UI inspiration - reference library

A growing, classified list of places to find UI ideas - real app screens, flows, landing pages - and how to use them without copying anyone's work. This is for inspiration (app-screen ideas), separate from the rules for making didactic documents (those are the compendium + the digest). Captured 2026-07-19.

How to use these - the honest rules

Link and reference freely. Cite the source URL when you study a pattern.
Take your own notes. Writing your own plain-word notes on a pattern you saw is normal design research.
Capture the real app yourself (from the App Store or a device) rather than reusing a paid gallery's curated screenshots.
Do not republish a paid gallery's screen grids or video captures, or bypass a paywall - that is their product, not the underlying app's public screens.

Classify by screen type - the "type of images"

Tag every reference by the kind of screen it shows. App category (finance, health…) and revenue/installs are metadata on the app, not screen tags.

Onboarding / welcome
Permission request (tracking, location, notifications, camera)
Sign-up / login
Personalization survey (persona or goal picker)
Paywall / pricing
Social proof (reviews, testimonials, "join 1M users")
Dashboard / home
List / feed
Detail view
Search / filter
Empty state
Form / data entry
Scan / capture (camera, barcode, document)
Settings / profile
Confirmation / success / upsell

The sources

Source	Best for	Free or paid	Link
ScreensDesign	iOS onboarding + paywall teardowns (video, sorted by revenue)	Free to browse; Pro ($) to filter and export	screensdesign.com · studied reference: screensdesign.md / screensdesign.html
60fps	Motion, not stills: about 2 000 recorded interactions from shipped apps, filtered by the gesture itself — bottom sheet, card stack, pull, morph, confetti, liquid glass, idle animation. Plus a glossary of motion words and storyboards. Light ground, video-first. Its MCP would let a session search shots, read a motion breakdown (trigger, start, move, settle) and get compile-checked SwiftUI, but it needs a paid PRO key	Free to browse · PRO ($) for filters, export and the MCP	60fps.design · its MCP
Refero Styles	A finished design system per site — colours, type, spacing, components — as a `DESIGN.md` a session reads directly	Free, beta	styles.refero.design
Minimal Gallery	Minimal websites, hand-picked: portfolios, one-pagers, agencies, shops	Free	minimal.gallery
StillsLab	Film and series frames, searchable — the look of a shot: framing, light, colour grade	Free to browse, paid for the deep search	stillslab.com
Interfaces	A magazine on the small details that make an interface feel finished — and its own pages demonstrate each detail live, annotated on the real element	Free to read, paid for the deeper pieces	interfaces.dev
Mobbin	The biggest real-screen library - iOS, Android, web; strong flow/pattern search	Freemium	mobbin.com
Layers.to	Real shipped-product screens and full flows, curated	Free	layers.to
Page Flows	Recorded flow videos (onboarding, checkout, sign-up) for web + app	Paid	pageflows.com
Dribbble	Concept shots and visual style - not real shipped product	Free	dribbble.com
Godly	Landing-page and marketing-site design	Free	godly.website
Land-book	Landing pages, by industry and style	Free	land-book.com
UI Sources / UI Garage / SaaS Interface	Small free galleries of categorized UI screens	Free	-
Muzli / Behance	Broad creative inspiration; weaker on real-product fidelity	Free	-

For real UX flows, Mobbin is the strongest and broadest; ScreensDesign is narrower (iOS only) but its video teardowns and revenue sorting are a good way to pick which apps are worth studying.

Studied references - grows over time

Scout - health scan app (onboarding + scan flow)

Source: screensdesign.com/apps/scout-health-analysis · the real app is on the iOS App Store (Health & Fitness).
Screen types seen: personalization survey · permission request · scan/capture · detail view · settings/profile.
UI ideas (our notes):
Personalization survey - "What best describes you?" persona picker, icon rows, single-select, as step one.
Pre-permission explainer - the tracking-permission prompt is wrapped in a custom screen that explains why before the OS asks. Ask-before-the-ask.
Scan / capture - barcode and photo scan are the core action, front and centre.
Worth stealing: the pre-permission explainer before the OS dialog; the single-select persona picker to open onboarding.

Eyes on Asteroids - NASA/JPL live tracker (space-registry hunt, 30-08-2026)

Source: eyes.nasa.gov/apps/asteroids · capture in 3 - Projects/space-object-registry/moodboard/.
Screen types seen: dashboard/home as a full-viewport live 3D scene · detail view on click.
UI ideas (our notes):
The object IS the interface - no container, no sections; the whole page is the rendered sky, UI floats on it as a few letterspaced uppercase words.
LIVE + running clock at bottom centre - proves the page is a record of now.
Labels on the objects themselves, thin uppercase, one colour per object class.
Worth stealing: the live clock as trust device; nav reduced to three words; click-a-dot-get-its-record.

NASA mission pages - the dossier model (space-registry hunt, 30-08-2026)

Source: science.nasa.gov/mission/webb · measured on the live page: h1 Inter 700 at 80px on a 76px line (line tighter than the letters), body Public Sans 16px, ratio 5:1.
Screen types seen: detail view as a monumental dossier.
Worth stealing: the name set one word per line at 5x body; a live status dot (ACTIVE MISSION) giving an official record a heartbeat; the craft itself as the only picture.

