Skip to content

No.15 · Buttons

Perimeter Hold

Hold to confirm: a line traces the outline while you press, unwinds if you let go, and fires when the lap completes.

The prompt

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

Design a hold-to-confirm button for destructive actions, where time is the input. It's a dark plum rounded rectangle (56px, 14px radius) with a faint hairline outline and the label "Hold to delete". Generate an SVG path that traces the button's actual outline — starting at the top centre and running clockwise around the rounded corners — from its measured size (ResizeObserver), and use it twice: once as the faint track, once as the progress line with pathLength=1. While the pointer (or Space/Enter) is held, a rAF loop advances progress over 1.2s and sets stroke-dashoffset = 1 − progress, so a warm rose line with a soft glow runs around the edge; the surface blushes faintly with the same colour and the button compresses up to 2%. Release early and the line unwinds at twice the speed. When the lap completes: the action fires, the device gives a 12ms haptic tick where supported, the outline flashes frost blue, the button springs back from 98% with a little overshoot, and the label crossfades to a confirmed state with a check that draws itself. After ~2s it resets. Capture the pointer so sliding off doesn't cancel, block the long-press context menu, and ignore key repeat.

Notes

Interaction
Press-and-hold (pointer, Space or Enter) fills the outline; releasing early unwinds it; completing fires onConfirm.
Motion
Progress 1.2s linear fill / 0.6s unwind via rAF; settle spring 500ms; check draw 420ms; label crossfade 260–380ms.
Accessibility
A real <button> described by a hidden 'Press and hold to confirm' hint; completion is announced assertively. Works with Space/Enter held down. Reduced motion keeps the progress line (it's information) but removes the scale and spring.
Responsive
The outline path rebuilds whenever the button resizes, so any width works.
On touch
Pointer capture and touch-action: manipulation make press-and-hold reliable on touch; the context menu is suppressed.

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