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working demo

I'm excited to share my latest project – Next Pizza, a pizza ordering web application that I've been working on. While it's still a work in progress, I wanted to document what I've built so far, but also be honest about my doubts, experiments, and learning process along the way.

What is Next Pizza?

Next Pizza is a modern web application for browsing and ordering pizzas, sauces, and drinks. The app features:

• An interactive product catalog with detailed information
• A fully functional shopping cart system
• Smooth navigation between different product categories
• A clean, responsive interface with an orange-themed design

The project started as a relatively simple idea, but quickly turned into a playground for testing new tools, architectural decisions, and my own limits as a developer.

Tech Stack

For this project, I chose to work with:

• Next.js 14+ with the App Router
• React with functional components and hooks
• TypeScript for type safety
• Tailwind CSS for styling
• Context API for state management (shopping cart)
• Storybook for component development and documentation
• Vitest for unit testing
• Git & GitHub for version control

Some of these choices felt very natural, while others raised more questions than answers.

Key Learnings & Reflections

Working on this project has been a valuable learning experience – not only technically, but also in terms of decision‑making.

1. State Management (Still a Struggle)

Managing global state is still something I actively wrestle with. Redux feels too complex for an application of this size, so I decided to stick with React's native Context API. While it works, I can feel its limitations and know that this is an area I need to deepen my understanding of.

2. Component Design

Creating reusable components like CardTile helped me better understand component composition and props. However, this also made me question how far to go with abstraction in a relatively small project.

3. Storybook – Useful or Overkill?

I added Storybook to the project, although I'm still not entirely sure if I truly need it here. The app doesn't have many components or visual variants, so I'm probably not using Storybook to its full potential.

Realistically, Storybook would shine much more in a larger, more ambitious project. And that led me to a new idea.

4. Future Idea: Recruitment App

I noticed that websites like justjoin.it don't have a dedicated mobile app. That sparked an idea: building a recruitment app loosely inspired by their platform. This feels like a project where Storybook, design systems, and scalable component architecture would make much more sense.

5. Testing with Vitest & AI

I added unit tests across the entire application using Vitest – with some help from GitHub Copilot. To be completely honest: I roughly understand what I'm pasting in.

If I had to write these tests entirely from scratch, it would probably take me 3x longer. For now, I consciously use AI as a learning accelerator rather than pretending I don't. My goal is to gradually move from "assisted understanding" to real confidence.

6. UI/UX Details

Small UX decisions, like auto‑opening the cart when a product is added, showed me how impactful tiny details can be for the overall user experience.

7. Styling with Tailwind

Tailwind CSS continues to be my go‑to tool for fast iteration. It allows me to move quickly while keeping the UI consistent and readable.

Work in Progress

Next Pizza is still evolving. Features I'm planning to add include:

• [ ] Backend integration for real order processing
• [ ] User authentication
• [ ] Order history
• [ ] Payment integration
• [ ] More product customization options

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Building Next Pizza has been less about creating a perfect app and more about learning through experimentation, uncertainty, and iteration. This project reflects where I am right now as a developer – curious, sometimes unsure, but consistently moving forward.

GitHub Repository: NextPizza