Wording pass: make every piece of text in Quest Board concise (owner, 11 Oct)

claude-bot commented

2026-10-11 20:00:51 +00:00

Collaborator

The owner asked on 2026-10-11, during the lane 11 review (#1121): "please also tighten up any text inside Quest Board, I want to make sure we're being concise", and then confirmed: "I did mean the entire app for conciseness."

What: a wording pass over every user-facing string in the web app (pages, dialogs, empty states, errors, help guides, emails, and the bot's Discord messages), cutting anything that can be said in fewer words without losing meaning.

Approach (proposed):

Inventory: extract the user-facing strings per lane/area (frontend src/pages, src/ui, backend error details and email templates, bot/ messages, the Help guides), longest and most-seen first.
Rewrite by area, one PR per lane so each is reviewable, with the before/after listed in the PR. Rules: sentence case, no explanatory callouts on frequent pages (D20/D208), words not just colour, errors still say what happened and what to do, plurals and empty states kept correct.
Update the vitest, pytest and journey assertions that pin the old strings, and the prototype drawings only where the owner asks.
Show the owner the before/after per lane on the review page before merging anything contentious.

Open, for the owner: whether this gates v4.5.0 or goes into 4.5.1. It touches hundreds of strings that tests pin, so my recommendation is 4.5.1, with the lane 11 fixes in #1121 (which tighten the text they touch) going into 4.5.0.

A first scan of src/pages/sheet found only six single-line sentences over 70 characters; the scan misses wrapped text, so it understates.

The owner asked on 2026-10-11, during the lane 11 review (#1121): "please also tighten up any text inside Quest Board, I want to make sure we're being concise", and then confirmed: "I did mean the entire app for conciseness." **What:** a wording pass over every user-facing string in the web app (pages, dialogs, empty states, errors, help guides, emails, and the bot's Discord messages), cutting anything that can be said in fewer words without losing meaning. **Approach (proposed):** 1. Inventory: extract the user-facing strings per lane/area (frontend `src/pages`, `src/ui`, backend error `detail`s and email templates, `bot/` messages, the Help guides), longest and most-seen first. 2. Rewrite by area, one PR per lane so each is reviewable, with the before/after listed in the PR. Rules: sentence case, no explanatory callouts on frequent pages (D20/D208), words not just colour, errors still say what happened and what to do, plurals and empty states kept correct. 3. Update the vitest, pytest and journey assertions that pin the old strings, and the prototype drawings only where the owner asks. 4. Show the owner the before/after per lane on the review page before merging anything contentious. **Open, for the owner:** whether this gates v4.5.0 or goes into 4.5.1. It touches hundreds of strings that tests pin, so my recommendation is 4.5.1, with the lane 11 fixes in #1121 (which tighten the text they touch) going into 4.5.0. A first scan of `src/pages/sheet` found only six single-line sentences over 70 characters; the scan misses wrapped text, so it understates.

claude-bot commented

2026-10-11 20:21:00 +00:00

Author

Collaborator

Owner's answer to Q166, 2026-10-11: (c). Before 4.5.0, only the busiest pages: Home, This week, a session, the table. The rest of the app in 4.5.1.

Part 1 is being built on copy/1122-busiest-pages: frontend text only on those four surfaces, every change listed before and after in docs/design/wording/1122-busiest-pages.md for the owner to read, tests and journeys that pin a changed string updated. It stays out of the files the #1121 branches are changing (the sheet pages, the table card's HP controls, the wiki editor, Prep). This issue stays open for part 2 (everything else, the emails, Help and the bot) in 4.5.1.

**Owner's answer to Q166, 2026-10-11: (c).** Before 4.5.0, only the busiest pages: Home, This week, a session, the table. The rest of the app in 4.5.1. Part 1 is being built on `copy/1122-busiest-pages`: frontend text only on those four surfaces, every change listed before and after in `docs/design/wording/1122-busiest-pages.md` for the owner to read, tests and journeys that pin a changed string updated. It stays out of the files the #1121 branches are changing (the sheet pages, the table card's HP controls, the wiki editor, Prep). This issue stays open for part 2 (everything else, the emails, Help and the bot) in 4.5.1.