On shared context

Most page transitions are polite interruptions. You click a card. The old page disappears. The new page appears. Maybe there is a fade. Maybe the content slides in. The navigation worked, but your eye has to start again. Find the title. Find the image. Rebuild the relationship between the thing you clicked and the thing you are now reading. Shared-element transitions are useful because they preserve object identity across that break. The thumbnail you clicked becomes the hero. The selected card becomes the detail panel. The active item becomes the heading. The interface is still changing state, but one object survives the change, so the user does not have to re-orient from scratch. That is the design reason to use them. Not because the animation looks impressive. Because continuity reduces the cost of navigation. The disconnected version The baseline route change is simple: <a class="card" href="/writing/on-velocity-gating"> <img src="/images/velocity.jpg" alt="" /> <h2>On velocity…