I Don't Quite Like the Design of My Site

I'm sure this sounds shocking to people reading this blog, but I'm not the most fond of how my website looks. So, why did I make the site look like this in the first place? The short answer is: marketability.

My taste in design is kinda out there. I like maximalism instead of minimalist. I like noncomfornity over conformity. There is nothing wrong with my tastes, however, I can't just design a website according to what I think looks good. Most people would either dislike it or think of me as not having good web design skills.

Below is an example of an old "professional" website I created where I completely ignored nearly every convention in web design and made what I wanted to make:

I don't think many hiring managers would take that website too seriously.

So, going back to my current website, people have told me my website looks great, and I know it looks modern. The reason why is because I'm following web design trends, and I'm using Material UI and custom components resembling what they use. Part of me does like the design, but I feel a little empty inside looking at it. To me my site looks boring, sterile, and not unique enough. Part of it is because I haven't fully decorated it all the way, but even when I achieve that, I still wouldn't fully be proud of it.

All is not doom and gloom. Coding whatever I wanted to code, has exposed me to a lot of facets of CSS and JS that I wouldn't have even touched otherwise. Neocities exists too where going against the grain is even celebrated.