I’m fascinated by the way that CSS, as it becomes more powerful, can be used as a visual language for representing the physical world. Combined with the longevity of the web, which strives to never break backwards compatibility, it’s a powerful tool for sending information into the future.

Here’s another example I stumbled on: Orbit is a CSS framework for radial constructs. It provides an easy way to arrange elements around and within a circular area.

I grew up dreaming about the esoteric user interfaces seen in science fiction films, many of which featured circular screens, control panels, and UIs. Now we can achieve those with CSS!

I also love the whimsical nature of Orbit’s API, which requires a single “big bang” element on the page, and uses a “gravity-spot” class for creating an area with a radial layout. The library comes with support for adding orbits, slices, satellites, capsules, and more around user-defined gravity spots.

Read the docs for Orbit and check out the examples to learn more.