[UX] Inventory every surface and define the redesign brief #361

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opened 2026-08-25 20:39:23 +00:00 by claude-bot · 6 comments
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Found in the August 2026 session lifecycle review (#319). First step of the total UX overhaul — nothing else in this milestone starts until this exists.

Why

The review found the product has no navigational spine and no attention surface: one badge in the entire web app, one of thirteen Discord embeds linking back to it, and every high-value surface reachable by exactly one small link buried inside another page. Those are structural problems being fixed in v4.3.0. This milestone is the visual and interaction redesign that sits on top.

A redesign needs a brief, and the brief needs an honest inventory. The review already produced most of it.

What to produce

  • The surface inventory — every route, what it is for, who it is for, and how it is reached today. Review E's §2.1 route table is the starting point and includes the click-depth from the dashboard and whether each route is reachable without typing a URL.
  • The journeys that must work, from review E §3: GM first campaign; players notified → vote → RSVP → see the confirmed session; GM prepping; live session; after-session review and approval; player finding the recap.
  • The naming decisions, from review E §7.1. One concept currently has up to eight names — prep alone is planning / CampaignPlanning / GM Workbench / Session Prep / Session Prep Sheet / Beat Planner / beat notes / Session Shelf. The redesign must ship one vocabulary, and it should be settled in the brief rather than argued during implementation.
  • The constraints: the product is used live at a table, often on a phone or tablet; it serves two clearly distinct roles (GM and player) with very different needs; and it must remain usable by a group that is not Discord-native.
  • What is already good and should survive — review E §4.3 lists these, including the live recording panel, the four-stage lore status labelling, and the campaign-vs-viewer timezone display. A redesign that loses these is a regression.

Acceptance criteria

  • Complete surface inventory with purpose, audience, and current entry points
  • The six core journeys documented as the acceptance bar for any design
  • One vocabulary decided, with the mapping from every current name
  • Explicit list of existing behaviours that must be preserved
  • Brief is written down and agreed before wireframing begins
Found in the August 2026 session lifecycle review (#319). First step of the total UX overhaul — nothing else in this milestone starts until this exists. ## Why The review found the product has **no navigational spine and no attention surface**: one badge in the entire web app, one of thirteen Discord embeds linking back to it, and every high-value surface reachable by exactly one small link buried inside another page. Those are structural problems being fixed in v4.3.0. This milestone is the visual and interaction redesign that sits on top. A redesign needs a brief, and the brief needs an honest inventory. The review already produced most of it. ## What to produce - **The surface inventory** — every route, what it is for, who it is for, and how it is reached today. Review E's §2.1 route table is the starting point and includes the click-depth from the dashboard and whether each route is reachable without typing a URL. - **The journeys that must work**, from review E §3: GM first campaign; players notified → vote → RSVP → see the confirmed session; GM prepping; live session; after-session review and approval; player finding the recap. - **The naming decisions**, from review E §7.1. One concept currently has up to eight names — prep alone is *planning / CampaignPlanning / GM Workbench / Session Prep / Session Prep Sheet / Beat Planner / beat notes / Session Shelf*. The redesign must ship one vocabulary, and it should be settled in the brief rather than argued during implementation. - **The constraints**: the product is used live at a table, often on a phone or tablet; it serves two clearly distinct roles (GM and player) with very different needs; and it must remain usable by a group that is not Discord-native. - **What is already good and should survive** — review E §4.3 lists these, including the live recording panel, the four-stage lore status labelling, and the campaign-vs-viewer timezone display. A redesign that loses these is a regression. ## Acceptance criteria - [ ] Complete surface inventory with purpose, audience, and current entry points - [ ] The six core journeys documented as the acceptance bar for any design - [ ] One vocabulary decided, with the mapping from every current name - [ ] Explicit list of existing behaviours that must be preserved - [ ] Brief is written down and agreed before wireframing begins
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Collaborator

Picking this up (build order in #535). Two facts about the inputs, for the record:

  • The audit's review E is gone. docs/.internal/ is gitignored and the session-review folder exists on no machine or server I can reach, so the §2.1 route table, §3 journeys, §4.3 "already good" list and §7.1 naming cannot be quoted. Their substance survives in the v4.3.0 issue bodies (#368–#396), which were written from them and are now closed with completion notes; the naming decisions shipped in #379 as vocabulary.js.
  • A fresh inventory replaces the route table. v4.3.0 changed navigation enough (nav bar, redirects, new public routes) that the August table would have been wrong anyway. The new one covers every route (purpose, audience, entry points, click depth, size), the DOM order of every page, the responsive facts, the duplicated-concept list, and a visual baseline with counts. Headline measurements: the Shelf's six header controls vanish below sm with no substitute; 100 of 130 status classes are hard-coded dark; 87 inline copies of the primary button and 60 of the card; six copies of the wiki type labels; 39 confirm() and one alert(); seven routes three or more clicks deep; no typeface, no icon set, no progress indicator anywhere.

