houseplan-card/docs/UX-MODES.md

# UX redesign: three modes (approved 2026-07-21)

> Approved design for reorganizing all card interactions into three tab-like modes.
> Driven by the owner's mandate and confirmed by real user feedback
> ([issue #3](https://github.com/Matysh/houseplan-card/issues/3): *"When moving the
> map around, I sometimes move the doors/sensors around"*). This document is the
> source of truth for the implementation iterations below. No code has been changed yet.

## Principle

A segmented control in the card header with three tabs; the active one is visually
highlighted, and edit modes add a colored frame around the stage so the mode is
obvious at a glance:

**[ 📐 Plan editor ] [ 🔧 Device editor ] [ ✏️ Background editor ]** — View has
NO tab (since v1.30.2). The Background editor (v1.33.0) manages a purely visual
decor layer (lines/rects/ovals/text in `space.decor`, drawn under the rooms,
inert everywhere outside its editor).

- **View** is the implicit default state: no editor tab is active. Since
  v1.38.2 the last space AND editor mode are restored across reloads
  (localStorage, admins only for edit modes) — closing and reopening the tab
  lands you where you were (owner's decision, reversing the earlier
  "never restore" rule).
- Activating an editor tab highlights it and opens that editor's bottom toolbar
  (both editors have one since v1.30.2). The toolbar and the active tab each
  carry an **X** that closes the editor back to View; re-clicking the active tab
  does nothing; Plan↔Devices switches directly.
- **Plan editor** and **Device editor** are shown only to admins when
  `admin_only` is on.

## View — display and device interaction only

Allowed: pan/zoom (wheel, pinch, buttons), switching spaces, device tap
(info / more-info / toggle per settings), long-press → info card, opening tap →
door/lock info card (with an explicit Unlock/Lock button when a lock is bound —
the only way to operate a lock from the card; plan-icon taps never toggle locks),
room-card link icon → HA area (room taps do nothing since v1.40.1), hover tooltips (name, temperature, signal).

Removed from this mode (they move, not die):
- icon dragging ("drag anywhere", v1.9 — consciously reversed),
- room-label dragging,
- opening dragging along walls and double-click properties (v1.23.1),
- every edit button in the header (+device, 👁 show-all, ↺ reset, ⬡ rules, ⚙ general,
  per-space gear, markup toggle).

Header in View: space tabs, device count, zoom cluster. Nothing else.

## Plan — geometry and appearance of the space

- Toolbar tools: **Walls** / room outline (with its session wall-thickness field
  immediately on the right, default 15 cm — docs/WALL-THICKNESS.md §6), Delete
  room, Merge, Split, Resize,
  Opening (place / drag along walls / properties), Open boundary, Wall thickness
  (docs/WALL-THICKNESS.md — click a wall, set cm/inches from HA's unit system;
  empty/0 clears), Room labels (drag positions — labels are part of the plan).
- Space gear dialog (title, plan image / hand-drawn, scale, Display section, show_lqi),
  add space, floors import, delete space. Saving a **new** space opens this
  editor with the draw tool armed (an empty floor has nothing useful in View).
- ⚙ General settings (fill palette) lives here — it is about the plan's appearance.

### What a space may choose not to draw (2026-08-05)

Three switches in the space's Display section decide how much of the plan is
inked. All of them are **display only** — nothing is deleted, nothing changes
meaning, and each layer stays visible in the editor that owns it, because a
layer you cannot see is a layer you cannot edit.

| Setting | Off (default) | On | Always drawn in |
|---|---|---|---|
| `show_borders` — «Всегда отображать границы комнат» | borders (and the dashed **virtual walls**) are hidden | both are drawn | the Plan editor |
| `hide_decor` — «Скрыть декоративный слой» | decor is drawn | lines, shapes, labels and furniture are hidden | the Background editor |
| `hide_openings` — «Скрыть проёмы» | doors and windows are drawn | their symbols are hidden | the Plan editor |

