Build & Document
Documenting the development cycles of production applications. Focused on frontend systems architecture, secure data layers, and UI engineering
Active Project: Fortify (Next.JS / TypeScript)
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- August 20262
- July 20264
Posts in this series are written with AI writing assistance. The ideas, decisions, and code are my own.
· Auth & Identity · 2 min
Building Fortify: Guest Mode
Two problems pushed me to build this. First, the demo experience. Fortify's signup collects a lot of personal information because Plaid and Dwolla require it, even in sandbox mode.
· Product & UX · 7 min
Refining Fortify: Designing a System, Not Just a Screen
The template I started with — the iBank UI kit — was good. The screen structure, the information architecture, the overall flow: it gave the project a solid foundation to build on and let me stay focused on the engineering rather than designing from scratch. But as the app took shape, one thing became clear: the visual identity wasn't Fortify's.
· Auth & Identity · 4 min
Refining Fortify: A Fresh Look at Authentication
In my last post, I highlighted a few glaring issues: a registration form that felt like an interrogation, an AuthForm component doing far too much heavy lifting, and a lack of fallbacks for when things go wrong. This phase was all about diving back into the code to fix those problems, and I ended up learning quite a bit more than I anticipated along the way.
· Auth & Identity · 5 min
Building Fortify: The Reality of Auth with Appwrite — What Worked and What I'm Ripping Out
When you start building a banking app, you realize pretty quickly that authentication is about a lot more than just a username and a password. By the time a user actually creates an account in Fortify, they’ve handed over their full name, address, date of birth, and the last four digits of their Social Security number. It feels like a lot for a registration form — because it is. But as I found out, those requirements aren't just arbitrary hurdles I decided to throw in the way.
· Stack & Architecture · 5 min
Building Fortify: Why I Picked This Stack
Choosing a tech stack for your average web app is a solved problem. You have your favorites, the trade-offs are well-known, and the path is clear. But fintech is a different beast.