I found the process of setting up my website to be relatively straightforward. I had actually created a WordPress website for another class at Carleton, so I was already familiar with the process. I found the dashboard to be extremely user-friendly and had almost no problems changing specific aspects of the website. One hurdle I did encounter was changing an element of my site’s design using CSS code. It took me a while to locate where to insert the code, but once I found it, I liked that you could immediately see the changes displayed on the site. Additionally, I found the premade themes to be very helpful when designing the website. They had a wide variety of themes that you could apply to your site easily, which can help reduce time choosing color palettes and fonts.
One thing that I can imagine doing with this platform is showing off the various projects I have made at Carleton throughout the years. Currently, these projects are resting in my Google Drive and all over my desktop. Having a place to store these projects and show them to others would be very helpful. One benefit I can see from hosting your own website is that you won’t rely on any others to keep your site running. I have seen instances where hosting websites have shut down, and thus shut down other people’s work. One drawback is that you will need to implement and design more aspects of your site independently. Many services offer templates and user-friendly interfaces that make it much easier to design a website to your liking. WordPress, for example, made it very easy to set up my website for this assignment. I have made various websites from scratch in the past, and I found the process to be much more tedious and confusing. Especially for individuals who are less experienced in technology, I think signing up for a service could be very beneficial.