- **Virtual walls follow `show_borders`** (owner, 2026-08-05). They are walls —
  dashed ones. Drawing them on a space with no borders left a plan whose only
  walls were a few floating dashed stretches.
- **Their geometry and their presentation are separate.** Every virtual span
  still ends on the real wall centreline. In View the thick wall body is
  painted over the dash ends, so they visually stop at its faces; editors paint
  the full dash (and live preview) over the body for unambiguous editing.
- **`hide_openings` hides the symbol, not the opening.** Light still spills
  through it, the sun still enters at a window, a contact sensor still opens
  it, and the resize tool still anchors to it. Anything else would be a second
  meaning for one setting.
- Both new switches store **nothing when off** (the key is omitted, as
  `bg_color` is), so a plan written before this reads back byte-for-byte.
  Backend: `hide_decor` / `hide_openings`, strictly `bool`, both optional.

## Devices — placement and marker configuration

- Icon dragging (ONLY here). Click on a device opens the **edit dialog directly**
  (binding, name, icon, size/angle, display as icon / icon + activity / value,
  activity color and size, tap override,
  model/link/description/PDFs, room).
- + add device/entity/virtual, the "Hide device from plan" checkbox (since
  v1.51.0 the one hiding mechanism, docs/FILTERING.md), ↺ reset layout,
  👁 "Show hidden" (local editor tool; replaced the shared show-all toggle),
  ⬡ icon rules.

## Background — the decor underlay

- Toolbar tools: select / line / rect / oval / text / erase, plus colour, width
  and fill. Shapes are drag-drawn with grid snap and a live preview.
- **Live size badge** (owner 2026-08-04): while a LINE is being dragged out, the
  same `.measurelabel` the Plan editor puts on a wall shows «length · angle» —
  `segmentCm` over the space's `cell_cm`, metres or feet per the HA unit system,
  green on a 45° multiple. It rides the MIDDLE of the segment (a wall badge
  follows the cursor because the cursor is the wall's free end; a decor line is
  pulled out by both ends at once), updates on every move and disappears the
  moment the shape is committed. Rectangles and ovals have no length, so they
  show their bounding box «W × H» instead; a draft with no size shows nothing.

## Deprecations decided

1. "Drag anywhere" (v1.9) — reversed by this design.
2. Opening drag / dbl-click properties in view (v1.23.1) — moved into Plan.
3. The markup toggle button — replaced by the Plan tab.
4. Legacy localStorage mode (card without the integration) — candidate for removal
   in the next major; adds branching for a half-working scenario.

## Approved follow-up features (from issue #3, by priority)

1. State-reflecting icons (open/closed door variants etc., like core HA).
2. `display: value` — show the measurement instead of an icon.
3. Light color in the activity effect (RGB lights). *(Shipped in v1.27.0;
   superseded in v1.52.0: the colour lives in the glow spot and the activity
   fallback only, the icon tint was removed by the owner's rule.)*
4. Alarm visual (leak/smoke/doorbell): red pulse overlay.
5. Rooms as sub-areas without an HA area + manual device placement by room id.
6. Backlog (not planned): music notes for players, directional TV effects.

## Implementation iterations

- **It.1 — mode shell:** the segmented control, mode state, View-mode gating of all
  edit interactions/buttons (biggest UX win, smallest surface).
- **It.2 — Plan tab:** move markup tools + space dialogs + labels drag + openings
  editing under Plan; colored frame indicator.
- **It.3 — Devices tab:** drag + direct-edit click + filtering tools under Devices.
- **It.4+:** follow-up features 1–5 above, each its own release.


## Kiosk mode (v1.41.0)

`kiosk: true` on the card is the fourth interaction surface: the full View
experience with the header removed and editors hard-blocked (even for
admins). Swipe switches spaces at 1:1 zoom only (zoomed gestures pan;
double tap resets zoom); `cycle: N` auto-advances spaces with a 60 s pause
after any touch; a 3 s long-press on empty plan opens the per-screen size
popover (localStorage). Nav persistence never restores an editor here.