How this site is built

This site is my lab: a real site where I test what I teach about performance, security, SEO and design. Here’s what it runs on.

The stack

• WordPress as the CMS.
• Rashid, a custom lightweight theme I built for this site. It handles the header, footer, light and dark modes, and the typography.
• Elementor Pro for page layouts, the posts grids and the forms.
• Fraunces for headings and IBM Plex Mono for everything else.
• Two custom post types, Projects and Media & Talks, so new entries show up across the site automatically.

Design choices

• Light and dark mode follow your device setting, and remember your choice if you switch.
• One accent colour, lots of whitespace, and 60px between sections.
• No sliders, pop-ups or heavy animations — just a gentle fade as cards scroll in, and none at all if your device asks for reduced motion.

Performance and accessibility

The Lighthouse scores in the bar under the header are from real scans of this site. I update them after each round of changes and log what changed in the changelog.