Case study
Beyond Ordinary
A social space for posts, comments, likes, profiles, follows, notifications, and one-to-one chats. Built with Laravel, React, Inertia, and PostgreSQL with invite-only alpha access.
- My role
- Own product. Design, full-stack development, and deployment, built solo.
- Status
- Live at beyondordinary.art, alpha access by invitation.
- Stack
- LaravelReactInertiaPostgreSQL
The problem
I wanted to build a real social network with all the features—posts, follows, notifications, direct messages—to explore what a small, design-forward social space could feel like.
What I built
- Full social graph: posts, comments, likes, follows, blocks, and notifications.
- One-to-one chat with five-second refresh and message delivery.
- Server-rendered React with Inertia; invite-only alpha access with moderation queue.
- Light and dark modes with device sync and per-browser preference persistence.
- PostgreSQL, Redis queue worker, and Stalwart email integration for invites and notifications.
Key decision
Built with Laravel and React because I wanted a backend that scales and a frontend that feels responsive and intentional. Server rendering means every page loads fast, and Inertia keeps the data flow smooth.