- Date: 2019 – 2020
- Developed by: Raúl Bartolomé
- Customers: General public with interest in engineering, management, and finance
- Creators: Self-developed and administered
- Raúl’s contribution: Developer, designer, and administrator
- Market: Professional branding / digital presence
- Product category: Website
Between 2019 and 2020, Raúl Bartolomé designed and developed his professional website — raulbartolome.com — as a comprehensive online showcase of his career, research, and projects. The site was conceived as a platform to present his professional profile, share academic resources, publish articles, and provide a point of contact with peers and the wider public.
The project combined technical implementation with user experience design. Built on WordPress and hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) Lightsail, the site was designed for reliability, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. It followed a clean, modern structure: a single-column white body, a dark three-column footer, and a sticky navigation menu optimized for both desktop and mobile devices.
Technical Framework
The site was developed with the OceanWP theme and extended by a carefully selected set of plugins to achieve specific goals:
- Multilingual content (English and Spanish) using WPML.
- Automatic updates with Easy Updates Manager.
- Analytics via Google Analytics and ExactMetrics.
- Advertising and monetization through Google AdSense and Ad Inserter.
- eCommerce integration with WooCommerce, supporting downloads, multilingual setup, PayPal checkout, and account dashboards.
- SEO optimization with Yoast SEO.
- Email communication enabled by WP Mail SMTP.
- Performance optimization through WP Fastest Cache.
- Administration tools for file management, broken link checking, thumbnail regeneration, and more.
Security and professional hosting were ensured by configuring an HTTPS certificate with Let’s Encrypt on AWS.
User Experience
The website was designed with mobile-first responsiveness, ensuring seamless navigation on smartphones, tablets, and desktops. Dynamic menus, clean layouts, and adaptive images created a consistent and comfortable experience across devices.
The structure was divided into three core sections:
- Projects: implemented with OceanWP’s portfolio functionality, offering a grid view of projects with images, categories, and detailed descriptions.
- Downloads: a WooCommerce-based repository of academic works, allowing previews, structured metadata, and purchase or free download options.
- Articles: a blog section with a grid overview and detailed two-column layout, designed to balance content with advertisement placements.
Strategic Purpose
The website served as a professional branding tool:
- Presenting Raúl’s curriculum vitae and achievements.
- Showcasing a portfolio of engineering and research projects.
- Hosting academic downloads with integrated eCommerce.
- Publishing articles on engineering, management, and finance topics.
- Experimenting with monetization through downloads and advertising.
In a nutshell, raulbartolome.com became a modern and professional digital hub, enabling Raúl to share his work globally, engage with students and professionals, and reinforce his personal brand as an engineering and business leader.
