Tabtastic Visit

Made with Vue.js, TypeScript, Node.js & Sass

Tabtastic is a platform for organising and running debating competitions, which I have been developing continuously in my spare time since September 2020, undergoing multiple evolutions over time. Tabtastic was initially created to solve the logistical challenges associated with moving debating competitions online as a result of the pandemic and its associated restrictions. Tournament organisers found it quite difficult to efficiently handle typical parts of competitions in the new Zoom-based format, like checking in participants, directing them to the rooms for their debates and announcing motions. Early versions of Tabtastic ran a simple Discord bot which integrated directly with the standard scorekeeping software, Tabbycat, to handle things like online check ins, announcements and generating Zoom breakout room allocations necessary for that round. These early versions were very successful at drastically reducing the amount of manual work and delay in online tournaments and ended up being widely adopted, including for some high profile international tournaments. The first major evolution took the Discord bot and evolved it into a more fully-featured web app, allowing users to more easily configure their tournament online, but also integrating additional functionality for collecting participant information and handling pre-tournament registration. As Tabtastic continued to evolve, it incorporated more features such as browsable tournament pages, streamlined participant management, emailing out registration codes, allowing institutions to register for spots, and more.

Tabtastic is still in active development, and has been used for the European, Australasian and World debating championships. The frontend is currently written using Vue.js with TypeScript and Sass, and the backend is currently using Node.js with TypeScript. Tabtastic interacts with a range of services via their APIs, including Stripe, Discord, Zoom and AWS. Tabtastic has always had an emphasis on user experience, many of Tabtastic’s users do not have a technical background, so ensuring that the software is intuitive and simple to use has been very important for its success. I have learned about UX and system design continuously over the 3.5 years of Tabtastic’s development, attempting to incorporate new best practices and ideas I have learned into the platform. There are still more features I want to integrate into Tabtastic, and I would like to do a major UI overhaul to reinvigorate Tabtastic with a new, more modern style.