Space Elevator - neal.fun (space-registry hunt, 30-08-2026)

Source: neal.fun/space-elevator · resists headless scrolling (custom wheel handler), top screen captured.
UI idea: scroll equals altitude - one continuous day sky, every object annotated at its true height, a live altitude/temperature readout. Teaches the shape of the sky with no diagram.
Worth stealing: the model only. The hand-drawn cartoon register is refused for government pages.

Add a reference

Drop a new ### <name> block under Studied references: the source link, the screen types it shows, and two or three plain-word notes on what is worth stealing. If you want the pixels, capture the real app yourself.

Design galleries — Viktor Oddy's working list (added 02-08-2026, from Frank)

Where to find the reference to imitate, by need. The first move of any motion or site work is picking ONE reference here (the style-reference discipline).

Need	Gallery
Whole websites	godly.website
Portfolios	prettyfolio.com
Bento grids	bentogrids.com
Social-preview images	ogimage.gallery
Mobile + web app screens	mobbin.com
Landing pages	purelanding.page
SaaS websites	saaspo.com
Fonts	uncut.wtf
Animation	60fps.design
Brand redesigns	rebrand.gallery
Icons	hugeicons.com
Design systems	component.gallery

Added 13-08-2026 (Simón hunt) — state of the galleries, checked headless

What	Finding
minimal.gallery — minimal.gallery	NEW source, works headless, curated whole sites; it surfaced icebergdoc.org (the documentary-in-rooms model)
godly.website	Has become a social feed — weak for hunting now, prefer minimal.gallery
land-book.com · saaspo.com	Bot-walled against headless capture on 13-08-2026; browse by hand or via the app pane

Added 02-08-2026 (Viktor Oddy sweep)

Need	Source
Scroll-animation reference site	seesaw.website
Ready page layouts to study	Figma Community (search the style, open the file)
Animated background clips	motionsites.ai/backgrounds

Digests of the 10 reviewed videos: viktoroddy/ — process, keepers, and what we skipped, per video.

Added 02-08-2026 (Frank)

What	Link	Why it matters
Stripe Press	press.stripe.com	The reference 3D bookshelf site — books as objects on a shelf, calm type
Complete Shelf	mengto.github.io/complete-shelf	The same shelf idea, open source — code readable
SceneAI	sceneai.art	A prompt library for beautiful web sections, animated backgrounds, gradients — copy-ready, new designs weekly. Same family as motionsites.ai (Frank, 02-08-2026)

Added 12-08-2026 (Frank) — Logo galleries

When to open these. A mark is needed: a new venture, a product, a country service, a page that has to be recognised in one glance. Pick ONE reference here before drawing anything, the same style-reference discipline as the site galleries above.

Gallery	What is in it	Link
Logobook	The world's finest logos, symbols and trademarks. The classical reference — start here for the canon	logobook.com
LogoArchive	5,000+ historical marks, curated. Mid-century modernist symbols, the deepest well for abstract geometry	logo-archive.org
Logggos	Contemporary marks sorted by industry, theme, typography style and brand colour — the best search when the sector is known	logggos.club
Logoinspo	1,200+ references split by kind: symbol · wordmark · symbol and text · animated	logoinspo.com
Logosystem	The same 1,200+ library with the animated marks foregrounded — reach here when the logo has to move	logosystem.co

How to use them without copying. Take the idea of the mark, never the mark: what the shape says in half a second, how few strokes it uses, whether it survives at 16 pixels and in one colour. Write that in plain words, then draw ours. A logo is one designer's signature, and the resemblance is what people see first.

Two of them are for motion. Logoinspo and Logosystem carry animated marks. Pair them with the studio's motion doctrine when a logo has to appear, breathe or resolve on a page.

Added 12-08-2026 (Frank) — Illustration sources

When to open this table. Only after show, don't label has failed you — a real screenshot, a real number, or a drawn SVG carrying real structure is not available, and the page genuinely needs a decorative mark. Five illustration banks, checked directly against their own licence pages, not their marketing copy.

