Visualization Registry
The routing table for "show, don't tell". Classes, strongest first:
- ui-recreate — the change lives in a surface we can faithfully mock.
- ui-analog — no exact surface, but an honest UI metaphor exists (panel, meter, pipeline) whose behavior IS the change.
- terminal — the change is a CLI command/flag; type it, show the result.
- checklist — non-visual (fix lists, dependency bumps). Last resort.
Never invent UI that implies a screen that doesn't exist — an analog must depict the behavior (speed, batching, caching), not a fake product page.
Known surfaces (ui-recreate)
| Surface | Mock anatomy | Proven choreography |
|---|---|---|
| Studio editor / timeline | glass app frame: titlebar (traffic dots, mono app name, Export pill), preview strip w/ gradient art, ruler + ticks, lanes, playhead, mono-labeled clips | clips drop/stack into lanes; drag→edge/playhead snap w/ green snap-line flash; marquee → group move → group resize; playhead scrub drives preview art (hue-rotate) |
| Inspector / design panel | panel: MONO section headers (INSPECTOR / VARIABLES), key-value rows, hairline dividers, dashed empty slot | binding pill ({{ var }}) flies into a property slot; value swap via masked slide (old up-out, new up-in); selection box draws on canvas |
| Canvas + element | mini stage card, dashed selection box, live text element | text updates same-frame with panel edits (green underline pulse = the live-preview moment) |
| Variant renders | small cards: display-font title + mono filename | cascade out diagonally, stagger ≤0.15s |
| Storyboard view | row of scene thumbnails w/ mono scene labels | thumbnails file in as a waterfall; one gets dragged to reorder |
| Terminal / CLI | glass strip, mono 19-20px, $ prompt dim |
chars type (stagger .02), result line lands after a 0.3-0.5s beat |
| Render panel | RENDER header, big tabular-nums frame counter, progress bar (green fill = the moment), status chips | bar + counter run with power2.in (slow→fast reads as "faster"); chips land on their VO words |
Proven analogs (ui-analog)
| Change type | Analog | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Color grading / LUT | slider rows (label + track + knob) beside footage art | each knob move re-filters the art SAME frame (causal) |
| Render/extraction speed | render panel counter + bar | ease tells the story; add a before/after time chip if the claim is numeric |
| Batching (frames, requests) | row of small ticks | brackets draw around groups; ticks nudge into clusters |
| Caching | two identical request rows | first row runs a full bar; second short-circuits instantly to ✓ with a cache chip |
| Import/translation pipelines (e.g. Figma→HF) | source artifact card morphs/docks into a HF comp card — a pure DOM/CSS mock of the source (NO Figma API, no tokens, nothing fetched) | staged: source card → arrow/flight of extracted chips (tokens, components, motion) → assembled comp; chips are the carriers |
| One-pass / dedupe | N parallel item rows collapse onto one shared lane | rows glide onto one bar; count chip decrements |
| Concurrency caps / locks | queue of chips entering a gate | first k pass, rest hold; gate chip shows the cap |
| Error surfacing (toast, reason) | the surface's corner grows a toast card | action fails subtly → toast slides in, mono reason text |
Checklist scene (last resort)
Glass card, ≤6 mono rows, green ✓ ticks landing on each item's VO word (back.out(1.5), 0.3s) + row brightness pulse. Items beyond 6: cut, they live in the digest link.
Adding a surface
When a new UI area ships, add a row here (anatomy + choreography) the first time it's mocked, so the next changelog reuses it instead of re-deriving it.