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 ? It will become hidden in your post, but will still be visible via the comment's permalink. as well , this person and/or - 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