The Quiet Architecture of a Personal Site
A personal site is less a product than a room you keep returning to. Some notes on building one that stays out of the way.
A room, not a product
There is a particular kind of calm that comes from opening a website that asks nothing of you. No modal, no feed, no recommendation engine. Just text, set well, waiting.
A personal site can be that room. The trick is to resist the urge to make it a stage.
Start with the reading
Everything else is secondary. Choose a measure, choose a typeface, choose a rhythm, and then leave them alone long enough to see whether they work.
The page should feel finished before you add anything to it.
Keep the edges quiet
Navigation, metadata, and chrome should recede until they are needed. A site that whispers its structure is easier to trust than one that announces it.
The best interface is the one you stop noticing.