Okay, let’s talk about this ‘fishtails menu’ I put together recently. It wasn’t some big project, just something I was fiddling with.
Getting the Idea
So, I was looking at standard menus, you know, the ones that just drop down or slide out straight. Kinda boring. I thought, wouldn’t it be cooler if the menu sort of… curved out? Like a fish flicking its tail when it swims away. That was the basic thought – make the menu container itself have that curvy, tail-like shape when it appears.
First Steps – Sketching it Out (Mentally)
I didn’t draw anything fancy. Just pictured it in my head. You’d have your main button or link. When you hover or click, the menu wouldn’t just appear below or beside it. It would sort of flow out, starting narrow near the button and widening out at the end, with a curved edge. Like a simple fish tail shape. The items would just sit inside this shape.
Building the Bones – HTML
Started simple. Just needed a basic structure. I used a standard unordered list `
- ` for the menu items `
- `. Nothing complicated there. Wrapped the whole thing in a `
` container which would eventually become the ‘fishtail’.
- Item 1
- Item 2
- Item 3
Something really basic like that to start.
The Tricky Part – CSS Styling
This is where the real work happened. Getting that shape wasn’t straightforward with just squares.
- First, I styled the container `
`. Gave it a background color, positioned it absolutely so I could place it relative to the trigger button.
- Then, the ‘fishtail’ shape. This took some messing around. I ended up using a combination of things. Setting a `width` and `height` was easy, but the curve… I heavily relied on `border-radius`. Not just a single value, but using the slash syntax to get elliptical corners, like `border-radius: 50% / 100%`. I applied this strategically, maybe just to the bottom corners or using pseudo-elements like `::before` or `::after` attached to the container to create the curved parts.
- It took a lot of trial and error. Adjusting percentages, pixel values, trying different corners. Sometimes it looked awful, like a squashed circle. Other times it was too pointy.
- I also played with CSS `transform` like `skew` or `rotate` on the container or its pseudo-elements to enhance the flicking effect, but kept it subtle.
Honestly, getting that shape looking decent was the biggest headache. Lots of inspecting elements in the browser and tweaking values by tiny amounts.
Making it Appear – Transitions
Just having the shape wasn’t enough. It needed to animate out like a tail flick. I used CSS transitions for this.
- Initially, the menu container was hidden (maybe `opacity: 0;` and `transform: scale(0.8);` or moved off-screen).
- On hover (or via a class added with JavaScript), I’d change the properties: `opacity: 1;` and `transform: scale(1);` or bring it on-screen.
- I set a `transition` property on the container, specifying which properties to animate (like `opacity`, `transform`) and the duration and timing function (like `ease-out`) to make it smooth.
Getting the timing right so it felt like a ‘flick’ rather than just a slow fade-in took some more adjustment.
Did I Use JavaScript?
Yeah, a tiny bit. Mostly just to toggle a class. Like, when you hover over the button, add an ‘active’ class to the menu container. When you move the mouse away, remove the class. The CSS transitions did all the actual animation based on whether that class was present or not. Kept it simple.
How It Ended Up
So, after all that fiddling, I got something that kinda works! When you hover, this curved shape pops out from the side or bottom of the trigger element. It’s wider at the far end, got that rounded ‘tail’ look. The menu items sit inside. It’s not perfect, mind you. Depending on the exact curves, positioning the text inside nicely can be a bit fiddly. But it does give that slightly organic, ‘fishtail’ feel I was aiming for. It was a fun little exercise in bending CSS shapes to my will. Definitely learned a few things about what `border-radius` can really do when you push it.
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