Skip to content

No.260 · Maps & Globes

Pulse Globe

Live activity on a dotted globe: every event rings out where it happened, a feed lists the latest, and a sparkline counts the last minute.

The prompt

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

Build a real-time activity view: a dotted globe (Canvas 2D, Fibonacci-sampled land from a 1° Natural Earth mask, orthographic, turning slowly at 0.12 rad/s, drag to spin with inertia) beside a 17rem side panel (stacked under the globe below 720px). A seeded stream (so every visit shows the same story) produces an event every 0.35–1.1s at one of twenty real cities, of three kinds — Search 50%, Booking 32%, Sign-up 18% — each kind in a fixed series colour from a colour-blind-checked palette. On the globe each event is a dot with two expanding rings (the second 0.5s later) that fade over 1.6s, scaled by how face-on the point is; events on the far side aren't drawn. The last minute is pre-filled so it opens full. The panel: a mono "Live · last 60 seconds" label, the total as a big tabular number, a sparkline of events per 5-second bucket (12 points, one axis, the first series colour), a legend so colour is never the only key, and a feed of the latest six events (colour dot, kind, city, "4s ago") where the newest row slides in. Hovering or focusing the feed holds it still so it can be read (the globe keeps going) and says so underneath; its live region turns off while held. Pause rendering offscreen; under reduced motion draw a still globe with the latest eight events.

Notes

Interaction
Drag the globe to spin it; hover or focus the feed to hold it while you read.
Motion
Events every 0.35–1.1s; rings expand and fade over 1.6s; globe turns at 0.12 rad/s; new feed rows slide in over 400ms.
Accessibility
The feed is an ordered list with a polite live region (off while held); the sparkline has a text summary; the legend names every colour. Reduced motion shows a still frame of recent events.
Responsive
Globe and panel side by side, stacking below 720px; the globe scales to the smaller side of its cell.
On touch
Drag to spin on touch; tap the feed to hold it.

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