Date: 2026-04-04
The redesign
Replaced the original design with what I've been calling "soft laser cyber optimism" — dark backgrounds, violet-to-pink gradients, glow effects, the Outfit typeface. The goal was something that feels like it belongs in the same aesthetic neighborhood as Bluesky or Linear but with a bit more edge. Post cards got gradient accent bars unique to each post, a gradient ring around the avatar, and flat dividers replacing Material elevation.
GPU fragment shader on the auth screens
The login and signup screens now have animated orb background using a GLSL fragment shader compiled directly into the Flutter app. Flutter's FragmentShader API lets you write a .frag file, declare it in pubspec.yaml under shaders:, and render it with a CustomPainter. No external package needed — the shader is a first-class Flutter asset.
The orbs are smooth Gaussian blobs drifting in slow Lissajous paths, rendered entirely on the GPU. Getting the math right for the layered blobs took a few iterations — the first version was too aggressive (high amplitude, fast timing) and felt anxious rather than atmospheric. Settled on 0.35× speed and amplitude tuned so the motion is barely perceptible until you stare at it.
Dealing with font FOUC
Flutter web has a Flash of Unstyled Content problem: the app renders a frame or two before custom fonts load, causing a visible swap from the fallback font to Outfit. The fix is FontLoader — preload all font weights explicitly before calling runApp. This adds a small startup delay but eliminates the flash entirely. Also had to restore the HTML renderer's font smoothing after some CSS interference was making text look pixelated.