Skip to content

No.35 · Buttons

Magnetic Button

A button with a pull: as the pointer comes near the pill leans toward it, the label leans further, and on leaving it springs back with a little overshoot.

The prompt

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

Build a pill button (56px; solid colours from --bg and --fg, plus a ghost style with a hairline ring) that is magnetic. A window pointermove listener measures the pointer's offset from the button's centre; within a reach of 140px plus half the button's size, the target offset is that vector × 0.32 × (1 − d/reach)^0.6, so the pull is strongest close in and fades smoothly. The pill's translate follows the target on a spring (velocity += (target − x)·0.16, ×0.74 damping per frame), so letting go springs back with a small overshoot; the label translates a further 40% of the same offset for parallax. A soft white radial light (120px) sits under the pointer inside the pill and its strength and the drop shadow's depth grow with the pull. Press scales to 0.96. The loop runs only while the spring is moving, and the effect is off on touch and under reduced motion.

Notes

Interaction
Bring the pointer near and the button leans toward it; press to click.
Motion
Spring stiffness 0.16, damping 0.74; press 180ms.
Accessibility
A normal button; the magnetism is pointer-only and removed under reduced motion and on touch, so keyboard and touch use is unaffected.
Responsive
Sized by its label; works at any width.
On touch
Taps work normally; pointer-only effects are skipped on touch.

Featured

01Glassbreak ButtonA solid plate that fractures from one impact point, cracks racing outward as the shards drift apart.04Liquid GlassA capsule of glass that bends what's behind it, carries a specular highlight around its rim toward your pointer, and squashes like a drop of liquid when pressed.07Phosphor Glass ButtonA liquid-glass pill that senses you coming: its rim light turns to face the cursor and the pill leans in to meet it.08Iris ShutterAn async button with a camera iris for a status light — blades close and turn while it works, then open onto the result.
81Atmosphere CardSmoked-glass link cards: colour pooled in the corners, slow contour currents underneath, a field that leans toward you.93Eclipse Event CardAn editorial event plate with an oversized date and an orbital eclipse bleeding in from the right, alive with slow drift.94Specimen CardAn object mounted under glass: hover lifts the pane with a sweep of reflection and swings out a paper catalogue tag.
95Silk FieldDomain-warped light that pours like liquid silk, with an optional glass lens that refracts the flow under your cursor.106IsobarA living weather map — contour lines traced over a drifting pressure field, with your cursor as a system of its own.
151Prompt ComposerA chat composer where attached files tuck into its top edge like tabs in a folder — they rise from behind it when added and sink back when removed. Send turns into stop while the reply streams.157Aura FieldA writing field where colour only exists while the AI is touching your text: the edge becomes a turning band of light and the words are rewritten in place, one by one, out of a soft blur.
205Halftone CTAA tall CTA banner where slow gold paint drifts beneath a fixed halftone grid, visible only through the dots.
212Nocturne Sign-inA single quiet column on near-black with a breathing seam of frost light behind it — email, password, magic link, nothing more.222Sigil Sign-inA split sign-in whose left half grows a geometric mark from your email — the same address always draws the same sigil.
275Voices CarouselA testimonial exhibition: one large quote at a time on frosted glass, crossfading between voices without ever resizing.
279Feral TitleA brutal condensed wordmark — heartbeat in the dark, letters slam in, a gash tears through and the word bleeds.
301 components