My reflections on emotionally-driven design and lovingly killing my creations...

In a previous thread I had put together, I shared my experience of teaching myself web design to create a custom website using Webflow. If you're curious, you can find the thread here: https://www.producthunt.com/discussions/i-taught-myself-web-design-and-designed-my-dream-website-using-webflow-here-was-my-process. In this thread, I want to dive a little deeper into my motivations for creating a website, how they gradually changed, and how that shaped my creative process. When I started out, I had a grand idea of what I wanted to create. At this point in my life, I had been going through a lot of major changes. I had just moved to a different country, was considering quitting my job, and my relationships were strained. To help me cope with the overwhelming sense of uncertainty and confusion I was feeling, I decided to create a system to keep me focused on the things that mattered most in my life. I called it the Life Compass. Soon after creating it, I realised that this system could possibly help other people who were going through something similar. So I set myself the challenge of creating a business around this system. This was the moment my company (Inner Compass) was born. In the first version of my website, I felt compelled to share my personal story with the users, how the Life Compass had helped me, and the details of how it worked. I wanted to share all the insights I had gained from researching this topic with other people. However, I soon realised that this made the website too long and confusing for people. I was trying to share too much. The intention was good, but the format was wrong. I realised that the purpose of a website wasn't to educate, it was to tell a story. Realising this took me a fair amount of time and required me to swallow some bitter pills. The intention of this article isn't to stop you from making the same choices as I did. Looking back, I wouldn't change a thing. The time spent treating my website as an art project was necessary. I wasn't in the right mental state to start creating videos and consistently sharing ideas on social media. The one thing I would say is this: be willing to lovingly kill your creations. Recognise when a project has served its purpose and allow it to naturally come to an end. Don't be afraid to start again. A blank canvas is never truly blank, as you always bring your past experiences to it. If you're curious, here are the two versions of my site: The original website: https://inner-compass-life-desig... The final website: https://www.innercompass.academy/ I hope this story resonates with someone. Thanks for reading and feel free to share your own experiences. - Jan