Custard's
Diary
-Vibe coding project
Project Overview
A self-initiated project where I built an automated photo calendar that syncs my cat’s daily photos from my phone alb to a cloud-based gallery, strengthening my skills in rapid self-learning.
How do I start?
I had accumulated thousands of photos of my cat, Custard, stored in a dedicated phone album. After updating to iOS 26, the album became harder to access and search, making it difficult to quickly retrieve and share photos with family and friends. This friction led me to the idea of creating a web based photo calendar that automatically uploads images from my phone, turning a personal pain point into a hands-free sharing experience.
The problem
The default iOS album experience is optimized for browsing, not for tracking growth or life progression.Also the iOS Photos album sharing feature is cumbersome, requiring multiple steps and relying heavily on iCloud, which complicates sharing my cat's growth journey. I needed a system that could transform my personal photo album into a time based visual narrative one that updates automatically and can be easily shared without adding friction to my daily routine..
Solution Overview
I immediately gravitated toward a calendar based website because it is universally accessible, naturally time oriented, and easy to share across devices. The system should:
Displays my daily photos in a monthly calendar view
Opens each date into a waterfall-style gallery that reflects the organic nature of real memories
Automatically uploads new photos from my iPhone using iOS Shortcuts
Uses Supabase for backend storage and database, fully integrated with the front-end generated in Lovable
This approach removed friction from both photo management and sharing, while turning everyday moments into a living timeline.
Displays my daily photos in a monthly calendar view
Opens each date into a waterfall-style gallery that reflects the organic nature of real memories
Automatically uploads new photos from my iPhone using iOS Shortcuts
Uses Supabase for backend storage and database, fully integrated with the front-end generated in Lovable
This approach removed friction from both photo management and sharing, while turning everyday moments into a living timeline.
As a designer who took ownership of both front end and back end for this project, I began by asking ChatGPT to help me structure a clear end to end workflow so I could think holistically about the system before designing the interface.
The process
Design
Automation: iPhone Shortcut Integration
To remove manual uploads, I built an iOS Shortcut that runs daily:
Filters today’s photos from my cat album
Converts them to web-friendly JPG
Automatically uploads them to Supabase Storage
Organizes them into date-based folders
This turned my personal photo habit into a passive data pipeline, every memory appears on the site without a tap.
Filters today’s photos from my cat album
Converts them to web-friendly JPG
Automatically uploads them to Supabase Storage
Organizes them into date-based folders
This turned my personal photo habit into a passive data pipeline, every memory appears on the site without a tap.
Technical Challenges
Reflect
This project pushed me beyond interface design into systems thinking. I had to think about how data moves across devices; how authentication models affect product flows; and how layout systems adapt to real world content varianceIt reinforced my belief that great UX is not only about beautiful screens, but about designing the invisible infrastructure behind them.