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30 minutes with a stranger

(pudding.cool)
1103 points MaxLeiter | 3 comments | 04 Sep 25 05:56 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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pavlov ◴[04 Sep 25 07:20 UTC] No.45124523[source]▶
Really great design.

This is the unicorn of fancy websites because for once, it actually makes sense to override browser's standard scrolling behavior. The 30-minute timeline on the right provides an obvious context for what you're navigating with the scroll actions, and you wouldn't be able to do that with a regular scrollbar.

Usually scrolling overrides happen because the designers' mindset was that the site should be a sequence of beautiful slides. They might prototype it as a Keynote presentation that is approved by management. And then some poor web developer gets tasked with building a site that feels like the Keynote slide show that everyone loved, and the only way to do that is to turn scrolling into an annoying "next slide" action.

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1. darkwater ◴[04 Sep 25 07:44 UTC] No.45124684[source]▶
I'm with you and I actually love these "special scrolling" websites. They are much closer to a truly work of art exactly because of the different design.

To the haters: why do we have churches or buildings with marble statues in the walls or column instead of a standard stone wall, which was designed to do the job in a standard way?

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2. pbhjpbhj ◴[04 Sep 25 08:29 UTC] No.45124987[source]▶
Niches (recesses in walls for statues) and columns in church buildings are actually central features that serve the primary purpose of the building.

Niches provide spaces for statues for remembering the dead, or prayers and veneration (for Catholics), enhancing the link between the spiritual and corporeal realms. Arguably they're also used to encourage payments from patrons for a church building's upkeep or construction.

Columns allow spaces within a building to be connected, ensuring the body of the church (the people) can worship and receive teaching together. They can also reduce material cost of construction.

Yes, for historic church buildings decoration was applied, ornate capitals in the pillars and such; bright, garish paint on the statues and everything -- and expression of the vitality of the building and of worship to God.

I think perhaps your analogy needs buttressing (heh!) to make it clear? All I got really was 'I like the scrolling'.

Maybe a revolving door is a good scrollbar analogue - it's central to access to a space (website), some people hate them, but used properly they enhance access (they're really good for limiting heat exchange with the outside when compared with regular doors!).

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3. darkwater ◴[04 Sep 25 09:56 UTC] No.45125477[source]▶
All these things you mention are corollary to the construction of the building per-se, but are central to the "spirit" of the building. The same applies with this kind of websites and scrolling. The website has a goal in itself, uses a more creative scrolling feature as both a way to better convey the information and a work of art to be more attractive to the eye.

My parallel was that the typical HNer just ignores this and think "don't touch my browser standard scrolling behavior", that would be akin to someone just wanting a plain wall to keep the roof up, ignoring everything else: "I pray there anyway, I don't need that statue to remember it".