Thiago Scot – Personal Portfolio & Blog

Thiago Scot is an economist at the World Bank’s Development Impact (DIME) department, researching tax policy and public procurement in low- and middle-income countries. He needed a personal website that would serve as his academic home — a place to host his CV, showcase working papers, and present policy engagements with the same rigour his research demands.

The result is a minimalist, content-first Hugo site that prioritises readability, fast load times, and discoverability. It’s designed to fade into the background and let the research speak for itself.

The Challenge

Academic websites have a unique set of requirements that most templates get wrong:

• Multi-audience — the site needed to serve hiring committees, journal editors, policy makers, and fellow researchers, each looking for different things
• CV-first — the single most important page is the CV; it had to be prominently linked and instantly accessible as a PDF
• Publication tracking — working papers, publications, and policy briefs needed clear organisation with dates, abstracts, and links
• No fluff — academics are brutally efficient information seekers; decorative elements that slow down reading would hurt credibility
• Minimal maintenance — Thiago’s time is spent on research, not website upkeep; the site had to update effortlessly

The Approach

Content Architecture

The site strips away everything unnecessary. Four pages, one clear purpose:

Each page is intentionally short. The home page fits in a single viewport — just a photo, bio paragraph, and links. No scrolling required to find what matters.

Design Philosophy

Academic credibility was the north star. Every design decision was measured against “does this help or hurt Thiago’s professional image?”:

• Minimal layout — no sidebars, no popups, no animations. Content is centre stage
• Large, readable type — set in a comfortable column width for extended reading
• High-contrast — black text on white background, nothing fancy
• Subtle warmth — slight off-white background and restrained spacing prevent the sterile feel of many academic sites
• One visual element — Thiago’s professional headshot is the only image; no stock photos, no decorative graphics
• PDF-first CV — the CV link is prominent in the navigation, not buried in a page

Technical Implementation

Built with Hugo for raw speed and zero maintenance overhead:

• Single-page design for the home page — all critical information above the fold
• Markdown-based content — adding a new paper or policy brief is as simple as creating a new markdown file with a date and abstract
• PDF hosting for the CV with automatic versioning
• External links to GitHub and email use icon buttons for a clean look
• Responsive typography — comfortable reading on phones, tablets, and desktops

SEO & Performance

• Sub-second page loads on all pages
• Perfect mobile and desktop Lighthouse scores
• Open Graph and Twitter card meta tags for sharing papers and policy pieces
• Clean, semantic HTML for search engine discoverability
• Publication pages use clear date-based organisation for chronological browsing

Highlights

• Instant load times — the home page is essentially a single HTTP request
• No maintenance burden — Thiago can add publications by emailing a markdown file; no CMS to log into, no database to maintain
• Professional credibility — the clean, minimal design communicates seriousness without saying a word
• CV accessibility — one click from anywhere on the site to download the full academic CV as a PDF
• Research-first navigation — home page immediately establishes who Thiago is, where he works, and what he researches

Tech Stack

• Hugo — static site generator for uncompromising speed
• HTML/CSS — minimal, semantic code with no frameworks
• Vanilla JavaScript — zero JS on the home page; trivial enhancements elsewhere
• Static hosting — CDN-delivered for global fast access
• PDF hosting for CV distribution

My Role

• Content strategy — distilled Thiago’s academic profile into the essentials: bio, research, policy, CV
• Visual design — ultra-minimal UI focused on readability and professional credibility
• Front-end development — Hugo theme customisation, responsive typography system
• Publication workflow — designed a markdown-based system for adding papers and policy briefs with zero friction
• Performance optimisation — every byte justified; total page weight is a fraction of the average academic site
• PDF pipeline — CV update workflow that doesn’t require touching the website

Roadmap & Future Plans

The site is intentionally minimal — it does what Thiago needs and nothing more. That said, there’s room to grow as his career evolves:

Phase 2 — Research Hub

• Full publication archive with search and filtering by year or topic
• Abstract previews with expandable details
• Citation export (BibTeX) for each paper

Phase 3 — Interactive Elements

• Embedded data visualisations from research projects
• Interactive regression tables and figures
• Replication data and code repositories linked from each paper

Phase 4 — Blog & Commentary

• Short-form research notes and policy commentary
• Conference presentation slides and posters
• Teaching materials for courses and workshops

Phase 5 — Network Features

• Co-author network visualisation
• Citation metrics and impact tracking
• Integrated Google Scholar and ORCID data

Each phase can be added without touching the core site structure. The minimalist foundation means Thiago can scale up as his publication record grows.

Live Site

Visit: https://thiagoscot.com/