The brief (journeys, constraints, must-survive, the five vocabulary leftovers with recommendations, the inventory) is being presented together with the #362 concepts as one review page, so there is one checkpoint rather than two. It gets committed under docs/ once agreed.

Picking this up (build order in #535). Two facts about the inputs, for the record: - **The audit's review E is gone.** `docs/.internal/` is gitignored and the session-review folder exists on no machine or server I can reach, so the §2.1 route table, §3 journeys, §4.3 "already good" list and §7.1 naming cannot be quoted. Their substance survives in the v4.3.0 issue bodies (#368–#396), which were written from them and are now closed with completion notes; the naming decisions shipped in #379 as `vocabulary.js`. - **A fresh inventory replaces the route table.** v4.3.0 changed navigation enough (nav bar, redirects, new public routes) that the August table would have been wrong anyway. The new one covers every route (purpose, audience, entry points, click depth, size), the DOM order of every page, the responsive facts, the duplicated-concept list, and a visual baseline with counts. Headline measurements: the Shelf's six header controls vanish below `sm` with no substitute; 100 of 130 status classes are hard-coded dark; 87 inline copies of the primary button and 60 of the card; six copies of the wiki type labels; 39 `confirm()` and one `alert()`; seven routes three or more clicks deep; no typeface, no icon set, no progress indicator anywhere. The brief (journeys, constraints, must-survive, the five vocabulary leftovers with recommendations, the inventory) is being presented together with the #362 concepts as one review page, so there is one checkpoint rather than two. It gets committed under `docs/` once agreed.
Author
Collaborator

The brief is presented for agreement as the first section of the checkpoint A page: https://claude.ai/code/artifact/6e06cfa2-41fb-4f9b-8ed2-1d4d2f891bfe — the lifecycle strip, the six journeys as the acceptance bar, what is wrong today (nine measured findings), the constraints, what must survive, the five vocabulary leftovers with a recommendation each (Shelf vs Table; fold the Beat Planner; Story / Recap and retire "Journal" from labels; "prep sheet" vs "notes"; one entry-type taxonomy), and the full route inventory behind a disclosure. It is committed under docs/ as v4.4.0-brief.md once agreed, with the checkpoint decisions written into it.

The brief is presented for agreement as the first section of the checkpoint A page: https://claude.ai/code/artifact/6e06cfa2-41fb-4f9b-8ed2-1d4d2f891bfe — the lifecycle strip, the six journeys as the acceptance bar, what is wrong today (nine measured findings), the constraints, what must survive, the five vocabulary leftovers with a recommendation each (Shelf vs Table; fold the Beat Planner; Story / Recap and retire "Journal" from labels; "prep sheet" vs "notes"; one entry-type taxonomy), and the full route inventory behind a disclosure. It is committed under `docs/` as `v4.4.0-brief.md` once agreed, with the checkpoint decisions written into it.
Author
Collaborator

Brief amended at checkpoint A: a new constraint, the table may be in one room. The live surfaces need a shared-screen face readable at distance and driven from the GM's device; the recording surface must not assume Discord voice is its only source; and no step of play may require every player to hold a device. The in-person features come later (#542); the seams are designed now. Every concept now states where its shared screen lives, and the players' page draws that face for each.

Brief amended at checkpoint A: a new constraint, **the table may be in one room**. The live surfaces need a shared-screen face readable at distance and driven from the GM's device; the recording surface must not assume Discord voice is its only source; and no step of play may require every player to hold a device. The in-person features come later (#542); the seams are designed now. Every concept now states where its shared screen lives, and the players' page draws that face for each.
Author
Collaborator

The brief is written: docs/design/v4.5.0-brief.md (PR on docs/redesign-brief; merges on green).

It takes the checkpoint A brief (the lifecycle, the six journeys, what was wrong, the constraints, what must survive, the vocabulary leftovers) and carries it through everything decided since: Book & Table and the six shell decisions (#363, #656), Lapis Table, and every decision D1 to D73 from the mockup round (#659), each in a line or two by area with its surfaces. It adds what the design system must provide (#364) and the build lanes in order with the server changes each needs (#366).

