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The Current State of Deescalator: Progress, Challenges, and Next Steps

Authors
  • avatar
    Name
    Pol Enault
    Twitter

The Current State of Deescalator

Since starting Deescalator, I’ve been on a journey to create a platform that helps people log, analyze, and reflect on their conflicts. It’s a personal project that has taught me as much about software development as it has about human relationships. Here’s an overview of where the app stands today and the road ahead.

The Frontend: Your Portal to Deescalator

The frontend is a React + Vite + Mantine app, designed to be simple yet effective. Here's what you can do with it:

  • Log, view, edit, and delete fights with detailed attributes:
    • Participants, intensity, time of day, context, custom tags, and more.
  • View insights and stats about your conflict history, including a fight calendar.

💡 Limitation: For now, the app is only used by my partner and me. It’s a web app running on mobile browsers with hard-coded user accounts, so it’s not ready for public use yet.

Fight calendar

The Backend: The Brains of the Operation

The backend processes all the requests from the frontend, handling tasks like:

  • Managing the database
  • Supporting fight data operations

While it works, there’s room to grow:

  • Adding safety measures to validate user inputs
  • Evolving beyond a basic database wrapper to support batch analytics and computation
  • Exploring Single Sign-On (SSO) for easier user authentication

The Landing Page and Blog: Sharing the Journey

The landing page isn’t just about the app; it’s about building a community.

  • You can sign up for the newsletter to stay updated on the app’s progress.
  • Blog posts (like this one) share the story behind the app, its development, and lessons learned.

Challenges and Learnings

This is my first time building a full-stack app from the ground up, including the database, backend, frontend, hosting, and SEO. Every part has been a learning curve:

  • Frontend: Building an intuitive, mobile-friendly UI.
  • Backend: Ensuring performance, scalability, and security.
  • Everything else: SEO, hosting, analytics, the science and best practises behind fight resolution...

Next Steps

  1. Single Sign-On (SSO): Simplifying user authentication and preparing for public accounts.
  2. More Insights: Expanding the analytics and stats available to users.
  3. Beta Testing: Opening the app to a small group of beta users.
  4. Safety and Security: Improving input validation and general safety measures.

Deescalator has come a long way since I started using it for myself back in September. Every feature, tweak, and fix is informed by real-life usage, and I’m excited to keep building.

If you’re interested in joining the journey, sign up for the newsletter and stay tuned. The best is yet to come!