SuperSnimki Update: Aurora Design, 19 Photo Games and Contests Hosted by the Spirit of the Site

October 1, 2026

We recently shared the story of the complete redesign of the SuperSnimki photo community. But the work didn’t stop there: over the next four days the site got another major update — a more sophisticated, expressive design and a whole set of new features that turn browsing photos into a game and a competition.

The new SuperSnimki home page

The Aurora design

The first redesign gave the site a clean, modern foundation. The second one adds depth and character. The entire interface now sits on top of a layered background:

three large blobs of color — violet, blue and gold — gently flow into one another;
a fine grid that dissolves toward the edges, plus a subtle film-like grain;
a film motif: perforated strips and frame windows, with a fan of negatives behind the Photo of the Day;
a golden glow that follows the cursor with a gentle inertia.

Cards and panels are now semi-transparent, while pop-ups, menus and search have turned to “glass” with a blurred backdrop. On hover, cards light up right at the spot under the cursor, and the primary buttons got a gold gradient with a glint. Guests now arrive at a new home page — a landing page with community stats, getting-started steps, features and games.

The home page on September 28 and October 1

Dark mode got softer: instead of near-black, it now uses a neutral “asphalt” grey. The header was refreshed too: section icons sit above their labels and fit any screen width, while the online counter, language picker and theme toggle are gathered into a single compact capsule.

Dark mode

All of the animation is easy on your device: on low-powered computers, in data-saver mode and when the system “reduce motion” setting is on, the effects switch off automatically.

19 games for photographers

The headline feature is the new Games section: 19 workouts for the eye and the hand, most of them built on real shots by the site’s photographers and their EXIF data:

Expopara — a virtual camera: set the zoom, aperture and shutter speed and nail the shot across eight genres, and the system will score your exposure, sharpness, depth of field and composition;
Exposure triangle — restore the frame’s brightness after one of the settings has changed;
Photo duel — guess which of two photos collected more likes;
Where is the focus? — find the focus point in a shot taken wide open and explore its sharpness map;
Zone of sharpness — dial in focus and aperture on a side-view diagram;
Histogram, Fragment, Retouch detective, Horizon, Camera or smartphone?, Author's signature, Decisive moment and more.

The games catalog

Photo duel, Histogram, Zone of sharpness and Retouch detective

Every game has its own leaderboard, achievements and player of the month; the catalog is sorted by popularity, and the most popular game gets a big banner of its own. Guests can play without signing up, and votes cast in Photo duel feed into the photo ratings.

Expopara

Where is the focus?

Contests hosted by the Spirit of the Site

SuperSnimki has long had a mascot — a blue cat called the Spirit of the Site. Now he hosts the photo contests: he collects theme ideas from members, announces the theme at launch and sums up the results. The winner, however, is chosen by users’ votes. The Spirit now has his own page with a portrait and stats, and contests are linked from the menu, the home page, the photo catalog and the games.

The Spirit of the Site’s page

Contests

Author dashboard, sales and uploads from your phone

Author dashboard — key numbers and 30-day trends, followers, upload streak, best shot, experience levels and achievement tracks from bronze to diamond;
new Premium and gold coins pages — with benefits, FAQs and a sample AI photo critique;
QR-code uploads — point your phone at the code on your computer screen, send photos from the phone, and they instantly appear on the computer as cards ready for editing;
a pinned article on the home page, shooting stats in the camera gear catalog and quick search in the header with the “/” key.

Premium

Gold coins

Mobile version

By the numbers

In four days: 37 commits, 157 files, 31 new templates, 19 games and 5 new automated test suites. On top of that, the site’s AI features are now cheaper to run — we moved them to more cost-efficient models.

Take a look and play at supersnimki.ru, and find the full redesign case study in our portfolio.

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