I had a grand vision one day: what if I could build a text-only news app? I’d call it Abate: News Simplified. No ads, videos, or photos—literally just text. CNN and NPR already have something like this, but I wanted multiple text-only news sources in one place.

The Whoopsies

So, I started designing and dreaming, building and scheming. Then I read the fine print on some of the news sites I was hoping to aggregate with my app. Eesh, talk about bad news! I discovered that I was on the verge of something potentially illegal. (Cue the miniature violin).

The Wowzers

While I did need to stop official production of this news app, completely canning the idea seemed like a waste. I’d already spent a significant amount of time designing and coding!

That’s when it hit me. I could use my experiences from building this app to show others how to do something similar (except, more legal this time of course).

Where We’re Headed

So guess what? That’s exactly what I will do in this next series of articles and videos. Here’s a little taste of what we’ll learn together:

Planning an app you’re building yourself (not with a team)
Designing an app identity
Creating a Figma design system
Setting up Next.js and Tailwind
Developing the front end
Building a Next.js API
Enabling light mode and dark mode
Deploying a Next.js app with Vercel

I can’t wait to learn together with you. Let me know if there is something specific you’d like me to cover! Cheers for now!