Site experiment · first seen May 27, 2026

The IKEA Card Experiment

Open one project without leaving the collection. The selected card expands in place, surrounding cards preserve orientation, and the motion exists only to explain where the added evidence came from.

In-place preview FLIP object constancy Focus recovery Instant reduced motion

Try the project cards Download reproduction MD

Question

How can visitors inspect one artifact without losing the shape of the project collection?

Motion

One cancelable FLIP clock translates cards to their new positions while the active surface reveals inside a clip.

Recovery

Escape, outside dismissal, close, focus restoration, polite status, and reduced motion all end in the same valid state.

Origin

The IKEA PS 2026 collection story suggested a useful reading pattern: let one object open where it already lives, while the rest of the collection remains context. For an academic portfolio, that means the animation should preserve card identity and reveal evidence—not perform a product-launch flourish.

May 2715d94c048Introduced the in-place card preview and first FLIP layout transition.
May 27ee95cc681Added keyboard focus movement and recovery when a preview closes.
May 27fc5b8a444Added project-specific accents and short takeaways, but also layered several competing motions.
Jul 13c363fda85Made announcements and hidden-control focus recovery deterministic.

The current refinement removes nonuniform content scaling, expanded-image zoom, staggered panel keyframes, and the double scroll correction. Sibling cards translate only; the active card reveals within the same cancelable clock; the ordinary collapsed-card hover lift remains.