Beautify on front, phase 2

[smmzhu]

These are the harder changes on the front page, but make the front much snazzier:

• Fix the "water fountain" aka eyecatcher at the top
• Add a scroll transition cuz that’s poor design otherwise

Acceptance criteria:

• informed decision is made on what the new eyecatcher is
• implement the new eyecatcher
• upon scrolling down, items slowly fade in (see here for reference)