← Atlas · Topics: inspiration, motion
Design Spells
- Site
- designspells.com
- Type
- gallery
- Verdict
- Useful
- Licence
- Look only licence, not stated
not-statedfree, no account needed; funded by sponsors. Recordings show other companies' products, so they are references, not assets you can reuse - Agent channels
- llms-txt
- Pricing
- free
- Reviewed
What it is
A hand-picked collection of short screen recordings of delightful design details: micro-interactions, easter eggs, playful animations and skeuomorphic touches from real apps and websites. Each "spell" is numbered (337 at review time) and carries a title, the app it comes from and a few tags. It is made by Chester and Duncan, who also send a biweekly newsletter of new spells.
When to open it
When a product feels correct but flat and you want examples of small touches that give it personality: a satisfying delete confirmation, a hidden minigame, a celebratory moment after finishing a task, an unusual loading state. It is also good material for a design review or pitch about "delight".
Most useful
- Tag filters such as Mobile, Desktop, Tablet, Interaction, Animation, Easter Egg, Skeuomorphic, Fun, Confetti, Transition, 3D, 404 and Dynamic Island.
- App pages that group every spell from one product, useful for studying how a single team (for example Apple, Opal or Transit) builds a consistent motion language.
- Newsletter archive and RSS feed of past issues, handy for a regular dose of references.
- Submission by email, so the catalogue keeps growing with community finds.
Using it with agents
The site publishes an llms.txt that tells agents how to use it: request the homepage with an Accept: text/markdown header to receive the latest spells and tags as Markdown, filter with a tag query parameter, page with skip, and use the sitemap to enumerate every spell with its video URL and tags. There is no API, MCP or code; the file asks agents to link to spell pages and credit the site rather than describe videos they have not watched.
Watch out for
- These are videos of behaviour, not code or implementation notes; you still have to work out the timing yourself.
- The site sits behind a bot-protection checkpoint, so plain command-line fetches may be blocked.
- The catalogue is smaller and more whimsical than systematic motion libraries; it favours surprise over everyday patterns.
Reusable ideas
- Reward a finished action (completing an activity, a perfect score) with a brief celebration that never blocks the next step.
- Hide a small easter egg in an otherwise idle state, such as an offline screen or an empty view.
- Use skeuomorphic physical metaphors (dials, timers, cards you "crack open") for moments that deserve weight.
- Replace a confirmation dialog with an in-place animated confirmation on the control itself.
- Give voice or AI states a living visual (a pulsing orb) so waiting feels active.