Theme 028 · Material & 3D

Marble-Run Machine

A kraft-cardboard marble run fills the square. Every marble is a data point rolling through taped, stencilled gates; Pulse is the machine itself, and when one marble fails a gate a flipper diverts it into a coral review cup where a human decides.

readability ●●●trust ●●●effort med

And the drop still
shipped on Friday.

38 DASHBOARDS · 0 GATES

1 · HOOK0:00–0:08

Marbles roll down-left along a broken track and tumble into the “Found on Friday” box one per beat; the coral marble drops in last on the bar-8 downbeat.

Acme Pulse

EVERY METRIC ROLLS THROUGH A GATE

2 · REVEAL0:08 (drop)

On the drop the hopper gate opens and a burst of teal marbles pours down into the new track; the taped “Acme Pulse” sign swings down from the top on the next downbeat.

PULSE · 14 GATES · 2,418 MARBLES / SEC

DIVERTED FOR REVIEW

Checkout conversion

−18%

since 09:42 · after deploy #2231

Roll back

Acknowledge

3 · PROOF MOMENT0:12–0:32

Each gate flap ticks as a marble passes, one gate per beat (domino chain); at CHECKOUT the flipper snaps 40° on the snare and the coral marble drops into REVIEW, the card slaps on, “Roll back” is pressed.

Acme Pulse

You ship.
Pulse watches.

Start free

4 · CTA0:36–0:45

Cleared marbles roll right and hit the brass bell on the downbeat (ring = cymbal); the tagline and “Start free” button slap in as the last marble settles in the tray.

COMPONENT KIT

Track — a stroked SVG path with cardboard edge, face and groove layers
Marble — teal glass sphere with specular dot and contact shadow; one per event
Gate flap — a stencilled arch whose flap ticks teal when a marble passes
Diverter flipper — swings to route a failing marble out of the main run
Review cup — the coral checkpoint where the human decides
Finish bell — brass bell that rings for “all clear” — the CTA beat

MOTION · MUSIC

Path roll — MotionPath with power1.in on descents, rotation tied to distance travelled; gate crossings are timed to beats
Domino chain — each gate's flap tick triggers the next marble release — one gate per beat at 120 BPM
Flipper snap — 0 → 40° in 0.12 s, back.out(3), exactly on the snare; the marble's drop into the cup lands on the following downbeat

WHY / RISK · ADAPT IT

“Automatic checks plus one human gate” becomes a physical machine anyone can read with the sound off, and it cuts naturally to the beat (every gate is a hit). Physical toy machines have a proven advertising pedigree. Risk: clutter — cap it at 4 gates and 1 diverter so the one coral marble stays the hero.

Adapt to your product: Name the gates after the checks your product runs (tests, fraud rules, SLAs) and make the review cup your product's approval step; everything that passes rings the bell.

References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cog_(advertisement) (Honda “Cog” — the chain-reaction machine ad) · https://dribbble.com/shots/23019536-Rube-Goldberg-Machine (illustrated Rube Goldberg machine)