✅ Complete.
I built a MERN portfolio site to learn to bring my ideas and prototypes to the world quickly, at low cost. I learned core full-stack web development (in MERN) skills, frontend design (in Figma), web hosting (on Vercel), and some web networking concepts, completely from scratch. After successfully implementing the site, I transitioned to a hosted Wordpress instance to cut down on future maintenance and modification time, allowing me to focus on machine learning technologies instead. This was a fantastic experience in web dev!
- Create a place where I can share my projects, research, and knowledge.
- Develop some full-stack web development skills.
- Hone my project management skills for self-directed projects, to prepare for self-directed projects in machine learning.
- Inspire other learners.
- Demonstrate a technical competency to future employers.
I am using the MERN stack for this project. I chose this stack because it has
- Strong support from large companies, giving it a long expected lifetime.
- High-quality learning resources on Coursera, my platform of choice.
- Ease of use and high development velocity.
- Strong demand in the global job market.
- Extensive package support.
| Name | Usage |
|---|---|
| React | Frontend |
| Next.js | React Framework |
| Bootstrap | Styling |
| Node JS | Backend |
| Express JS (reworked to run on Vercel) | Backend API |
| MongoDB | Database |
| Wordpress | Final build |
I followed the Waterfall development cycle:
- I'd followed Agile before, but I had no experience with Waterfall.
- I didn't expect the project requirements to evolve.
- I wanted to give myself time to explore unfamiliar technologies. Efficiency is not a primary goal.
Thank you to the authors and maintainers of all the resources mentioned in the codebase. Particularly to Meta for their frontend course, which I used: https://www.coursera.org/professional-certificates/meta-front-end-developer
Thanks for reading! 🤠
©️ Stephen Elliott 2024. All rights reserved.