Building Tourinator v2.0 from 30,000 Feet

Sometimes the best coding sessions happen in the most unexpected places. For Tourinator v2.0, that place was seat 14A on a cross-country flight, with my phone as my only development tool.

The Challenge

Tourinator needed a visual refresh. The original light theme served us well, but modern users expect dark mode, and the design was showing its age. We needed:

A complete dark zinc color scheme across 15+ templates
A new multi-step signup wizard
Dynamic terminology for different user types (real estate agents vs tour guides)
Mobile-responsive improvements throughout

Normally, this would be a multi-day project at a desk with multiple monitors. Instead, I had a 4-hour flight, spotty WiFi, and my iPhone.

Enter Claude Code

I have been using Claude Code for development work, but this trip pushed it to a new level. The workflow was surprisingly natural:

Prototyping: I described the dark zinc aesthetic I wanted—zinc-950 backgrounds, indigo accents, ring-style borders. Claude generated HTML prototypes I could review right in the conversation.
Template Migration: One by one, we converted each template. "Migrate the dashboard to dark zinc theme" became a back-and-forth where Claude would read the existing template, apply the new patterns, and show me the changes.
Testing: Claude ran the Django test suite after each major change. When tests failed (the new signup wizard broke some old test assumptions), we fixed them together.
Deployment: By the end of the flight, we had committed, tagged v2.0, pushed to GitHub, and updated both staging and production containers.

What We Built

The v2.0 release includes:

Dark Zinc Theme
- Consistent dark backgrounds (zinc-950, zinc-900, zinc-800)
- Indigo accent colors for interactive elements
- Ring-style borders replacing traditional borders
- Inter font for improved readability

Multi-Step Signup Wizard
- Step 1: Choose your industry (Real Estate or Tourism)
- Step 2: Select your role (Agent/Broker or Guide/Company)
- Step 3: Create your account

22 Files Changed
- 2,500+ lines added
- 1,700+ lines removed
- 197 unit tests passing

The Phone Development Experience

Typing code on a phone sounds painful, but Claude Code changes the equation. I was not typing code—I was having a conversation:

"Make the sidebar navigation use the dark theme"
"The login page should be a centered card on zinc-950 background"
"Run the tests and fix any failures"

Claude handled the actual code generation, file editing, and command execution. My job was creative direction and review.

The limiting factor was not the phone—it was airplane WiFi dropping occasionally. But Claude Code handles disconnections gracefully, picking up right where we left off.

Lessons Learned

1. Constraints breed creativity. Being limited to phone input forced me to think in higher-level terms rather than getting lost in implementation details.

2. AI-assisted development is mobile-ready. The future of coding is not about typing faster—it is about communicating intent clearly.

3. Ship it. By the time we landed, v2.0 was live in production. No "I will finish this when I get home." Done is better than perfect.

Try It Yourself

Tourinator is a self-guided tour platform for real estate agents and tour guides. Check out the new dark theme and see what AI-assisted development can do.

Released: December 27, 2025
Written from: Somewhere over Kansas, then polished on the ground