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Observatory · 27 topics · 6 constellations
Topics · the shared vocabulary

Star chart

27 ideas I keep coming back to, in six constellations. Pick a star to see every observation, mission and service that proves it.

/vocabulary · every star, listed

The vocabulary

The same list, for reading. Each word is a page.

Creative studios
Who I build for
Studios whose work is visual and physical, where the site has to show scale and craft rather than describe it.
Service businesses
Who I build for
Firms that sell expertise, like law, finance or consulting, where trust and clear answers do the selling.
Mission-led teams
Who I build for
Nonprofits and companies doing good, who need a site that explains the mission and is easy for a small team to keep up.
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Agencies + partners
Who I build for
Studios and agencies that bring me in for the interactive, 3D or CMS-heavy part of a bigger project.
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Webflow CMS
What I build
Collections, fields and templates shaped around how a team publishes, so pages build themselves from content.
Interactive 3D
What I build
Globes, maps and scenes visitors can turn, zoom and use to decide, fed by the CMS instead of hard-coded.
Motion + scroll
What I build
Scroll systems, reveals and drag physics built with GSAP and Lenis, with easing tuned by hand.
Brand identity
What I build
A mark, color and type built on a grid, so the brand holds up from a favicon to a billboard.
Design systems
What I build
Variables, components and type scales defined once, so page ten is as sharp as page one.
Discovery
How it gets built
The first conversation: goals, audience and what a win looks like, before anyone opens Figma.
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Prototyping
How it gets built
The key pieces built as a clickable prototype and reviewed together before the real build starts.
Custom code
How it gets built
Plain JavaScript for what Webflow can't do natively, kept in a repo instead of pasted into settings.
Versioned deploys
How it gets built
Every release tagged in GitHub and loaded from jsDelivr with an integrity hash, so any change can be rolled back.
Handoff
How it gets built
A walkthrough and a written guide, so the team owns the site, the files and the code after launch.
Mobile performance
What I watch for
Heavy visuals that still load fast on a phone: lazy loading, paused loops and a Lighthouse pass on every page.
Tap vs hover
What I watch for
A tap fires hover events too. Interactive pieces have to tell a finger from a mouse or they break on phones.
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Reduced motion
What I watch for
Respecting the system setting that asks for less movement, without turning the site into a static page.
Crawlable links
What I watch for
Every page you want found needs a real link in the HTML. Script-only navigation is invisible to search and AI tools.
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Scope creep
What I watch for
The slow drift of a project past its goal. Named early, it becomes a decision instead of a surprise.
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Perceived speed
What I watch for
How fast a site feels, which is not always how fast it is. Loading states and motion change the clock in your head.
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Philosophy at work
Why before how
Old questions about purpose and meaning, used as working tools for building websites.
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Science of time
Why before how
Physics and psychology of time, and what they say about waiting on a screen.
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Asking better questions
Why before how
The habit of asking why before how, so the brief describes the problem and not just the wish list.
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Saying no
Why before how
Turning down a good idea so the great one ships. The kindest thing a project can hear, early.
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Search + AI answers
Known for
Structured data, clear answers and connected pages, so search engines and AI assistants can tell what a site knows.
Knowledge System
Known for
A connected content system: a shared vocabulary, a library of answers and pages that link themselves when you tag an entry.
Micro-interaction
Known for
The small responses to a cursor, a tap or a scroll that make a site feel made by a person.