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No.88 · Cards

Fan Deck

A stack of cards that behaves like a hand of them: at rest a tidy pile; reach for it and it fans out in an arc so you can see every card, the one you're over lifting; pick one and it comes up out of the hand and tucks in on top. Swipe or use the arrow keys to deal through.

The prompt

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

Build a deck of five itinerary cards (5:7, 250px, art on top, mono meta, serif title, a blurb shown only on the top card) that behaves like a hand of cards. Each card is a button absolutely stacked in the same box; its place in the pile i (0 = top) is a CSS variable, z-index n − i. Rest: a loose pile — translateY(5px·i) and a small alternating rotation (±1.5°·i). When the pointer enters the deck (or focus enters it) it fans: every card rotates by (0.5 − i/(n−1))·46° (top card to the right, deeper cards to the left so their corners and titles show) around a transform-origin far below the cards (50% 160%), so they spread on an arc like a hand; the card under the pointer lifts (translateY −48px, scale 1.03, a deeper shadow), the ones behind dim slightly. Transitions are 520ms with a slight overshoot. Picking a card (click, or Enter on the focused top card's neighbours via the arrows): it lifts clear of the hand (translateY −110px, −4°, z-index on top, 230ms), the order changes so it's on top, and it tucks back down into the pile while the others re-fan. Swipe left/right on the deck (≥40px within 600ms) or arrow keys deal to the next/previous card; ← → buttons under the deck do the same, with a polite live "Wadi Shab · 2 of 5". The top card is the only tabbable one and is aria-current; others are labelled "Bring … to the top". Themes: paper and night. Reduced motion: instant reordering, no transitions.

Notes

Interaction
Hover to fan the cards, click one to bring it to the top; swipe, arrow keys or the ← → buttons to deal through them.
Motion
Fan and settle 520ms with a slight overshoot; lift 230ms then tuck.
Accessibility
A labelled section of buttons; only the top card is in the tab order, arrows deal, and the current card is announced politely.
Responsive
Cards are min(250px, 62vw) wide; the fan's spread is angular, so it fits narrow screens.
On touch
Swipe across the deck to deal; tap a card to bring it up.

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301 components