Product Lab Showcase
Orbit
Relationship-management product for meaningful connection tracking, emotional context, and smart reminders.
- Tech Stack
- Next.js 16 React 19 TypeScript Three.js React Three Fiber Framer Motion Appwrite Tailwind CSS v4
- Project Type
- Personal Product Lab
Product Concept
How it works & why I built it
A personal CRM reimagined for genuine relationships, combining contact history, relationship health visualization, and mood-based journaling.
My Role & Engineering Scope
Product concept, UX direction, frontend implementation, Appwrite auth and data modeling, 3D visualization, contact history, reminder logic, and secure asset loading.
Problem
People often lose touch with meaningful connections because standard tools are either too manual, too sterile, or built around sales pipelines.
Concept
Orbit reframes CRM mechanics around relationship health, emotional energy, and timely interventions instead of leads and business status.
Built
- Dark-mode-first Next.js interface with interactive product screens.
- Appwrite Magic Link authentication and server-side session handling.
- 3D relationship galaxy, journal timeline, contact history, and reminder workflows.
Product Highlights
- 3D orbit map visualizing contacts by relationship cadence and connection strength.
- Smart reminder engine flags drifting relationships against user-defined cadences.
- Mood-based journaling connects interaction history with emotional energy.
Key Features
3D Orbit Visualization
An interactive spatial map that represents contacts by interaction frequency and connection strength.
It turns relationship health into an immediate visual check instead of another flat list.
Smart Interventions
Reminder logic compares elapsed time since last contact against a chosen cadence.
This helps prevent relationship drift without relying on memory alone.
Emotion and Energy Tracking
Interaction logs capture mood context and energy scores tied to individual relationships.
It moves the product from utility tracking toward personal well-being.
Unified Timeline Journal
A combined timeline of activity logs, reflections, mood entries, and relationship history.
The product becomes more valuable as connection history compounds over time.
Secure File Proxies
Contact avatars are fetched through an Appwrite Server SDK proxy.
Private file access stays behind the server boundary instead of exposing bucket reads directly.
UX Decisions
- Used emotional vocabulary like energy, drifting, and steady instead of sales CRM language.
- Designed a calm dark glass interface to support the space-like relationship map.
- Kept domain hierarchy consistent through standardized page headers and color-coded sections.
- Included reduced motion support around heavier animation and 3D interactions.
Engineering Decisions
- Used Next.js Server Actions instead of a separate REST layer for core product workflows.
- Kept Appwrite Admin SDK access on the server and scoped queries by user ID.
- Proxied sensitive file requests so client views do not need direct bucket access.
- Paired React Hook Form with Zod validation and normalized form submissions.
Challenges
- Balancing Three.js and motion polish with accessibility, focus states, and baseline usability.
- Synchronizing server-fetched data with interactive 3D and timeline views without adding heavy client state.
- Modeling contacts, mood logs, journal entries, and reminder cadence rules in Appwrite documents.
Outcome
Turned a relationship-management idea into a functional product experience blending 3D visualization, emotional tracking, and full-stack technical execution.