Tools: I Finally Built a Resizable Sidebar UI – A Personal Milestone in My Developer Journey

What This UI Does ## The Bigger Picture ## What’s Next ## Reflection ## TikTok Demo 🎥 I successfully implemented a fully resizable sidebar UI — the same style you see in tools like VS Code, where you can drag the edge and adjust the width with your mouse. For many developers, this might look like a small feature. For me, it was a dream I had 3–4 months ago. Back then, I used to wonder how professional applications create such smooth UI interactions. I didn’t fully understand concepts like useRef, mouse event handling, or dynamic layout control. They felt complicated and out of reach. But today, I didn’t just understand them — I built the feature myself from scratch. This wasn’t just about resizing a panel. It was about finally connecting theory with real implementation. This app is actually part of a course project, but I decided not to leave it in its default state. I completely redesigned the UI and gave it a fresh new look. The main purpose of this app is to deeply understand two core concepts: Instead of just finishing the course tasks, I pushed myself to improve the design and functionality so the learning would be practical, not just theoretical. Now that the resizable sidebar is complete, the next steps are: This project started as a learning exercise, but it’s slowly turning into something I’m genuinely proud of. A few months ago, this kind of UI felt advanced. Today, it’s part of my skill set. It’s not the size of the feature that matters — it’s the confidence you gain after building it. Small wins like these quietly change your mindset from “Can I do this?” to “I know how to do this.” I also uploaded a short TikTok video showing how the resizable sidebar looks in action. If anyone wants to see the visual result, you can watch it here: [https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSaqqPW83/] Templates let you quickly answer FAQs or store snippets for re-use. Are you sure you want to hide this comment? It will become hidden in your post, but will still be visible via the comment's permalink. Hide child comments as well For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse - Sidebar width adjusts dynamically with mouse drag - Minimum and maximum width limits are applied - The main container stays stable while resizing - Event listeners are handled properly - Cleanup is implemented to avoid memory leaks - Routing – how navigation works inside an application - CSS Modules – how to manage styling in a scalable and clean way - Upgrading text and UI elements - Adding more interactive features - Improving usability and polish