Not that bad actually!
Navigation is really clean and easy to understand, I was worried about the poor templates selection, but the controls and customization available are quite decent and overall I think this is a great place to start a blog/portfolio.
I looked at several platforms to start my site, somewhere I could REALLY build a great website and I had 3 main criteria.
Simplicity
Performance
Balance
I want something with a simple and clean user interface. Wordpress had a great powerful editor, but it always felt "too complete" for me. By having so much functionality it became a chore writing in it because I was always fighting with the formatting. All I want is a website with a simple login where it's easy to just create a new blog post and not worry about anything else.
I don't want to manage a website. It sucks. I don't want to play with PHP files, to code anything at all or to play with plugins and installations. Last thing I want is like my previous blog where I wrote one article that moved quickly through the web and it crashed because of all the hits. I want to write and show, not manage.
I want a blog. I want a portfolio. I actually want both of them in the form of a website. That's the thing here, I want a complete website that feels like a high-class portfolio, but that gives me the ease and control of a blog.
Why Squarespace?
This is my first post with Squarespace and I think I'm going with this platform for my website. My first impressions are really good and I feel like it's the right place for all of this.
Wordpress is a powerhouse, but one that needs some management. It's interface is great, but that editor overflow is killing me. There are so many options that at the end I'm just fighting with them. I have to say though that I'm missing the spellchecker. I found this Twitter reply from Squarespace with a quick Google search and I have to admit that it is kinda disappointing. My Google Chrome is slowly having a better Spellchecker, but it's always reassuring to have one in the editor itself. When I'm using Wordpress directly, I don't have enough controls to make it like I want and when I install Wordpress, well I have to manage the whole CMS and host the platform. There's too much work needed (I hope I won't have to mention IMO every time here) in order to strip down everything I don't want to get that simplicity/power/class balance I'm looking for.
Tumblr is really close, but I just think that the website portion is lacking. I don't want my blog itself to be the portfolio. I kinda need other pages that are more that static information, but aren't like a blog filter. This is where the Balance part is, I want a Blog, but I want a Portfolio.
What's next?
Testing, writing, skipping boring formatting and spell-checking and just truly commit to a single focused spot on the internet for my work, ideas and dumb things I have to say!
Note: Seriously Google Chrome... "login" still isn't a valid word? You're a web company dammit, that's like the second word/expression in your dictionary right after "advertising"... and every spellchecker in the world should allow the word "plugins" too.