Internal
The Field Manual
A working document. It is opinionated on purpose, and it is meant to be argued with — which is exactly what the notes on this page are for.
Principles
The rules we fall back on when a decision is genuinely close.
Clarity beats cleverness
If a reader has to hold three things in their head to follow a sentence, the sentence is wrong. Rewrite it rather than adding a footnote. The same rule applies to interfaces: an obvious path beats an elegant one.
Show the work
Every recommendation carries the reasoning that produced it. A conclusion without its argument cannot be challenged, and anything that cannot be challenged tends to be wrong for longer than it needs to be.
Small, reversible steps
Prefer the change you can undo on a Friday afternoon. Big rewrites hide their risk until the worst possible moment.
Voice and tone
How we sound when we are being ourselves.
Plain, not plain-spoken
Short words where short words will do. But we are not allergic to precision — a technical reader deserves the specific term, not a rounded-off approximation of it.
Confident, never breathless
State the thing. No exclamation marks, no "game-changing", no manufactured urgency. If it is genuinely urgent, the facts will carry that on their own.
Craft details
The small things that separate finished work from nearly finished work.
Typography
Body copy sits between 60 and 75 characters per line. Headings are set tighter than body text, never looser. Numerals in tables are tabular; numerals in prose are not.
Motion
Nothing animates for longer than 200ms unless it is telling a story about where something came from. Every transition respects prefers-reduced-motion.
Colour
One accent, used sparingly enough that it still means something when it appears. Greys carry the layout; the accent carries the action.
Reference table
| Token | Value | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| space-1 | 4px | Icon to label |
| space-2 | 8px | Inside a control |
| space-4 | 16px | Between related blocks |
| space-8 | 32px | Between sections |