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.
· Product & UX · 5 min
Beyond Design: Why I’m Building a Banking App
I'm a developer. I want to be clear about that from the beginning—not because anyone is arguing the point, but because my background makes it easy for people to assume otherwise. In the past, that assumption has cost me more than I'd like to admit.