50 — UX paradigm options — what's the right center of gravity? (envisioning / decision support)
Envisioning — options/comparison doc. Governed by
00-ROADMAP.md. Created 2026-06-29 (owner-raised: "can we envision more options to confirm we're on the greatest track for the whole project — UI and UX — without much detail?"). A deliberate step back before investing in the doc-47/49 build: are we leading with the optimal primary paradigm, or would a different one serve a professional music collaboration OS better? High-level on purpose — breadth over detail. No decision yet — §6 is the choice to confirm.
1. The lens: "center of gravity"
Every great app has one primary paradigm (how you start and think) plus secondary lenses. You can't lead with all of them — the primary sets the home screen, the default verbs, the whole feel. The question isn't "which features" (we have them) — it's "what is the app fundamentally about when you open it?"
2. Where the current track sits
doc-47 (three zones) + doc-49 (fractal Portals) make Sonnance Object/Spatial-primary: you open into a catalog tree (Workspace → Artist → Project → Track), each node a Portal; Browse drills down, Manage is the top-down x-ray, Home ("what needs me", doc-37) is a sibling, and the Workflow engine (doc-46) lives inside a project. Structure-first. The risk: you navigate to find work rather than the work coming to you — even though the MVP is literally "Review & Approve" (doc-19) and the differentiator is the configurable workflow (doc-46).
3. The paradigm menu (high level)
| Paradigm | Open the app and you… | Great at | Costs | Exemplars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Object / Spatial (current) | see your catalog tree; drill into Portals | structure, ownership, browsing, "where is X" | work is found, not served; can feel like a file manager | Finder, Drive, Dropbox |
| B. Workflow / Board | see a board of stages (To record → Mixing → Approval → Released); drag work forward | moving releases through a process; "what's next"; pipeline visibility | weaker for listening/browsing; needs the workflow to be set up | Linear, Trello, Asana, Monday |
| C. Activity / Feed | see a live stream of what needs you (approvals, comments, uploads); act inline | collaboration, awareness, "what happened / who needs me" | hard to get a structural overview; can feel noisy | Slack, GitHub feed, socials |
| D. Command / Search | a command bar — type intent ("approve Midnight", "new project") | speed, power users, infinite scale, low chrome | discoverability for newcomers; less "calm craft" warmth | Superhuman, Linear ⌘K, Raycast |
| E. Document / Canvas | a composable doc/canvas per entity; build your own views (LEGO, doc-43 first-class) | maximum configurability, "make it yours" | heavy to build, can overwhelm, slow to MVP | Notion, Coda, Figma |
| F. Player / Media | the library + player; listening/review is the hero, ops orbit it | the craft — review-by-listening, the emotional core | under-serves management/ops/admin | Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud |
These are not exclusive — the real choice is the primary (the home + default verbs); the others become secondary lenses reachable from it. Sonnance already has B/C/F as surfaces; today A is primary.
4. Evaluate against the north star
What the product is (doc-31): a collaboration OS → creator business hub, B2B/professional, calm craft. What the MVP is (doc-19): the Review & Approve loop. The differentiator: configurable workflow (doc-46). The adoption engine: solo pros, scaling to studios/labels.
Read against that:
- The heart is "move work + make decisions on the craft" — that's B (workflow) + C (activity) + F (player/review), not A (browse the tree). A is the substrate (how the domain is structured), not the reason you open the app daily.
- A pure A-primary app makes a busy studio manager hunt for what needs them. A B/C-led app puts the work and the decisions first, with A as the navigable ground you drop into.
- D (command) is a fantastic accelerator layer for pros — but as the primary it's cold for the craft-reverent, newcomer-friendly posture (doc-31). Best as an always-available ⌘K, not the home.
- E (canvas) is the long-term ceiling (doc-43 LEGO) — powerful, but too heavy to lead with pre-PMF.
- F (player) is the emotional core and must be excellent — but alone it under-serves the ops/manager value that makes this B2B.
5. The shape this suggests (recommendation)
Keep the fractal-Portal backbone (doc-49) — it's the right substrate. But consciously make the primary paradigm action-first, not tree-first. Concretely, a hybrid with an explicit center of gravity:
- Primary = Workflow + Activity ("move the work, surface the decisions") — the home you land on is what needs you / where the work is, not the catalog tree. This is doc-37 Home promoted from sibling to protagonist, fused with a work board view of the doc-46 pipeline across the catalog (a light B).
- Substrate = Object/Spatial (A) — the fractal Portals (doc-49) are where you land when you act on a thing; Browse stays for deliberate navigation. Not the daily entry.
- Hero moment = Player/review (F) — the Review & Approve loop is the craft centerpiece, beautiful.
- Accelerator = Command/Search (D) — an always-on ⌘K-style quick action for pros (cheap to add later).
- Ceiling = Canvas/LEGO (E) — doc-43, post-PMF.
Net: this doesn't throw away doc-47/49 — it re-prioritizes what's primary. The backbone is sound; the question the owner should consciously answer is "do we lead with the tree (A) or with the work (B/C)?" Leading with the work matches the MVP, the differentiator, and the professional daily-use reality.
6. Decision — LOCKED (owner, 2026-06-29)
Primary center of gravity = Action-first (B/C). The app leads with the work and the decisions, not the catalog tree:
- Primary: doc-37 Home promoted from sibling to protagonist — "what needs you" + a light cross-catalog work-board (the doc-46 pipeline as the daily entry). This is the default landing.
- Substrate: Object/Spatial (A) — the fractal Portals (doc-49) + Browse become where you land when you act on a thing, not the daily home. The backbone (doc-47/49) is kept, re-prioritized — not discarded.
- Hero: Player/review (F) — the Review & Approve loop, beautiful.
- Accelerator (later): Command/Search (D) — an always-on ⌘K for pros.
- Ceiling (post-PMF): Document/Canvas (E) — doc-43 LEGO.
Sequencing impact (reconciled): doc-37 is re-scoped as the protagonist (was "a sibling over the zones", doc-47 §10.2) and gains the work-board; doc-49 portals are explicitly the substrate (landing on action), still worth their redesign but after the action-first home leads. The three-zone tab shell (doc-47) stays — Home just becomes the gravity well. No backbone work is invalidated.
Updated by doc-54 (2026-07-04): Home-as-protagonist sharpened — Home v2 is a non-scrollable one-screen digest (tiles + See-all drill-ins; stakeholder-locked "bold philosophy"). The center of gravity (action-first) is unchanged.
7. Cross-references
- Brand/business north star:
31-PRODUCT-VISION-360.md· MVP loop:19-IOS-MVP-REVIEW-APPROVE.md - Current track: three zones
47-PRODUCT-NORTH-STAR.md· portals49-PORTAL-SYSTEM.md· home37-HOME-DASHBOARD.md - Workflow (paradigm B substrate):
46-WORKFLOW-ENGINE.md· x-ray42-MANAGEMENT-CTRL.md - Player/craft (F):
30-GLOBAL-PLAYBACK.md· Canvas/LEGO ceiling (E):43-CONFIGURABLE-ATTRIBUTES.md