Adding spatial affordances to the experience of browsing the web
10 Examples of Affordances - The Boffins Portal
Affordance is a concept in design that refers to the possible actions or uses that an object or environment offers a user. It is the relationship between an object and the person using it and what the person perceives they can do with the object based on its physical characteristics. In other words, affordance is ... Read more
What are Affordances? — updated 2026
Affordances are the characteristics or properties of an object that suggest how it can be used. It shows a user that an object can be interacted with.
Ambient Co-presence
Creating a subtle, peripheral, and synchronous sense of shared space and context on the web
Toward Wayfinding Infrastructure for the Living Web · Atlas Research Group
Our world is getting crazier by the day. Our old maps and compasses weren’t made for this complexity. While new tools may open up amazing possibilities, they also make it easier to lose ourselves – especially when they don’t belong to us, and make us vulnerable to other people’s hidden choices and unsavory intentions about what is worth attending to.
The Dark Forest and the Cozy Web
An illustrated diagram exposing the inner layers of the dark and cozy web
The Design of Browsing and Berrypicking Techniques
Federating friendly spaces - Roomy
hearkening back to the cozy vibes of old-web neighborhoods
Making Space for a Handmade Web | Figma Blog
There’s a resurgence of small, handcrafted sites challenging the current trajectory of the internet. Joining the movement is as simple as making your own.
Architecture and the Internet: Designing places in cyberspace
Cyberspace, as the information space is called, has become accessible in the past decade through the World Wide Web. And although it can only be experienced through the mediation of computers, it is quickly becoming an alternative stage for everyday economic, cultural, and other human activities. As such, there is a potential and a need to design it according to place–like principles. Making places for human inhabitation is, of course, what architects, landscape architects, and town planners have been doing in physical space for thousands of years. It is curious, therefore, that Cyberspace designers have not capitalized on the theories, experiences, and practices that have been guiding physical place–making. While most 3D environments closely mimic physical spaces, they are, by and large, devoid of the essential characteristics that differentiate a ‘place’ from mere ‘space.’ And only rarely are they sensitive to, and take advantage of, the peculiarities of Cyberspace. We believe that this state of affairs is temporary, characteristic of early adoption stages of new technologies. As the Web matures, and as it assumes more fully its role as a destination rather than as means of communication, there will be a growing need to design it according to place–making principles. By looking at physical architecture as a case study and metaphor for organizing space into meaningful places, this paper explores the possibility of organizing Cyberspace into spatial settings that not only afford social interaction, but, like physical places, also embody and express cultural values. At the same time, because Cyberspace lacks materiality, is free from physical constraints, and because it can only be ‘inhabited’ by proxy, these ‘places’ may not necessarily resemble their physical counterparts.
Hypermedia Systems
The revolutionary ideas that empowered the Web. A simpler approach to building applications on the Web and beyond with htmx and Hyperview. Enhancing web applications without using SPA frameworks.
Building Glass for the Web
How we built a cross-browser glass effect for the web, and how it shapes a family of components.
Whimsical Animations
Learn how to create charming interactions and delightful touches using the magic of CSS, JavaScript, SVG, and Canvas. I’m sharing all my tricks in this one!
