OUR OWN COMPANY

Benton Harbor Hub

A free directory for Benton Harbor, written by the business owners themselves. It's mine, it's new, and so far it has one listing.

benton-harbor-hub.netlify.app · new build recorded 2026-09-25

The live site still runs an older version of the tiger, so this page shows a recording of the new one.

The notesThe challengeWhat I builtTry it live

Benton Harbor Hub on a phone: a generated tiger in dune grass at dusk, above the headline "Benton Harbor, open for business."

Five notes on this site

The directory's first screen: the tiger by the lake, the search box and the category chips.

NOTE 1 · The town's own emblem

Benton Harbor's Tigers won four boys' basketball state titles, so the town's tiger watches you from the dunes, beside a working search.

Receipt · MHSAA records: boys' basketball state champions 1941, 1964, 1965 and 2018.

Point at the tiger. Click it to roar.

Tap the tiger.

The recording shows the directory's home page at dusk: a tiger lying in dune grass by Lake Michigan, beside the search box and the category chips. On a computer its head follows your pointer, from the lake on the left to the right edge, and settles facing you; a click makes it roar for about three seconds. On a phone, a tap on its face makes it roar.

The directory's first screen: the tiger by the lake, the search box and the category chips.1

NOTE 2 · A directory you can read

Until the code loaded, the listings were invisible. A directory you can't read isn't a directory, so the fade-ins were deleted.

Receipt · The directory's build notes: first-load script 154 kB → 115 kB.

The search box and category chips, readable before any script loads.2

NOTE 3 · Counts that don't pad

One listing so far, and it's my own company. The counts on the page are live, so they say exactly that.

Receipt · Counts on 2026-09-25: 1 business, 0 events, 0 posts.

The live counts bar: businesses 1, events 0.3
The owner section: a business-name box beside a preview of the listing, with a name marked EXAMPLE.

NOTE 4 · Your name stays yours

In a town this size, the business name you type is often a competitor's. It never goes into a web address.

Receipt · The listing form's privacy rule: a typed name never enters a URL.

The recording shows the owner section further down the page. A made-up business name, marked EXAMPLE, is typed one letter at a time, and the page's own preview of the listing (its header and its search-result card) spells the name out as it's typed; then a category is picked and sets into place.

The owner section: a business-name box beside a preview of the listing, with a name marked EXAMPLE.4

NOTE 5 · Written by the owners

Benton Harbor had no free directory written by its own business owners. Here, every listing is written by the owner, free.

Receipt · The directory's "How this works" card.

The "How this works" card: free to list, free to read, owners write their own page.5

The challenge

Benton Harbor had no free business directory written by its own business owners, and local businesses are hard to find online. A new directory also starts empty, which is its own problem: a page of blank categories tells a visitor nothing and looks abandoned. So the first screen had to work as a directory from the first second, with a search box, the categories and honest live counts, and still feel like this town rather than any town. Owners also had to be able to see what their listing would look like before they signed up for anything, without the name they typed ending up anywhere public.

What I built

"Tiger Country": the Benton Harbor Tigers are the town's emblem, so the front page belongs to a tiger lying in dune grass by Lake Michigan at dusk, next to the real search box, the categories and the live counts. On a computer its head follows your pointer and a click makes it roar; on a phone it looks where you tap. Nothing waits on the tiger: it loads after the page is idle, and anyone on a slow connection or with reduced motion gets the same scene as a still picture. Further down, "See your page first" lets an owner type a business name and watch their own listing take shape before signing up. Privacy rules came with it: the name you type never goes into a web address, and an address marked hidden is never stored.

My role

It's mine: the idea, the design, the code, and the art direction for the tiger, which was generated with Higgsfield from one still image and a handful of short clips. This page labels it as AI-generated art. The directory also leads to my free Money Map offer, and the site says so plainly.

Role
Everything: it's mine
Trade
Free local business directory
Town
Benton Harbor, Michigan
Status
Live · new tiger not deployed yet
Built
September 2026
Live site
The live site still runs an older version of the tiger, so this page shows a recording of the new one.

Honest proof

  • 93 automated tests, 84 of them committed, counted 2026-09-25.
  • The smooth tiger was picked from five working prototypes: zero stalls, and on a computer no jerkier than the spring that drives it. The first tiger was 47 times jerkier.
  • Removing an animation library cut the directory page's first-load script from 154 kB to 115 kB.
  • The first image is a plain still picture sent with the page; the moving tiger loads only after the page is idle.
  • Counts on 2026-09-25: 1 business (mine), 0 events, 0 posts. No analytics are installed, so there are no traffic numbers.

Try it live

The live site still runs an older version of the tiger, so this page shows a recording of the new one. Its link appears here once the new version is live.

Deleted scenes: what I threw out, and why

Every site starts as several competing plans, drafted and critiqued with AI tools. I pick one, and say why.

  • A corner notice board, an open-now day board and a first-edition front page: three other plans for the owner section. All three lost to "See your page first".
  • A "First on the Hub" badge for early listings. Declined: favoritism in a small town.
  • The first tiger turned by jumping through a video: it showed a new pose on only 2% of the frames the cursor moved. Five replacements were built and tested, and the smoothest won.
  • Four looks for the tiger: photoreal dunes at dusk (kept), a dark studio, orchard blossom and a painted mural.

From the directory's design record, September 2026.

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