A directory of distractions.

Distract me ↗
Curated alternatives

Websites Like Neal.fun

Finished a Neal.fun rabbit hole and want another? These are the bookmarks I would open next: things to draw, maps to get lost in, and experiments that make an idea click.

Inspired by Neal.fun.

  1. The Pudding Visual essays where interaction does part of the explaining.

    For the side of Neal.fun that makes you curious about an ordinary thing. The Pudding builds visual stories around questions about music, language and everyday life.

  2. Sandspiel Drop sand, water, fire and plants into a tiny cellular world and see what happens.

    Pour in sand and water, add plants or fire, and watch the materials react. You make the experiment, including the bit where it goes wrong.

  3. 100,000 Stars Fly through an interactive map of the stars around our solar neighborhood.

    Zoom out from our solar neighborhood into a field of stars. A good next stop after an experiment that left you trying to picture an enormous distance.

  4. Silk Draw glowing symmetrical art with a few movements of the mouse.Best with a mouse

    Drag the mouse and watch glowing lines fold into a symmetrical drawing. A few gestures go a surprisingly long way.

  5. Patatap Turn your keyboard into a burst of sound, color and animation. Flashing / intense motion.Keyboard or touch controls

    Start tapping and see whether you find a rhythm. This is the musical detour, with each key changing what you hear and see.

  6. Quick, Draw! Draw badly while a neural network tries to understand what you meant.

    You have 20 seconds to draw a prompt while a neural network guesses. Finding out what it thinks your drawing is can be the best part.

  7. Zoomquilt An infinitely zooming collaborative painting that never quite arrives anywhere.Classic · 2004

    A painting keeps opening into another painting. Watch for the strange little details on the way through, then try to spot where the loop began.

  8. The True Size Of Drag countries around a map and see how projection changes your sense of scale.

    Move a country toward the equator and watch its outline shrink. It makes the distortions of a familiar world map very obvious.

  9. Radio Garden Spin the globe and tune into live radio. UK listeners are limited to UK stations.Regional restrictions apply; station availability varies.

    A good follow-up to the map experiments: stay with one place long enough to hear a song, an ad or a conversation you would never have sought out.

  10. WindowSwap Look out of somebody else's window somewhere else in the world.

    Open a window recorded somewhere else in the world. A change of view for when you have had enough of clicking things.

More from Neal

Looking for another project by the same maker? These are part of Neal’s collection, rather than additional makers to discover.