Wordle is what happens when an entire interaction collapses into a 5×6 grid of hard-edged squares. Josh Wardle built it in 2021 as a gift; The New York Times bought it in 2022 and folded it into their Games house style. Its whole personality lives in three feedback colors — an olive-soft green, a dusty-gold yellow, a flat neutral gray — floating on cool pure white.

Nothing here earns color it hasn't paid for. The generous white gutters between tiles are the design, not the negative space around it. A Zilla Slab masthead, Libre Franklin body text, a QWERTY keyboard that slowly heats up as guesses run out — everything centered on one axis. It says: one guess a day, three colors, and all the room in the world to think.