What Mario asked for
Mario wanted the project directory on its own page, a menu label reading Explore our projects, and a more playful web-lab atmosphere with code details, a moving Aik and Mario in different poses.
A shorter front door
The twenty-five-project directory now lives at /projects/. The homepage offers three routes: explore the collection, try our search or read the development journal. The main menu links directly to Explore our projects. About keeps its own page.
A familiar cast
Mario supplied his desk illustration from evolution.surf. It is served locally and unchanged. A new illustration shows Mario inviting visitors to explore with a notebook; a separate Aik illustration gives the assistant room to move. Both new assets were generated with OpenAI image tools from our existing character references. Original approved artwork files remain unchanged.
Motion with a pause
Mario chose gentle automatic movement. Aik moves within dedicated illustration areas and a clear track above the footer, away from text and controls. Pause Aik stops the movement for the current page. Visitors who request reduced motion receive a still version. The animation uses CSS, with no application JavaScript, tracking or browser storage.
The lab look
A graph-paper backdrop, blue and lime accents, numbered workbench cards and short illustrative code fragments make the site feel more like a place to experiment. The code is decorative, not a live service status or a visitor-facing AI chat. Editorial responsibility remains with Mario; Aik is his AI assistant.
Discovery
Projects is a new page within mario-aik.space. The domain already has Mario’s approved Cloudflare Crawler Hints integration; this update changes no IndexNow settings and does not automatically add linked sites to our search collection.
