Vocabulary Mogul: Turning Aspiration into Reality
In the Pursuit of a Richer Vocabulary: A Personal Project Comes to Life
Vocabulary Mogul is my third major project, blending personal use with an exploration of versatile frameworks and database technologies.
Over years of reading, I accumulated over 500 vocabulary entries in my iPhone's notes app. To transform this into something functional, I wrote a Python script to populate a Supabase database with the entire list, setting the foundation for this application.
Exploring New Territory: Embracing Angular
Creating Vocabulary Mogul was an opportunity to expand beyond familiar tools like Next.js. I chose Angular to challenge myself and gained valuable insights into its Model-View-Controller architecture and component-based approach.
Key services included user authentication, which integrated with MongoDB, and a vocabulary-fetching service powered by Supabase. Learning to inject these services into components for dynamic rendering was a rewarding experience.
A glimpse of Vocabulary Mogul's dynamic background and authenticated user interface.
Balancing Simplicity with Modern UI/UX Design
The application's design emphasizes simplicity, with a clean layout and ample white space. One of the more challenging features was implementing a dynamic, sliding background. While the final version achieves my initial vision, it required extensive troubleshooting to refine animation timing and reduce visual artifacts.
Though there are minor issues like occasional "rubberbanding," I’m proud of the solution and look forward to future iterations to perfect this feature.
Mobile Optimization: A Key Learning Moment
Vocabulary Mogul was primarily designed for larger screens, which created challenges in adapting it for mobile devices. This highlighted the importance of mobile-first design, a principle I will prioritize in future projects. While the mobile experience needs refinement, this project serves as a stepping stone in mastering responsive design.
Despite these hurdles, the application's core functionality—a learning algorithm designed to enhance vocabulary retention—operates seamlessly. It represents a significant milestone in my development journey.
Vocabulary Mogul helps users build a stronger vocabulary through gradual, engaging quizzes.
The Future of Vocabulary Mogul: A Unified Vision
I envision combining Vocabulary Mogul with features from my other projects, such as Biblio-Tech, to create a comprehensive application for readers and writers. Potential integrations include Google Books' database, advanced learning algorithms, and user-submitted short stories.
With time, this application could evolve into a powerful tool for linguistic and creative growth, possibly incorporating machine learning technologies to offer personalized recommendations and insights.