Telescope

Concept

Telescope sets out to restore wonder to web discovery. Instead of algorithmic doom-scrolling, the platform invites curators designers, chefs, music nerds to publish tightly edited collections (Japanese Mini-Trucks, Montreal Bakeries, Dream Interiors). Followers subscribe, tip, or buy linked products; curators get paid for taste, not clicks. “Real recommendations by real people” is the rallying cry no ads, no tracking, just trust.

Visual Language & Motion

The preview site welcomes you with giant serif headlines floating in white-space calm, then zooms into boldly colored image grids each “beam” animates like a telescope lens snapping into focus. A playful monospace ticker spells No algorithms. No ads. No overwhelm., reinforcing the manifesto while imparting kinetic charm. Subtle parallax on curator avatars hints at depth without GPU bloat, and a starry cursor easter egg nods to cosmic exploration.

UX & Performance

Built as a static Next JS/React stack with Astro-generated HTML, the landing clocks LCP ≈ 1.0 s on desktop, 1.3 s on 4G: AVIF hero images weigh < 120 KB and IntersectionObserver defers gallery loads until 40% viewport. A sticky “Join Waitlist” marquee maintains thumb reach on mobile. prefers-reduced-motion freezes zoom transitions and disables the star cursor, guarding accessibility. The production app will add indie-auth login and Stripe tipping—no harvest-style data collection.

Takeaway

Telescope argues that curation is the antidote to content fatigue give the web back to people who care, reward them fairly, and make discovery delightful again. For designers it’s a lesson in focus: a single idea zoom in on what matters drives every headline, animation, and performance budget.