Build Log · July 2, 2026

Jan Guide Rewrite + Portrait Page UX Pass

Rewrote Known's printable caregiver guide around real scenarios instead of app mechanics, then reordered the portrait page around Jan's own daily rhythm instead of a caregiver's orientation flow.

  • Known
  • UX
  • Content
  • Copy
scenarios rewritten in the Jan guide
4

scenarios rewritten in the Jan guide

portrait page sections reordered
3

portrait page sections reordered

new route extracted (/book)
1

new route extracted (/book)

Timeline

  1. Start

    Ignition + Charge

    Rewrite the printable Jan guide around real-life replay scenarios instead of feature steps

  2. Early

    Found the wrong artifact first

    Zeb's 'Jan artifact' reference was a separate printable guide, not app/guide/page.tsx — clarified before writing

  3. Mid

    Print pagination iteration

    Several rounds of page-break CSS fixes, converged on explicit page-break-before per section

  4. Late

    Portrait page UX pass

    Reordering, book extraction, learn-link promotion, small copy cuts — one small change at a time, Zeb reviewing locally after each

What shipped

  • Rewrote the printable 'Using Known — A Guide for Jan' artifact around 4 real scenarios (friends visiting, stepping out for an appointment, repeated-question capture, repeated-question retrieval) instead of numbered app-mechanics steps

  • Fixed intro copy twice at Zeb's direction — removed 'keepsake box' framing (wrong: Known is an active care tool, not an archive) and replaced with Zeb's own voice/copy

  • Made the guide device-agnostic (iPad -> tablet/app)

  • Iterated print CSS pagination — converged on explicit page-break-before per major section instead of avoid/orphan heuristics, which kept producing blank-page gaps and stranded headings

  • Reordered Known portrait page sections for Jan's own daily rhythm: Recent notes -> Behavior Loop -> Known Card (previously Known Card -> Recent notes -> Behavior Loop, which was designed for a stranger-caregiver's orient-then-act flow, not Jan's authorship/daily-use flow)

  • Capped inline 'Recent notes' to the 2 most recent, folded the rest of the week into the existing PastNotes disclosure

  • Moved 'Day history' link out of the Recent Notes header into the PastNotes footer row, so both 'look further back' actions sit together

  • Extracted the portrait book to its own route (app/portraits/[id]/book/page.tsx), mirroring the existing Known Card preview/full-view split — main page now shows a small teaser card ('N memories shared, Read the book ->')

  • Promoted 'What other families found' out of the quiet footer link row (shared with 'How Known works') into its own standing entry-point card, since it has a real in-the-moment trigger ('I don't know what to write')

  • Renamed Behavior Loop quick-add button from generic 'Something just happened...' to '{preferredName} asked again...' — matches Known's existing direct, name-first voice

  • Removed an internal-implementation aside from the Behavior Loop section ('These stay here — they don't appear in the printed portrait') — not something Jan needs mid-task

  • Removed a stale ethics-era disclaimer from the day history calendar ('This is a record of what was captured — not a rating of the day') — no rating feature currently exists on that page to need disclaiming

“I want this order to be the order that Jan would follow, not necessarily a caregiver.”
— Zeb, reframing the portrait page ordering question mid-session