Building Super Noddles: Learning the Basics of Next.js Project

 

Category: Web Development | Next.js | React

Project: Super Noddles
Year: 2026

Introduction

As part of my journey into learning Next.js, I decided to build a small project called Super Noddles.

The main purpose of this project was to practise the fundamentals of Next.js and understand how to structure a web application using the App Router. Since I am still a beginner, I wanted to focus on understanding the basics before moving on to more advanced functionality.

Rather than starting with a complicated application, I chose something simple and interesting: a noodle recipe and community website.

What is Super Noddles?

Super Noddles is a concept for a community-based noodle recipe website where people can discover different noodle recipes, explore ingredients, read cooking instructions, and eventually share their own recipes with other food lovers.

The idea is to create a platform where users can find different ways of preparing noodles, from simple instant noodle meals to more creative recipes.

For this project, I created different pages to represent how the website would work, including a homepage, community recipe section, individual recipe pages, account pages, About page, and Contact page.

The main focus, however, was the frontend: building the pages, organising the components, creating the layouts, and making the website visually appealing.

My Main Focus: Learning the Basics of Next.js

Since I am still getting familiar with Next.js, I used this project as an opportunity to practise some of its core concepts.

My focus was on:

• App Router: Understanding how folders and files create routes in Next.js.

• Pages and Layouts: Learning how to organise pages and share common layouts across the application.

• Reusable Components: Building components such as the navbar, footer, breadcrumb navigation, forms, and image slideshow.

• Dynamic Routing: Using dynamic routes such as /community/[slug] to display individual recipe pages.

• Server and Client Components: Understanding when to use Server Components and when a component needs "use client".

• CSS Modules: Styling components independently to keep the project organised.

• Working with Images: Displaying recipe images and creating an animated image slideshow.

I wanted to understand how these concepts fit together when building a real application.

Using Dummy Data

Because the main focus was learning frontend development, I used dummy recipe data to populate the website.

This allowed me to display different recipes without needing to build a complete system where users submit and manage their own recipes.

Each sample recipe contains information such as:

• Recipe title

• Recipe image

• Description

• Cooking time

• Difficulty level

• Number of servings

• Ingredients

• Cooking instructions

I also explored storing these recipes in a local SQLite database using better-sqlite3. This gave me an opportunity to practise retrieving data and displaying it on the frontend.

The sample data made it easier to concentrate on the user interface and understand how information is passed from the data source to the pages.

Technologies Used

• Next.js – Application structure, routing, and layouts.

• React – Reusable UI components.

• TypeScript – Type-safe development.

• SQLite – Local recipe data storage.

• better-sqlite3 – Database connectivity.

• CSS Modules – Component-level styling.

What I Built

The project currently includes:

• A homepage with a hero section and animated image slideshow.

• A navigation bar and breadcrumb navigation.

• A community page displaying recipe cards.

• Dynamic recipe detail pages.

• Login and registration interfaces.

• A forgot password page.

• About and Contact pages.

• A reusable footer.

These pages helped me practise how to divide a website into smaller components instead of building everything inside one page.

What I Learned

Working on Super Noddles helped me understand the basic structure of a Next.js application more practically.

I learned how to create routes using the App Router, organise components, reuse layouts, work with dynamic routes, and style individual components using CSS Modules.

I also gained a better understanding of Server Components and Client Components and how Next.js handles data on the server.

One of the most important lessons was that I do not need to understand every advanced feature before building something. Starting with the fundamentals and applying them in a small project is also an effective way to learn.

What I Plan to Improve

Super Noddles is currently a learning project, and there is still room for improvement.

Some of the features I would like to work on as my Next.js knowledge improves include:

• Implementing functional registration and login.

• Adding proper authentication and password security.

• Allowing users to submit their own recipes.

• Adding recipe editing and deletion.

• Improving the overall user experience.

• Preparing the application for deployment.

Final Thoughts

Super Noddles was an opportunity to put the Next.js fundamentals I have been learning into practice.

I intentionally kept the scope manageable because my priority was understanding the frontend structure and how the different Next.js features work together.

As a beginner, I believe building small projects, experimenting with different approaches, and learning from mistakes are important parts of becoming a better developer.

This is just the beginning of my Next.js journey, and Super Noddles is one of the projects helping me along the way.

GitHub Repo:https://github.com/Codedeveloper-MT/super-noddles.git

N.B:Read README.md to run project

One project at a time. One concept at a time. 🍜