Fan View
A compact menu that expands related actions into a curved spatial arrangement.
- Category
- Navigation
- Year
- 2026
- Status
- Experiment
What it is
A web interpretation of the macOS Dock’s fan view.
Fan View keeps a small set of related destinations behind one persistent trigger. Opening it spreads the destinations upward along a curve, making the available choices visible without introducing a separate panel.
The pattern works best for a short set of secondary actions with clear labels. Primary navigation or a larger collection would benefit from a conventional menu with stronger scanning support.
Design decisions
How one compact control becomes a readable spatial menu.
Shared origin
Every action emerges from the main trigger and returns to the same point. The symmetric path keeps the relationship between the closed and open states easy to understand.
Curved hierarchy
Small changes in horizontal position, rotation, width, and stacking order create the fan shape. The actions remain separate while still reading as one group.
Ordered expansion
The actions open with a short stagger based on their position in the stack. This reveals the direction of travel without making the user wait for each item individually.
Forgiving dismissal
The menu can be closed from its trigger, by selecting an action, or by pressing outside the group. Each route returns the interface to the same compact state.
Reference
The system interaction that inspired this experiment.
Continue exploring
A quieter experiment in staged visual rhythm.