Against this issue's acceptance criteria:

  • Surface inventory — the catalogue (#657): 1,672 rows on 107 surfaces, with the route inventory of v4.4.0-concepts/surface-inventory.md behind it. The brief points at both.
  • The six journeys as the acceptance bar — §2, unchanged from checkpoint A, now stated for both roles, desktop and phone, keyboard and touch.
  • One vocabulary, with the mapping from every current name — §5: the five leftovers settled (D38, D47, lane 6b's taxonomy, Shelf/Table), plus every name the redesign introduces, mapped from what it is called today.
  • Existing behaviours that must be preserved — §4, with the two that changed shape (one time rather than two, D17; the checklist as the GM's, D28) said as such.
  • Written down and agreed before wireframing begins — written; wireframing and mockups are done; this is the point to read it and say "agreed", after which this issue closes and #364 can start.

The catalogue's decisions table stays the authority; the brief is its readable synthesis, and a change to a decision is made there first.

**The brief is written: `docs/design/v4.5.0-brief.md`** (PR on `docs/redesign-brief`; merges on green). It takes the checkpoint A brief (the lifecycle, the six journeys, what was wrong, the constraints, what must survive, the vocabulary leftovers) and carries it through everything decided since: Book & Table and the six shell decisions (#363, #656), Lapis Table, and every decision D1 to D73 from the mockup round (#659), each in a line or two by area with its surfaces. It adds what the design system must provide (#364) and the build lanes in order with the server changes each needs (#366). Against this issue's acceptance criteria: - **Surface inventory** — the catalogue (#657): 1,672 rows on 107 surfaces, with the route inventory of `v4.4.0-concepts/surface-inventory.md` behind it. The brief points at both. - **The six journeys as the acceptance bar** — §2, unchanged from checkpoint A, now stated for both roles, desktop and phone, keyboard and touch. - **One vocabulary, with the mapping from every current name** — §5: the five leftovers settled (D38, D47, lane 6b's taxonomy, Shelf/Table), plus every name the redesign introduces, mapped from what it is called today. - **Existing behaviours that must be preserved** — §4, with the two that changed shape (one time rather than two, D17; the checklist as the GM's, D28) said as such. - **Written down and agreed before wireframing begins** — written; wireframing and mockups are done; **this is the point to read it and say "agreed"**, after which this issue closes and #364 can start. The catalogue's decisions table stays the authority; the brief is its readable synthesis, and a change to a decision is made there first.
Author
Collaborator

The brief is complete through D85 (PR #725, merged 2026-09-21). Before asking for the owner's "agreed", two checks were run:

  1. Does every surface have a drawing, verified row by row? Yes, now. The three lanes that had never been checked (1b, 2c, 5 — 445 placements) got their coverage scripts; the audit found 26 placements counted without a still and they were drawn. All sixteen scripts pass against the live catalogue (1,706 rows on 107 surfaces).
  2. Does the brief carry lane 9? It does now: docs/design/v4.5.0-brief.md has a seventh journey (J7: a player makes a character, the GM shows a block at the table, the character levels up), four vocabulary rows (the sheet, the block, a definition, Level up), §7.11 with D74 to D85 and the seams, the sheet's components in §8, the lane 11 row's server changes, and lane 9's later phases in §10.

Waiting on: the owner's "agreed", after which this closes and #366 (the build) has its handoff.

**The brief is complete through D85 (PR #725, merged 2026-09-21).** Before asking for the owner's "agreed", two checks were run: 1. **Does every surface have a drawing, verified row by row?** Yes, now. The three lanes that had never been checked (1b, 2c, 5 — 445 placements) got their coverage scripts; the audit found 26 placements counted without a still and they were drawn. All sixteen scripts pass against the live catalogue (1,706 rows on 107 surfaces). 2. **Does the brief carry lane 9?** It does now: `docs/design/v4.5.0-brief.md` has a seventh journey (J7: a player makes a character, the GM shows a block at the table, the character levels up), four vocabulary rows (the sheet, the block, a definition, Level up), §7.11 with D74 to D85 and the seams, the sheet's components in §8, the lane 11 row's server changes, and lane 9's later phases in §10. Waiting on: the owner's "agreed", after which this closes and #366 (the build) has its handoff.
Author
Collaborator

Agreed by the owner, 2026-09-22. The brief (docs/design/v4.5.0-brief.md, D1 to D85, seven journeys, the lanes in order) is the handoff to the build, together with the build plan (docs/design/v4.5.0-build-plan.md), whose five assumptions the owner confirmed at the same time. Closing; the build is tracked on #366, starting with lane 0 (#364).

**Agreed by the owner, 2026-09-22.** The brief (`docs/design/v4.5.0-brief.md`, D1 to D85, seven journeys, the lanes in order) is the handoff to the build, together with the build plan (`docs/design/v4.5.0-build-plan.md`), whose five assumptions the owner confirmed at the same time. Closing; the build is tracked on #366, starting with lane 0 (#364).
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rbrooks/Quest-Board#361
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