A dropdown menu that thinks it's a bamboo mat

We've become big fans of CodePen, a new app created by CSS-Tricks creator Chris Coyier, Alex Vazquez and Tim Sabat to help designers and developers share and fork their work. A cross between jsFiddle and Dribbble, it's a great way to showcase experimental new web design techniques in a non-threatening way.

Makisu is a CSS 3D dropdown concept created by British interactive developer and generative artist Justin Windle that caught our eye recently. Click on 'Toggle' and the menus roll up like connected slats, in a way that makes you go 'ooh, cool!' when you first see it.

Okay, okay, so it only works in modern browsers (Windle suggests an updated version of Chrome). And we are struggling to see what the practical use might be. And it would probably be an UX/accessibility nightmare if implemented in a website without a lot of forethought.

But hey, sometimes it's nice to see bells and whistles put a smile on people's faces - and, as ever with Codepen, the code is available for to see and fork to your heart's content.

(Oh, and in case you were wondering, it was named after the Makisu bamboo mat used in Japanese cooking.)

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Have you seen a cool CSS3 experiment? Let us know about it in the comments below!