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0012 Our own look: a signal, not a copy of Amp

This record replaces the look in 0009: “Amp’s look, from the terminal’s palette”. The rest of 0009 stays: one list per screen, no panes, a preview only on a key, and the attached session owning the whole terminal.

Context

0009 matched Amp’s CLI closely: notched boxes, a yellow title and a yellow selection bar, blue keys. When the owner reviewed it, they asked for a launcher that is unique, with a new layout and more animation and sequences, so that it does not look obviously inspired by Amp. Amp is the baseline, not the goal. They also asked for:

  • a quick-start line;
  • a live activity line;
  • search across every host;
  • smoother movement.

Options

  1. Keep Amp’s look and add motion to it.
  2. A look of our own, built on the product’s idea: a signal you tune into. Keep only Amp’s good habits: palette colours, faint secondary text, a command palette.

Decision

Option 2 (UX):

  • No box round the list. A header holds an animated braille logo, the name in the brand gradient and where you are. A rule sits under it, and another rule above the prompt line and the keys.
  • One accent, cyan, for keys, titles, the selection marker and work in progress. The selected row gets a cyan marker and a soft tint, not a bar.
  • A trace on every row: eight braille cells of the session’s output over the last half minute.
  • A live activity line under the list: what the selected session is doing now, read from its screen.
  • A prompt line for /, which searches every host, and for n, which starts a session from one line with completion.
  • Sheets that rise from the bottom for every dialog, instead of centred boxes.
  • Sequences:
    • a boot sequence;
    • names that decode out of braille noise;
    • screens that slide, and a selection that glides;
    • a scan along the rule while busy;
    • a short jack-in sweep before an attach;
    • a welcome whose ribbon opens out.
  • Keys in lower case, as typed, with wide gaps instead of dots. The spinner is our own braille scan.

Consequences

  • Good, because the launcher has its own identity, and the motion says something: change, work, a session that needs you.
  • Good, because the common paths are shorter: a number, one line to start a session, one search for every host.
  • Bad, because the jack-in holds keys for 0.17 s before an attach. With motion off there is no delay.
  • Bad, because the activity line reads the selected session’s screen about every 1.5 s. That is one small request to its host each time.