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No.177 · Overlays

Depth Dialog

A confirmation dialog in three planes: the page steps back, the object you're deciding about lifts out of its row and docks behind the dialog, and the decision sits in front. Cancel sends it home.

The prompt

The design brief behind this component — reuse it to regenerate, remix, or explain it.

Build a modal confirmation dialog where depth, not a dark overlay, carries the hierarchy: background → context → decision. Three planes. (1) The page — any element passed as stageRef — recedes subtly: scale 0.985, translateY 6px, blur 1.5px, saturate 0.8, corners rounding to 18px over 560ms (cubic-bezier(.2,.8,.2,1)), and becomes inert. A light scrim fades in. (2) The context: the row the action came from (anchorRef) fades to 30% as if its content lifted out, and a surface flies from that row's rect to a small card docked behind the top edge of the dialog (Web Animations on translate/width/height, 460ms). The card holds a compact summary — monogram, name, meta line — and fades its content in when the surface lands. It is tucked 14px under the panel so the layering reads physically. (3) The decision panel rises 14px and scales .97 → 1 (380ms, 70ms delay). Closing tells you what happened. Cancel, Escape or a backdrop click: the panel drops away and the surface flies back into its row, which returns to full opacity as it lands. Confirm: the card and panel leave together, because the object went with the decision. Production behaviour: role dialog (alertdialog for danger), aria-modal, labelled and described; focus goes to [data-autofocus] or Cancel, Tab is contained, focus is pulled back if it escapes, and it returns to the triggering control on close. onConfirm may return a promise — the button shows a spinner and busy label and cancel is disabled until it settles. confirmDisabled supports type-to-confirm. contained renders inside a positioned parent instead of portalling to body. Paper (ivory, ink) and Night themes. Actions stack full-width below 22rem (container query).

Notes

Interaction
Open either Danger zone action. Cancel to watch the project card fly home; confirm to watch it leave with the dialog.
Motion
Stage recession 560ms; context flight 460ms in / 400ms home; panel rise 380ms; confirm exit 240ms.
Accessibility
dialog / alertdialog with aria-modal, aria-labelledby and aria-describedby. The page is inert while open; focus is trapped and restored to the trigger. Escape and backdrop close unless dismissible is false or a confirm is in flight. Reduced motion (media query or motion="reduced") removes the recession, blur and flight: the planes simply fade in.
Responsive
Dialog width is min(100%, 28rem) with a 16px gutter; its body scrolls if content is tall. Actions stack below 22rem; the context card truncates.
On touch
Tap the scrim to cancel; everything else is a button.

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301 components