I'm Walking Here

Shipped: My First Production App

July 30, 2025

The Melrose Loop walking guide went live this week.

It's a mobile discovery app for Seattle Convention Center visitors who want to explore Capitol Hill during conference breaks. Pick food, coffee, drinks, whatever - get an interactive map with walking directions to 15+ local businesses.

Nothing revolutionary, but it works and people can use it.

And if you’re the kind of person who likes to feed source code into a chatbot to see what’s going on behind the scenes—good news: I already did it for you.

Security: The site scores an A+ on SSL Labs, with strong encryption, modern TLS protocols, and no known vulnerabilities.

Headers: All major HTTP security headers are in place—Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security, X-Frame-Options, and more.

Performance: Lightweight and fast-loading, especially on mobile

Privacy: No third-party trackers or analytics scripts detected

Accessibility: Room for improvement—semantic HTML and ARIA roles could be enhanced [I'm on it]

The website is half the solution. Physical QR cards complete the experience:

Pre-printed category cards (Food, Coffee, Drinks, etc.)
Customizable "Our Favorites" tent cards for businesses
Each links to mobile-optimized guides

Back in the Game

Thirty years ago, I was a database developer. Twenty years ago, building small websites. Since then, I've been writing extensively about technology for B2B magazines and consulting clients.

But this is my first full-stack web deployment for real users.

The fundamentals haven't changed: understand the problem, build a solution, ship it. Modern tools just make everything faster.

The Melrose Loop guide is live. Time to build the next one.