Xy Portfolio: from customer service to building on the web.

I needed a website that wins small-business clients: it should show what I build, explain my prices clearly, and make it easy to start a project.

The first version tried to do three jobs at once: impress employers, win clients, and offer free tools to job seekers. In November I refocused it. The homepage now speaks only to business owners, and my customer service career moved to its own page for recruiters.

It also had to feel like me: calm, warm, and honest, with no inflated claims.

I started with no coding background and no budget for paid tools or a custom domain. Everything had to run on free plans, be easy to update, and still look and perform like a professional site.

• Editorial design in cream and olive with Fraunces and Manrope fonts, plus light and dark mode.
• A dark-mode "night garden" with fireflies that drift as you scroll, a lantern glow, and optional piano or rain sounds made in the browser.
• "Ask about Xy," a guided chat assistant that answers common questions about my work, prices, and CV, with no AI running costs.
• A contact form that actually works by saving messages to a Neon database and emailing them to me through Resend.
• Clear pricing for every client with separate prices for the Philippines and for clients abroad, a USD / PHP switch, and a 2-minute project brief form.
• Free tools that prove I can build a CV Builder with 6 templates and a Cover Letter Builder, used free with no sign-up.
• A separate page for recruiters with my experience and downloadable CVs, so the homepage stays focused on clients.
• Privacy built in with a plain-language privacy policy and cookie-free visitor statistics.

I worked with an AI coding partner (Claude). I made the decisions about the content, design, priorities, and wording, and the AI helped write the code, test it, and fix bugs.

Every change was checked on desktop and on a phone before going live. Real feedback shaped it: the rain sound was rebuilt three times until it sounded relaxing, and a mobile menu bug was caught and fixed after I tested it on my own phone.

Google PageSpeed Insights, mobile test, November 2026. Main content appears in about 1.7 seconds.

The contact form is already receiving real messages from visitors, and the site is submitted to Google Search Console so people can find it.

• Ship first, then improve. A live site that's 80% done beats a perfect one that never launches.
• Speed is part of design. Shortening the intro animation made the site noticeably faster on phones.
• Test on real devices. Some bugs only show up on an actual phone.
• One page, one audience. Trying to speak to employers, clients, and job seekers at once made the message weaker for all three.