A handcrafted personal portfolio built with HTML, CSS and Vanilla JavaScript, designed to showcase my work, writing, and development approach as a career-changing computing student and junior developer.
This project intentionally avoids frameworks to demonstrate a solid understanding of core web technologies, layout systems, performance considerations, and browser APIs.
This portfolio acts as both a professional showcase and a learning artefact.
It includes:
- A landing page introducing who I am and how I work
- Individual project pages explaining real design and development decisions
- A blog powered by a headless CMS, where I document my learning journey
- A clean, responsive UI focused on readability, accessibility, and performance
Rather than optimising for speed of development, this project prioritises clarity, maintainability, and understanding of fundamentals.
This portfolio was deliberately built without frameworks such as React or Next.js.
As a career changer entering the industry, I wanted to demonstrate that I can:
- Build complete interfaces from first principles
- Work confidently with the DOM, events, and browser APIs
- Structure CSS without relying on component libraries
- Make intentional architectural decisions rather than defaulting to abstractions
Frameworks are tools, not crutches. This project shows what I can do without them.
- Fully responsive layout using Flexbox and modern CSS
- Semantic HTML structure for accessibility and SEO
- Individual project pages with detailed explanations
- Blog powered by Hygraph (headless CMS)
- Optimised images and lazy loading where appropriate
- Custom UI components and hover interactions
- Framework-free, dependency-light setup
- HTML5
- CSS3 (Flexbox, custom properties, responsive design)
- Vanilla JavaScript (ES6+)
- Hygraph Headless CMS (for blog content)
No frameworks. No UI libraries. No build tools.
The site is organised with clarity and separation of concerns in mind:
- Page-specific stylesheets rather than a single monolithic CSS file
- Small, focused JavaScript files per page where behaviour is needed
- Static HTML pages for predictability and performance
- Content managed externally where it makes sense (blog)
This project intentionally prioritised fundamentals over abstraction. That said, revisiting it with fresh eyes highlights several areas I would approach differently in a future iteration:
-
Introduce a lightweight build step
While working without a build tool helped reinforce core concepts, a minimal setup using Vite or similar would improve asset optimisation, bundling, and development ergonomics without obscuring fundamentals. -
Stronger CSS architecture
Page-specific stylesheets worked well at this scale, but for a larger project I would introduce a more formal CSS architecture, such as utility layers or a stricter naming convention, to improve long-term scalability. -
Progressive enhancement for animations
Interactive elements are currently designed to degrade gracefully, but future enhancements could make better use of progressive enhancement patterns to ensure animations never impact performance or accessibility. -
Deeper accessibility auditing
Semantic HTML was a priority from the start, however I would like to add more explicit testing using screen readers and automated accessibility tools to validate real-world usage. -
Component abstraction where it adds value
Certain UI patterns could be abstracted more cleanly once their behaviour and usage are fully understood, rather than abstracting prematurely.
Overall, this project reflects a deliberate learning-first approach. The decisions made here were intentional, and the lessons learned directly inform how I approach newer, more complex applications.
🔗 Live URL:
https://rodrigodelascio.co.uk/
I am a UK-based BSc Computing student and career changer, transitioning from a long background in content, localisation, and digital marketing into software development.
This portfolio reflects how I think, learn, and build, not just what I know.
- Website: https://rodrigodelascio.co.uk/
- GitHub: https://github.com/rodrigodelascio
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodrigo-de-lascio/
This project is actively evolving.
Future enhancements may include scroll-based animations, performance refinements, and additional case-study depth as the portfolio grows.