User:Kiara/Research/WebSpell/Prototypes

Research Contents
General page
— Notes ——— Prototypes ——— Try Out Nights
— Project Proposal ——— Drafts ——— Final
— Thesis Outline ——— Drafts ——— Final
— (more or less) Rapid Prototypes ——— WebSpell Prototypes ——— Workshops

Prototype #0 Invoking the Holy Handmade Web

Single webpage made during methods class to mock J.R. Carpenter's text
https://hub.xpub.nl/cerealbox/~kiara/methods/handmade-web/

Prototype #1 Pure HTML home page

This is a 99% HTML home page (1% of CSS)
https://kirayana.codeberg.page/xpub-GRS-prototypes/prototype_01/

Prototype #2 Nomai home page

A home page using the Nomai Script[1] to map out the website.
Each branch of the script links to a page, allowing for a non-linear reading, wandering and mystery.
The script is acting as a code, making also a mise en abîme between the script itself and web languages.

[1] The Nomai Script
The Nomai Script is an ancient fictional language created for the video game Outer Wilds. The Nomais were an ancient population that explored galaxies and left traces of their passage by writing on various surfaces. The script resembles spirals with branches and complex architecture. The spirals almost loop into each other, forming entire conversations.

Resources:

• Nomai Writing, blog post by Evan Fields (no game spoilers)
• nomai-writing.com, the online translator built by Evan Fields
  • changing the handwriting factor or seed integer: not really interesting, for future tests I use handwriting: 0.5 and seed: 2500
  • the website offers a "download" option that is not super practical (it save the web page) but inspecting it allows to get the svg paths to replicate the shape!

Examples of "spell ring" in Nomai script, using nomai-writing.com:

• 

  encoding base: 200 000
  handwriting factor: 0.3
  seed: 47

• 

  encoding base: 2000
  handwriting factor: 0.3
  seed: 47

• 

  encoding base: 27
  handwriting factor: 0.3
  seed: 47

• 

  encoding base: 5000
  handwriting factor: 0.3
  seed: 47

• 

  encoding base: 122 587
  handwriting factor: 0.3
  seed: 47

Prototype #3 Nomai spiral and translation concepts

As seen in the Prototype #1, I wrote a draft of introduction for the website. Then I gave it to nomai-writing.com and got this much more relevant result:

From this, I could draft a shorter text so the spiral is smaller and the details more accessible and usable as links to the other pages. To make the text readable, the interface could have a button offering the actual text on-click.

Prototype #3 The web-based prototype

The text used for this prototype is the following:

Here gather the Guardians of the Web. The enchant..e..r..esses, sorcere..rs..ses, witches and wizards of CSS and online-caring. Through CSS rituals, cyber incantations and various other magic interventions, they work quietly towards a common unspoken goal: caring, cherishing, nurturing the sacred space that is the web.

and this is the Nomai output:

14-10-2025 The homepage is looking good -- the spiral is a svg path though, breaking it down into different chunks to circle into <a> tags is going to be quite a mess...
Also remains the enigma of the content, since the intro text mentions people, it could be a repository of references for my research (actually: genius??? I'm having the idea while writing, didn't think about it before!!)

~ Coming soon: list of the references present on the website ~

Prototype is still available at https://kirayana.codeberg.page/xpub-GRS-prototypes/

Prototype #4 Neocities code-a-thon

Page made during the neocities code-a-thon of 10-11-2025, hosted at .zip by Roos Groothuizen https://for-the-record.neocities.org/

Prototype #5 The Indie Web Puzzle

This is a poster puzzle, showcasing some of the websites listed on https://smallweb.cc/
The idea is to group together visually websites that pertain to the indie web, to build a non-exhaustive map of the indie web.
The puzzle is made out of screenshots of those websites.

Some characteristics for curation:

• special attention to visual/graphical materiality
• text-only pages are chosen only if they have very recognisable characteristics (font, colours, etc.)
• the screenshot is not necessarily taken from the homepage

Here's a first composition:

List of the websites captured:

• https://lu.tiny-universes.net/
• https://cyber-rot.neocities.org/moodboard
• https://gsthnz.com/
• https://artwork.neocities.org/
• https://kpwu.observer/
• https://midifreak.online/
• https://kelprot.neocities.org/
• https://fredrocha.net/
• https://emeowly.gay/index
• https://aquasine.net/#/
• https://ovans.club/commissions.html
• https://cinnaverse.cinnamuff.space/
• https://www.cinnamuff.space/
• https://90sgenzkid.neocities.org/
• https://infini.neocities.org/
• https://avas.space/
• https://xomii.neocities.org/
• https://sowe.li/
• https://satyrs.eu/
• https://kyomakus.online/
• https://velveteen.one/
• https://ellesho.me/
• https://cyborg-bf.com/
• https://vexcharm.net/vx1
• https://melonking.net/