Three designers each pitched five concepts for the top lists app. This page says what to look for while you click through them, and links to every mock. Each mock is one self-contained HTML file with placeholder content; they load Google Fonts, so review them online.
Ask the same seven questions of every mock.
Suggested order. Start with each designer's own pick, then their runner-up, then the rest.
How far to trust what you see. None of these were checked in Firefox, Safari or on a real phone.
| Toymaker | Rendered at 1280px and 390px and driven by keyboard. |
|---|---|
| Curator | Static screenshots only. No button, slider or hover was ever exercised, so expect broken interactions. |
| Zine punk | Screenshots plus scripted clicks. Nobody has watched the animations play. |
A website should be something you play with. Open the toymaker's contact sheet. These mocks have no deep links, so reach the 3-item and 100-item lists through each mock's own controls.
A vending machine: punch in a code and the list prints as a receipt as long as the list.
Try: type a code such as B2 on the keyboard, then vend the 100 books and scroll the whole receipt.
Judge: whether a receipt has enough room for images and art, and whether the shop window makes you want a second pack.
A 1-bit town where each list is a building and number 1 is always the penthouse.
Try: walk with the arrow keys into the three-floor shack, then ride the elevator in the books tower. Use the directory dropdown too.
Judge: whether walking is charming or a chore by the third building. Buildings show no names on the map until you get close, hover or tab.
A slot machine whose reels (verdict, mood, subject) land on a list.
Try: pull the lever a few times, hold a reel to steer, then nudge through the lists in order.
Judge: whether random discovery is a delight or a way to never find the list you wanted. The reels flicker rather than spin; the real build would need proper reel motion.
Each list is a booster pack and each item a trading card with art, flavour text and a link.
Try: open a small pack to see the fanned hand, then page through the nine-pocket binder for the 100 books with the arrow keys.
Judge: this one gives every item its own art window, so it is the most image-hungry. Would you really supply 100 pictures of books?
The whole site is one numbered gamebook; each chapter ends in choices that send you to another list.
Try: read a short list one page at a time, then follow the choices at the end through three lists in a row.
Judge: the pull-through is strongest here, but you would hand-write every detour between lists.
Calm on the surface, odd underneath. Open the curator's contact sheet. These were only ever screenshotted, so note anything that does not respond when clicked.
Each list is an island sized by its length, in seas named for its mood.
Try: land on the 3-item skerry and the 100-item continent.
Judge: whether the map invites wandering or is just a pretty menu. On a phone the chart scrolls sideways instead of reflowing.
A botanist's key: answer pairs of statements about your mood until one list is left.
Try: run the key from the top twice with different answers, then see the 3-item plate and the 100-item herbarium sheet.
Judge: whether answering questions is fun or a toll booth, and whether "similar species" is enough to keep you moving.
Lists are railway lines, items are stations, and interchanges let you leave a list from its middle.
Try: change lines at an interchange, and switch between express and stopping on the 100-item line. Compare the 3-item shuttle.
Judge: whether the diagram is readable; the designer says it gets busy. Some interchanges only appear on the stopping service.
Lists are constellations and only four or five are above the horizon on any given day.
Try: turn the disc with the slider, raise a constellation, and open the 3-item triangle and the 100-item cluster.
Judge: whether hiding most lists by date is intriguing or annoying. There is no drag-to-rotate, and labels can overlap at some angles.
The front page is a book index of the things and grudges inside the lists, never the lists themselves.
Try: pick an odd entry, follow its page number into the middle of a list (for example page 101, item 17), then follow a margin reference out again. Turn pages with the arrow keys.
Judge: this lives or dies on your writing voice, and the index must be written by hand and kept in sync with the lists. It is the cheapest of the fifteen to build.
Loud, cut and pasted, and legible. Open the zine punk's contact sheet. The motion is the point of several of these, and it has not been watched in a real browser.
Each list is a gig poster pasted over the last; rank is set like a festival bill.
Try: peel three posters in a row, rip a tear-off tab, and compare the 3-item poster with the 100-item lineup.
Judge: whether items 31 to 100 as a tiny undercard is a feature or a way of hiding them. The tear is a plain slide and rotate for now.
The headline is the navigation: each cut-out word in the title is a dial.
Try: click each word of the title to flip the mood, length and subject. See the 3-item note and the 100-item note.
Judge: whether you would discover that the words are clickable, and whether three dials can address every list you plan to write.
Each list prints out of a register and pushes the last one down the roll, leaving a paper trail.
Try: print three lists and scroll back through the trail, then use a coupon at the end of a receipt. See the ticket stub and the drugstore receipt.
Judge: on a wide screen the 420px roll leaves a lot of empty black. Compare it directly with the toymaker's List-O-Mat, which is the same idea.
Answers are blacked out, blurbs are clues, and you wipe the ink off to count down each list.
Try: declassify the 3-item list one bar at a time, then clear the 100-item page ten at a time and watch the meter.
Judge: whether hiding the answers builds suspense or just adds clicks. Progress is lost on reload in the mock.
The site is one sheet of copier paper folded as an eight-page mini-zine, with a poster on the back.