Why I Rebuilt My Website with Vite, Tailwind, and JavaScript

I rebuilt this website because I wanted it to feel closer to what it actually is: small, direct, and easy to maintain. Over time, I found myself wanting less abstraction, less setup, and fewer moving parts for a site whose main job is simply to present my work, writing, and background clearly.

Part of that came from framework overhead. Modern frameworks are powerful, but they also come with a steady need to keep up with updates, new patterns, changing recommendations, and extra tooling. For larger products, that tradeoff can make sense. For a personal website, I found that it added maintenance work that did not really improve the site itself. Instead of helping the project scale, it started making even simple changes feel heavier than they needed to be.

Vite made sense because it keeps the development experience fast without bringing in more framework overhead than I need. Tailwind made styling straightforward, especially for a project where I wanted to move quickly while still being deliberate about layout, spacing, and typography. Plain JavaScript fit the same goal. It keeps the site easy to reason about, easy to update, and easier to scale in a way that still feels light.

Rebuilding the site this way also gave me more control over the structure. I could keep pages static, split repeated pieces like the navigation and footer into reusable partials, and still avoid turning a simple portfolio into something more complex than it needed to be.

The design direction was also inspired by Lee Robinson's website. I liked the clarity of a minimal, writing-forward layout where the focus stays on the words, the work, and the structure instead of unnecessary interface noise.

There is also something satisfying about using a lighter stack for a personal website. It loads quickly, the codebase stays readable, and the intent of each page is clear. Rebuilding it was less about rejecting bigger frameworks and more about choosing the right level of tooling for the job. Vite, Tailwind, and JavaScript gave me a setup that feels fast, practical, and easier to live with over time.