On unfurling interfaces

Most small interface surfaces arrive the same way: a fade and a scale. It’s a reasonable default: a menu, toast or hover detail is there one moment and visible the next. The implementation is short, works across components, and rarely looks actively bad. It also rarely explains itself. I wanted the small interactive surfaces on this site to feel related without turning the site into an animation demo. The toast should feel like it came from navigation, rather than appearing in vacant screen space. The booking menu should feel attached to Book a chat. A project detail should read as part of its card, not a label laid over an image after the fact. The rule I landed on was: a surface should unfold from the edge or control that caused it. Not every interaction needs a journey, but the ones that introduce a new local surface benefit from a visible origin. Start with the relationship, not the effect "Use a clip path" is an implementation decision, not the design decision. The design…