I Built the TV Dashboard Before I Had Real Data, So I Faked a Whole Family

On August 3 I built a Roku dashboard that runs on made-up data: a fake family and a fake day, with no network calls. I wanted to see the layout and the remote control working on a real Roku before any real data existed. It was 28 files and about 3,000 lines.

The design handoff had a frozen clock at 7:42 AM. I chose a real one instead, so the red NOW line moves, countdowns tick and past events drop off the screen. The fake day shifts onto your actual time when the app starts, so it makes sense whenever you load it.

Real data came next. This is the start of the timeline on the TV.

Built on August 3, 2026 (commit 457024b). Written up on October 2, 2026 from my commit history.