⚡ My Experience Rebuilding a Harry Potter–Themed Website (Version 2.0)
Source: Dev.to
Background
When I built the first version of my Harry Potter–themed website, I thought I had created something special. After stepping away for a while and revisiting it, I realized the idea was magical, but the execution could be much better. I decided to rebuild it from scratch, resulting in Version 2.0—cleaner, faster, more immersive, and more magical than ever.
What Changed
Version 1 Highlights
- Torchlight mouse effects
- Wand‑style cursors
- Rain & lightning animations
- Character hover transitions
- Magical ambient design
Version 2 Improvements
- Completely redesigned landing page with smoother animations
- New layout inspired by the feeling of Hogwarts
- Refined wand cursor interactions
- Better lightning, atmosphere, and background effects
- Cleaner, easier‑to‑understand code structure
- Improved character sections
- Enhanced typography & color palette for a “magical” look
Everything was rebuilt with better logic and cleaner code—no bloated mess, no shortcuts.
Technologies Used
<!-- HTML markup -->/* CSS styling */// JavaScript for interactivity- AOS (Animate on Scroll) for scroll‑triggered animations
- Custom cursor animations
- Custom slanted & layered UI sections
- Hover‑based 3D‑style interactions
- Optimized image handling
- No heavy frameworks—just pure front‑end creativity
Lessons Learned
- Nostalgia is powerful in design
- Details equal experience
- Clean code builds confidence
- UI is storytelling
- Web development is art
Demo
I recorded a walkthrough video of Version 2.0. You can see the full atmosphere, transitions, sections, and improvements compared to v1.
Source Code
If you’d like to explore the full source code for Version 2.0, you can purchase it here:
Buy the full Version 2 source code
Your support helps me continue building creative projects.
Thanks for reading—and welcome to Version 2.0 ⚡