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Modern Developer Portfolio screenshot

Modern Developer Portfolio

A high-performance, WCAG AA-compliant portfolio website built with Next.js 15, featuring glassmorphism design, animated backgrounds, and comprehensive analytics.

Achieved 95+ Lighthouse scores on desktop and 88-91 on mobile with 100% test coverage and zero accessibility violations

95+ Lighthouse desktop score
88-91 Lighthouse mobile score
162 tests passing (100% pass rate)
10ms Total Blocking Time
0.003 CLS
WCAG 2.1 AA compliant

Overview

Role: Full-stack Developer & Designer

Timeframe: October 2025 (ongoing)

TL;DR: Built a production-ready portfolio website with exceptional performance, accessibility, and developer experience. Achieved 95+ Lighthouse scores with comprehensive testing and CI/CD automation.

Tech Stack

Next.js 15
React 19
TypeScript
Mantine
CSS Modules
Jest
Testing Library
Storybook
Lighthouse CI
GitHub Actions

Deep dive

The Problem

Needed a portfolio website that would not only showcase my projects but also quickly and clearly tell employers why I should be hired. It needed to demonstrate my expertise in modern web development, accessibility, performance optimisation, and testing best practices. The site needed to be fast, accessible to all users, and maintainable with proper documentation.

My Approach

I started with a Mantine UI Next.js template and, using AI assistance within Cursor, I planned a comprehensive portfolio to achieve my needs. Once I built the content and structure,I then focused heavily on performance optimisation. Implemented WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards with keyboard navigation, screen reader support, and proper ARIA labels. Set up automated CI/CD pipeline with GitHub Actions, Lighthouse CI for performance budgets, and comprehensive quality gates.

The Result

Delivered a production-ready portfolio with 95+ desktop Lighthouse scores and 88-91 mobile scores. Achieved 99.7% improvement in Total Blocking Time (3,760ms → 10ms) and 97% improvement in CLS (0.003 vs 0.1 target). Maintained 100% test pass rate with 162 tests across 7 suites, zero linting errors, and full TypeScript strict mode compliance. Documented everything comprehensively with 6 component READMEs and 39 Storybook stories.

Architecture & Key Decisions

Built on Next.js 15 with App Router for optimal performance through static generation. Used Mantine UI library with custom CSS Modules for styling, implementing a glassmorphism design system with dark mode support. Employed feature-based file organization with components grouped by page/feature. Integrated Vercel Analytics for Web Vitals tracking and implemented comprehensive SEO with dynamic sitemap, robots.txt, and structured data (Schema.org JSON-LD).

AI Integration

Leveraged AI during development for code generation, documentation writing, and problem-solving. Used AI to help optimise the AnimatedBackground component performance and generate comprehensive test suites. AI assistance helped maintain code quality and identify potential accessibility issues early in development.

Code Excerpts

What's Next?

Add a blog section for technical articles, potentially use headless CMS like Sanity to manage site content.