Dear First name / creative,

 

Countless digital interfaces we encounter these days are designed in a particular way: clean, smooth widgets padded generously with whitespace. Uniform shapes with corners rounded and polished—barely any element to catch your eye underneath the glass screen. These online spaces are built to be flat, functional, and frictionless. Virtual corridors easy to scroll through yet difficult to distinguish from a hundred others just like it.

 

What happens when you strive to design differently? Perhaps you can consider crafting websites that invite visitors to gather round and linger. Allow elements to be shaped by the sights and textures of your lived experiences rather than vague abstractions. Adding your personal touch could introduce a bit of friction, but that only makes each interaction feel much more tangible and meaningful.

 

For instance, here are three creative components inspired by a few of my cherished everyday objects:

 

 

On my desk sits a stack of analog cards—all so I can keep within arm's reach the things I need to get done during the day, week, or further into the future. I shuffle through them to jog my memory before I jot down my top priorities. This custom-coded component works similarly in that it helps keep tabs on more pieces of information within one section.

1.1 Side Swipe Page is available in our Standout Squarespace Code toolkit

My mind is more attuned to visual learning, which means I need to see each and every idea laid out in the open before I can establish connections. In the past this meant that I was drawn to collages of cutouts or snippets collected from various sources. Nowadays I adapt this creative experience to my website projects by making a digital moodboard out of photo galleries so users can sift through the brand's artifacts.

2.1 Movable Blocks is part of our Standout Squarespace toolkit. Also available as a standalone component in our shop. 

Remember the gentle precision of a camera lens as it pulls one subject into sharp relief while the rest of the world softly blurs? The Focus carousel component brings that same intentional focus to your digital space — encouraging you to experience one element at a time.

3.1  Focus Carousel component is available in both Standout Squarespace and Standout Shopify

 

Are there any other familiar objects you think could make for a novel experience in the world wide web? Can't wait to see how you add your own flair to an otherwise bare-bones digital interface.

 

 

From my studio to yours,