Overview
As Lead Developer on a team of 5, I led development of a virtual workspace platform designed for distributed teams. The product combined video conferencing, spatial 3D meeting rooms, real-time whiteboarding, and document collaboration - all accessible from web browsers and native desktop applications.
The Challenge
Build a unified productivity platform for remote teams across Web, macOS, Windows, and Linux.
- Teams using 5+ different tools for remote collaboration (Zoom, Miro, Slack, etc.)
- No spatial awareness in meetings - participants felt disconnected
- Platform-specific apps meant inconsistent experiences across teams
Technical Approach
- Architected monorepo with shared React component library across web and Electron
- Built 3D meeting rooms using Three.js with spatial audio positioning
- Integrated Agora SDK for low-latency video with custom layout engine
- Created real-time whiteboard using Konva.js with CRDT-based synchronization
Key Decisions
Monorepo with Nx over separate repositories
Enabled 85% code sharing between web and desktop while maintaining platform-specific optimizations
Three.js for 3D over Unity WebGL
Faster load times and better integration with React ecosystem
Agora over self-hosted WebRTC
Global edge network provided consistent quality without infrastructure complexity
Results
- 85% code reuse across web, macOS, Windows, and Linux clients
- 25% faster initial load compared to competing Electron apps
- Spatial audio meetings increased perceived engagement in user studies
Lessons Learned
- Monorepos require investment in tooling but pay dividends at scale
- 3D web experiences need aggressive LOD (level of detail) management
- Real-time collaboration needs conflict resolution strategy from day one