters may not say it, but they notice smooth, fast interactions.
Version control early. Track every iteration; it helps when revisiting design or debugging.

🏁 Final Thoughts

If you’re building your own portfolio: