Introduction
Here is a link to my new WordPress site: https://rodrigueze.sites.carleton.edu/
Once I got over my initial confusion of navigating the new options, my experience was pretty straightforward. I decided to make my design fairly simple, but add fun customizations where I could.
My starting page contains a welcome message and prompts the viewer to click the button I added to go to my about me page. I added additional CSS to my page to make the button appear a bit larger and with a shadow surrounding it when hovered over.
After clicking that, you reach my about me page. I included lots of images and alternating background colors to differentiate the different sections of my page. I started by introducing myself and my time at Carleton, accompanied by a photo of myself. I then detailed my background and some of my interests with more photos.
Potential
I can see a lot of potential for WordPress for displaying future projects. Whether it’s a simple site that contains information and pages about the project or an interactive website like the Klein et al. reading, I think WordPress could be a good tool. Just from my first time delving into the design of the website, I was able to create a decent looking page and it didn’t even take that long.
Pros and Cons
Some benefits I see coming with hosting come with hosting my own website instead of signing up for a service or using a social media platform is having the additional customization it provides. With the added functionalities from HTML and CSS, hosting your own website makes it a lot easier to create something entirely new or suited to your project goals. It can also just help your website feel less like a template and more like something you have an active role in the creation of.
I also can see some drawbacks to this method of digitally distributing information, as it requires a lot more time and effort than using a pre-made service. I could definitely see that for more immediate projects, using a service or a social media platform to share projects or information may be the more logical option.
