Rewriting RJM.ie

Rewriting RJM.ie
Photo by Ferenc Almasi / Unsplash

In first year of college, I wrote RJM.ie as an assignment for my Web Development lecture.
It was a static site written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript over a few weeks.
I had designed an entire colour palette and had recently fallen in love with the IBM Plex font. So this was my official website for just shy of 2 years.
It had an alright Lighthouse score, but had very poor mobile support.

Enter: Node.JS and SvelteKit

In 2023 I picked up SvelteKit as something to play around with, an easy way to make web apps.
I believe that making web apps is best start for portfolio pieces, as it allows you to have something visual to showcase.
My first project in Node.JS was Irish Secret Share, a simple web app where you could add secrets, and use Shamir's Secret Sharing algorithm to require a certain amount of people to decrypt that secret.
Once I started pushing the boundaries of what I could do with just Node, I moved onto EJS before finally landing on SvelteKit for my first proper web app, BitHunt.

BitHunt, and Hiding Jank Behind Curtains

BitHunt is a web app I quickly wrote for the Computer Science Society (CS++) in TU Dublin. That year, I was the chairperson, and wanted to increase engagement at the Freshers Festival, where all Clubs and Societies are competing for membership. I wrote BitHunt over two weeks
With BitHunt, students would sign up with their Student ID and then be given hints to locations around campus where I hid QR codes. Once these codes were scanned, they'd be given a new hint. Scan all the codes and you'd win a prize!
BitHunt was a massive success, because it helped familiarise First Years with the campus, and provided a fun and engaging entry into the society, and who doesn't love prizes!
From there, every project that required a UI was written in SvelteKit, because it provided a simple developer experience, and I had learned to containerise it easily.

But Back to the Point

RJM.ie was getting even more dated than it was when it originally launched, and I knew it needed a change.
So I created the svelte branch in the GitHub repository. Here I rewrote the site from the ground up, using Tailwind to make it easier to style, and Shadcn-svelte for some components.
The final product is a MASSIVE step forward in terms of visual style, mobile support, and loading times.
I'm incredibly happy with how it turned out, it is one of the most visually appealing projects I have developed so far.
I was able to use new techniques and skills I have learned from my modules and from my personal projects and designed this site mobile-first. allowing me to achieve my best Lighthouse score yet!
I designed the routing, portfolio and experience sections to load from JSON files, so I can easily add new information and routes, and it will be dynamically updated.

Your Face, in the Open

To me, a portfolio site is something you pour over once, and then do very occasional improvements.
This rewrite allows me to slowly grow the site, but keep a beautiful visual aesthetic that is still the authentic me.
I want to incorporate my skills and favourite aspects of development in this site, as it is the cornerstone of my digital footprint, and SvelteKit lets me do that.