Make a Valentine's Day website for one person
A Valentine's page isn't a website in the usual sense: it has one reader and one evening. That's why it works best as a small app rather than a page of sections. It can tease, reveal and dodge the cursor, carry your own photos, and collect nothing about the person opening it.
Why an app, not a page
Anticode builds two kinds of thing. Designed pages are laid out section by section and published with no scripts at all, which is right for a business site and wrong for a joke that needs a button to move. Apps are single interactive pages the model writes in full (HTML, CSS and JavaScript), so they can respond to taps, animate and keep score. Everything people love about Valentine's pages, from the runaway "No" button to the envelope that opens, is interaction, so ask for an app.
Ideas that work
- The runaway "No"
- "Will you be my Valentine?" with a Yes button and a No button that slides away whenever the cursor or a finger gets near. On phones, where there's no hover, ask for it to jump on tap instead, or shrink each time while Yes grows.
- The envelope
- A sealed envelope that opens on tap to show a handwritten-style letter, line by line.
- Reasons, one at a time
- A deck of cards, each with one reason you love them; tap for the next, with the last one being the question.
- The quiz only they can pass
- Five questions about your relationship. Right answers unlock a photo; the last unlocks the message.
- The map of us
- A drawn, stylised map with pins for places that matter, each opening a photo and a line.
Describe it plainly, including the tone: "a Valentine's app for Sam, silly not soppy, with a runaway No button, three of our photos, and a confetti burst on Yes". If the first version isn't right, ask for a change in a sentence: slower, pinker, fewer hearts.
Your photos inside it
Add your own photos to the build. The model sees them and puts them where they fit, and the app refers to them from your project, so nothing is pulled from elsewhere on the web. Apps can't load outside images at all, which is a good thing here: no stock couples, only you two. Choose photos the other person likes of themselves.
Nothing collected, nothing tracked
An Anticode app runs in a strict sandbox with no network of any kind: it can't call an outside service, load an advertising script or send what's tapped anywhere. Published sites carry no third-party trackers, and analytics count page views without cookies. So when they press Yes, the only person who finds out is the one watching. If you want a reply in writing, add a short form; app forms reach you through Anticode's form pipeline, and that's the one thing the page would send.
Sending it
- As a link on the day, on an anticode.dev address, or a domain of your own on a paid plan.
- As a file. Export it as one self-contained HTML file and send it, or put it on a tablet you hand over.
- Through a QR code in a card, so the paper and the page go together.
- Timed. Publish it the morning of, so it can't be found early.
If this is building up to a bigger question, the proposal website guide covers telling a longer story and keeping it secret until the day.
What it can't do
- No live messages or chat. The sandbox has no network, so it can't show replies in real time.
- No music from streaming services. A song can't be pulled in from outside; phones also tend to block autoplay.
- No "opened" notification. You'll see daily page views, not who looked or when.
- Free sites show a small badge. Paid plans don't.
Questions people ask
Is a Valentine's website free to make?
Model-written builds need an account; the free plan has a daily and weekly allowance. See /pricing for the plans.
Can I make one for a friend, not a partner?
Of course. Galentine's cards, a thank-you to a best friend or a note for a parent all work the same way.
Will it work on an iPhone?
New app builds are checked at phone width where self-review is available, but test it yourself on the phone they'll use.