I created a design portfolio from scratch using React, Next.js 13, Tailwind, and the Notion API. My goal was to practice using React Hooks and Tailwind for the front-end. While working on this portfolio site, I also gained a better understanding of fetching APIs and working with asynchronous processes and data manipulation. I chose to use the Next.js framework mainly for its server-side rendering capabilities, which improves the loading performance of my portfolio, and because it's a widely known and used React framework. In the past, I've tried using GatsbyJS and GraphQL, but I encountered performance issues.
This portfolio would not have been possible without content, so I used the Notion API as my backend and content management system. I've been using Notion as my daily note-taker and planner for a while now and find it easy to manage my content and resources with it.