Changeblog

Hey everyone, OpenUI 0.2.0 is here!

We’re still in the early days, but this update brings some key foundational pieces that start to make the “browser as a canvas” idea more tangible. Thanks for all the early feedback!

What’s new

The core experience of loading a webpage onto an infinite canvas is still there, but now I’ve added the first layer of interaction:

• Activate webpages: When you first load a page, you’re in “explore” mode – you can pan (mouse wheel) and zoom (Cmd/Ctrl + mouse wheel) around the canvas. If you click anywhere on the webpage itself, it becomes “active”
• A proper editor menubar: Once a webpage is activated, a sleek new menubar animates in from the top. This is where future “design” mode options will live
• Export to editable SVG: After activating a webpage, you can go to File > Download > Scalable Vector Graphic (.svg). This exports the entire active webpage as an editable SVG file. This is a big step towards making web content directly usable in design tools

UI & UX polish

I’ve also made a few small but nice improvements:

• Smoother menu hover: Dropdown menus (like the main site navigation) now have a more fluid highlight effect when you hover over items
• Desktop-only auto-focus: Input fields on the login, signup, and homepage will now only auto-focus on desktop. This should make the mobile experience a bit smoother without the keyboard popping up unexpectedly
• Better project previews: The /projects page now uses optimized loading skeletons instead of Server-Side Rendering, creating a more responsive experience while content loads in the background.

Why these features?

Version 0.1.0 was about getting the core viewing experience out. Version 0.2.0 is about laying the groundwork for manipulation.

The ability to “activate” a webpage and the introduction of the menubar are crucial steps. Exporting to SVG is the first demonstration of taking real web content and making it something you can pull into other tools or inspect visually in a new way.

It’s still focused on designers who want to quickly iterate or inspect real web structures without diving deep into devtools for simple visual tasks.

What’s next for v0.3.0

I’m continuing to build out the core interaction model:

• A dedicated status bar: I’ll be adding a status bar along the bottom of the interface where you can see and switch between editor modes (like Explore and Design mode) and access common tools.
• First steps in direct manipulation: Starting to explore how users can directly edit elements on the canvas.

Follow along

• Weekly updates are going here (plain text, no marketing nonsense)
• Join our Discord to connect with us and for community discussions
• Follow us on Bluesky for small progress notes

— celicoo

P.S. If you know a designer frustrated with inspecting live sites or wanting to quickly grab web elements for mood boards, version 0.2.0 might just give them a new trick!

Hey everyone — I just pushed the first public version of OpenUI.

It’s super early. Like, borderline toy. But it works — and it feels like the start of something that could be genuinely useful.

What it does right now

• Paste in a public webpage URL and submit
• It loads that webpage onto an infinite canvas
• You can pan and zoom around like it’s a design tool

That’s it. No editing yet. No fancy controls. Just a direct way to interact with real websites in a new space.

Why build this?

The current design-to-dev workflow is broken.

Designers work in Figma → devs rebuild it in code → PMs drop feedback in screenshots → everyone burns hours syncing up over stuff that should’ve just been visible from the start.

OpenUI is my take on:

“What if the browser was the canvas?”

Instead of translating ideas back and forth, we just let people work with the thing itself. Real pages. Real structure. Real-time feedback.

Who it’s for

The first features are mostly for designers — especially the ones who know exactly what they want, but get blocked trying to test those ideas on actual websites.

Instead of waiting for a dev to build it, or opening the inspector just to tweak some CSS for a screenshot, you get something interactive and immediate.

What’s next

Here’s what’s on deck for version 0.2.0:

• A proper canvas menu bar — so it’s more than just panning around
• Exporting the webpage to a Figma file

Want to follow along?

• Weekly updates are going here (plain text, no marketing nonsense)
• Join our Discord to connect with us and for community discussions
• Follow us on Bluesky for small progress notes

I appreciate you checking this out. It’s rough, but it’s real. And it’s finally live.

— celicoo

P.S. If you know someone who’s always complaining about design-to-dev handoff, send them this. They might dig it.