2 Hours of AI Coding - Smart Booking Form
That actually captures when customers are available
See the finished form yourself
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What You'll Learn
Smart Availability Picker
Pink Slips NSW Case Study
From bug to fix in 30 seconds with AI-assisted development
Most case studies show you the polished result. This one shows you the chaos. The bugs. The "stop everything we need to fix this immediately" moments. And how AI-assisted development actually works in the real world.
The Problem: Forms That Don't Capture Reality
I was building a quote form for a mobile pink slip (vehicle inspection) service. The form needed to capture when customers were available for their inspection. Simple enough, right?
The UX Problem
From 'it's broken' to 'it's live' in real-time
Version 1: The Basic Approach
The initial form had date range pickers, day of week checkboxes, and time preference checkboxes. If you selected "Monday" and "Morning + Afternoon", it applied to ALL Mondays. No granularity. No real availability capture.
Traditional vs AI-Assisted
Plan upfront, build perfect, debug for hours
Start with problem, build fast, fix in minutes
The Pivot: A Visual Grid
I asked myself: How do people actually think about their availability? They think in time slots. "I'm free Monday morning, Wednesday afternoon, and all day Friday." So I built a grid.
What We Built
- 1
Smart availability grid
- 2
Context-aware date selection
- 3
Real-time validation
- 4
Mobile-responsive design
The Bug: "Clicking One Slot Selects All Three"
I deployed the grid. Tested it. And discovered that clicking on "Monday Morning" selected Monday Morning, Afternoon, AND Evening. The logic was fundamentally broken.
The Root Cause
The Breakthrough: Rego Expiry as the Anchor
Then came the real insight. For a pink slip service, there's a natural deadline: when does your registration expire? What if we ask for the rego expiry date first, then show a calendar from today until that deadline?
What if we ask for the rego expiry date first, then show a calendar from today until that deadline?
From dropdowns to smart grid with AI assistance
Ask rego expiry date first
Sets the context and deadline for the customer
Calendar appears dynamically
Shows only relevant dates between now and deadline
Deadline highlighted in amber
Visual urgency without being pushy
No scrolling needed
Calendar fits the actual timeframe perfectly
The Edge Case: "My Rego is Already Expired"
Just when I thought it was done, a new requirement emerged. Some customers have already expired registration. Others want to book after their expiry date. "Already expired" wasn't a bug - it was a real user scenario we needed to handle.
The messy process IS the content. Most developers hide the chaos. I'm showing it because it's more honest.
— Jordan James
The Real-Time Development Process
Here's what AI-assisted development actually looks like. It's not magic - it's rapid iteration with a thinking partner that can generate code as fast as you can describe problems.
The AI Development Loop
- Describe the problem - 'The availability picker is clunky'
- Get a solution - AI generates the grid component
- Test immediately - Find bugs in real-time
- Iterate fast - 'Clicking one slot selects all three'
- Fix and redeploy - Minutes, not hours
- Discover edge cases - 'What about expired rego?'
- Repeat until done
What I Learned
This project reinforced some fundamental truths about development. The data model matters more than the UI. Context creates clarity. Edge cases are features, not bugs. And rapid iteration beats perfect planning every time.
Traditional Approach
- Plan everything upfront
- Build the 'perfect' solution
- Handle edge cases later
- Debug for hours
- Ship when 'ready'
AI-Assisted Approach
- Start with the problem
- Build something that works
- Discover edge cases by testing
- Fix bugs in minutes
- Ship fast, iterate faster
The Meta Moment
This blog exists because I hit problems, solved them in real-time, and thought: 'This is interesting content.'
The Final Result
Pink Slips NSW Series
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Smart Availability Picker
Pink Slips NSW Case Study
From bug to fix in 30 seconds with AI-assisted development
From 'it's broken' to 'it's live' in real-time
Traditional vs AI-Assisted
Plan upfront, build perfect, debug for hours
Start with problem, build fast, fix in minutes
What We Built
- 1
Smart availability grid
- 2
Context-aware date selection
- 3
Real-time validation
- 4
Mobile-responsive design
From dropdowns to smart grid with AI assistance
The messy process IS the content. Most developers hide the chaos. I'm showing it because it's more honest.
— Jordan James
The Meta Moment
This blog exists because I hit problems, solved them in real-time, and thought: 'This is interesting content.'
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We build smart forms that capture real user intent. Context-aware date pickers, availability grids, and mobile-responsive designs - all powered by AI-assisted development.
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