Why Next.js?
Most of this site is static content, so I wanted the pages rendered on the server rather than relying entirely on client-side JavaScript. That also makes the content easier for search engines and other tools to read.
I kept the components fairly simple. There's no third-party UI library because I didn't see much benefit in adding one for a site of this size.
The AI demos
The demos use AWS Lambda, API Gateway, and Amazon Bedrock. I've also tested models from OpenAI, DeepSeek, and Amazon Nova to compare their results and costs.
They're small demonstrations, not production applications. I wanted to explore specific uses of AI without building or paying for more infrastructure than necessary.
A few practical decisions
I keep the content separate from the presentation components so I can update my experience, projects, and resume without changing the page layouts.
I also kept the backend services separate from the website. That lets me work on individual demos without affecting the rest of the site.
If these were commercial applications, I'd invest more in automated testing, monitoring, deployment controls, and operational support. For a personal website, that would be unnecessary overhead.
Source code
I can share the frontend code on request. The backend demo services are private because they include deployment and infrastructure details.