Source	What is in it	Licence and cost	Right for
DrawKit — drawkit.com	2D and 3D illustrations, icons, animations, mockups. SVG, PNG, Figma, Lottie, GIF. Flat vector packs sit next to bubbly 3D character packs, vivid pastel palette	Free tier + paid Pro. Free licence covers commercial use, royalty-free, no resale, no AI-training, no merchandising	One recolourable flat SVG spot icon on a working document — only the flat packs, never the bubbly 3D characters, recoloured to house tokens
Blush — blush.design	Customizable character-and-scene illustrations — people in settings, mix-and-match parts, colour randomizer, 10,000+ pieces	Free at every tier, commercial, no attribution. Free plan = PNG only, 5 saved designs; Pro ($12/month) adds SVG	Nothing on a house page. Its whole product is "personality" — decorative people carrying no information, the exact thing the Teletubbies principle rules out
absurd.design	One artist's (Diana Valeanu) hand-drawn surreal illustrations in chaptered series — a signed fine-art style, not a utility library	Free licence explicitly bars commercial use. Commercial needs a paid membership, plus mandatory attribution even then	Nothing of ours. Expressive and surreal is what the Teletubbies principle warns against for a ministry audience, and the free tier cannot legally touch client work
SketchValley — sketchvalley.com	208+ free vector illustrations — flat, 3D, hand-drawn, minimal — sorted by industry and use case, plus a colour customizer	Free, SVG and PNG, no attribution required. Only bars reselling the originals and false authorship	The cleanest of the five. A recolourable SVG spot graphic (an inbox, a filed document) — flat or minimal sub-styles only, recoloured to house OKLch tokens
Icons8 illustrations ("Ouch!") — icons8.com/illustrations	A large generic clip-art warehouse — 100+ hand-drawn styles, 47 3D styles, animated in Lottie/Rive/GIF. Style names like "Kindy", "Mochi", "Plush" say the register	Free requires a visible attribution link on every page carrying the graphic; paid removes it	Almost nothing. The free tier's outbound credit breaks the self-contained-page rule, and the default register is cartoon clip-art

Usable in front of a minister. None of the five as delivered. SketchValley and DrawKit's flat packs are the only two that survive heavy recolouring down to a small spot icon. Blush, absurd.design and the Icons8 Ouch library should never reach a minister's screen — the first and last because their register is consumer cute, absurd.design because it is fine art under a licence that bars commercial use outright.

The two-line rule. Reach for a decorative illustration only when show-don't-label has already failed; even then, SketchValley or a DrawKit flat SVG recoloured to house tokens beats every other option here. Never let a source's character, mascot or hand-drawn packs onto a government page — illustration proves its case with sparse on-brand shape, not with a friendly cartoon person.

Two neighbours, judged at the same time. designbookmark.com is genuinely curated (2,202 tools, 59 categories) but every destination it would send us to is already named on this page — skip it, it adds a browsing layer, not a new source. kinetics.colorion.co is not typography despite the name: it is a spring-physics interaction library, 144 effects (buttons, sliders, drag, loaders, toggles) as CSS or React with live stiffness and damping. It belongs with the motion doctrine, and only for the small feedback moments inside a clickable mockup — never for a hero, a title card, or animated text on a government page. Licence unstated on the page; check its repository before using it in a paid deliverable.

Added 04-09-2026 (Imran's post, seen 04-09-2026): six more landing-page galleries

Source: x.com/ImranUxi/status/2095388976874246560, read in the X digest. Land-book and saaspo (above) were already known; these six were not. Each opened and checked live on 04-09-2026, real captures at ../assets/thumbs/sites/.

Gallery	What we found	Link
SaaS landing page	Live. 950 SaaS landing-page examples, filterable by page section (pricing, features, FAQ)	saaslandingpage.com
Landings	Live. Hundreds of landing pages from leading companies, dark-first, sorted by tech stack and colour	landings.dev
Dark	Live. Handpicked dark-themed sites, by category: agency, AI, software, hardware, web3	dark.design
a-fresh	Live. Website examples sorted by category: landing page, e-commerce, portfolio, SaaS, plus sections, emails and popups	a-fresh.website
A1 Gallery	Live. Websites, templates and OG images, filterable by kind: agency, landing, portfolio, shop, waitlist	a1.gallery
DesignFuel	Live, at the `/websites` path. Latest sites sorted by SaaS, technology, business, finance, marketing	designfuel.com/websites

Added 08-08-2026 (Frank) — Design Spells

What	Link	Why it matters
Design Spells	designspells.com · feed	A curated feed of ONE delightful detail at a time, taken from real shipped products — never a whole screen. Each entry is named for the exact gesture: File upload animation in Dropbox · Pull-to-refresh animation in Snapchat · Transition animation when completing an activity on Strava · Hidden jumping minigame in GitHub Copilot's desktop app. Tagged Motion · Transition · Button · Confetti · Easter egg · Skeuomorphic · 3D · 404 · Occasion. By Chester and Duncan.

The question it answers. Every other gallery on this page answers what should this screen look like. Design Spells answers a different one: what should this one MOMENT feel like — the second a file lands, a vote is cast, a task completes, a page fails. Reach for it when a flow already works and has to become a pleasure. Do not reach for it to design a screen, a layout or a page.

How to use it without copying. Take the moment, not the animation. Write in plain words what the detail makes a person feel — the effort of the run is honoured, the thing you sent is really gone — then build that feeling in our own palette and vocabulary. Lifting the motion itself produces a product that feels borrowed, and the source is one designer's signature, not a pattern.

Where it already belongs. This is the reference library the fun-expert agent was missing (~/.claude/agents/fun-expert.md, first client Vox Populi). Pair them: the feed supplies the vocabulary of what a delightful moment can be, the agent renders three of them inside the real screen for a verdict.

The restraint that applies to our work. Most spells here are consumer apps performing for their user. Ours are public-service tools shown to elected officials — confetti and easter eggs would cost trust. The rule stays the house rule: joyful, never childish, never at the expense of being believed.

Where to find UI ideas