Prototype Run Guide v3

Canonical source: prototypes/calendar-ui/README-v3.md · Snapshot commit: b9df7479add1

Life in Days unified calendar prototype v3

Throwaway UI prototype · simulated data · no persistence · no integrations connected

v3 is one product experience rather than three competing directions. It combines the image-led Living Mosaic with the book-like Monthly Almanac and removes Archive Desk, Timeline, and the prototype-direction switcher.

The default landing is Calendar, which is the Living Mosaic month. Almanac is the continuous monthly reading experience. The shared header switcher preserves the selected month and Journal Date between the two views.

Run the prototype

From this directory:

npm run check:v3
npm run prototype

Open the v3 prototype.

The default URL opens Calendar. Useful review routes are:

• index-v3.html — Living Mosaic landing;
• index-v3.html?view=almanac&month=2026-08&date=2026-08-13 — Monthly Almanac;
• index-v3.html?view=almanac&month=2026-08&date=2026-08-13&rail=collapsed — immersive Almanac;
• index-v3.html?view=search&month=2026-08&date=2026-08-13&q=rain — archive search;
• index-v3.html?view=calendar&month=2026-08&date=2026-08-13&screen=day — full Journal Day.

view, month, date, screen, rail, and q are kept in the URL so browser Back/Forward, reloads, and review links retain useful context. The Almanac rail preference is also retained in local storage.

Screens and working interactions

Area	What is implemented for review
Shared shell	Calendar/Almanac switcher, Search, theme control, Add journal, responsive primary navigation, active-state and focus treatment.
Living Mosaic	Default image-led month, month navigation, Today, quiet empty dates, real-photo and AI-artwork labels, journal-only and failed-image states, selected day, keyboard grid navigation.
Journal Day	Gallery navigation, real-photo cover selection and reordering, source journals, generated reflection, artwork states, privacy boundary, adjacent populated days, management actions.
Monthly Almanac	Continuous monthly chapters, authentic journals, real photos, separately labeled artwork, selected-date handoff, month index, Today, empty-month state, expandable sources.
Almanac navigation	Expanded 331 px desktop rail, zero-width collapsed rail for immersive reading, persistent Show month control, responsive modal month drawer, focus trap, Escape/backdrop close, focus restoration.
Search	Archive-wide local search over title, summary, topics, and complete fictional journal text; suggestions, recent days, results, no-results, clear, and return to the originating Calendar day or Almanac chapter.
Reflection management	One quiet Manage reflection action opens a sheet for Title, Summary, and Tags; edit/protect, review a generated suggestion, keep/use/edit choices, resume updates, and regeneration placeholders.
Manual journal capture	Add journal from desktop and mobile; date selection, .txt/.md constraints, simulated file review, duplicate warning, and browser-memory confirmation.
Artwork	Manual Generate artwork action, sparse-journal warning, simulated progress/failure/success, retry, and rule that a real Daily Photo remains the Calendar Cover.

Controls whose deeper workflows are outside this UI prototype display a clear prototype toast rather than silently failing. This includes export, deletion, full provenance history, source correction, and provider generation details.

Responsive behavior

• Above 960 px, Almanac uses the collapsible left month navigator.
• At 960 px and below, that navigator becomes a modal drawer and the reading column uses the full width.
• At 700 px and below, the desktop view controls move into a persistent bottom navigation with Calendar, Almanac, Search, and Add journal.
• On narrow Almanac screens, the date, title, and summary come before generated provenance/status so reflection stays memory-first.
• Dialogs and sheets become full-width where needed without changing their semantic labels or dismissal behavior.

Accessibility included in the prototype

• skip link and semantic landmarks;
• visible keyboard focus;
• Calendar grid with one Tab stop, arrow-key movement, Home/End by visual week, and Page Up/Page Down month movement;
• labeled dialogs with aria-modal, background inert, contained Tab sequence, Escape close, and focus restoration;
• useful active-page and selected-date states;
• short search-result accessible names with summaries provided as descriptions;
• decorative search thumbnails excluded from accessible names;
• real photos and AI artwork labeled separately;
• reduced-motion support;
• light-theme metadata colors adjusted for normal-text contrast.

This is not a screen-reader, forced-colors, or production accessibility certification.

Privacy and prototype boundary

All content is fictional fixture data. Nothing connects to Telegram, VoiceNotes, an AI provider, storage, a database, authentication, Hetzner, Cloudflare, or life.arunp.in. Refreshing resets simulated data changes.

The prototype preserves the product boundary in its information design: authentic source journals remain separate from generated Title, Summary, Tags, Visual Briefs, and Artwork; real photos are never represented as AI inputs; a real Daily Photo always wins Calendar Cover priority.

v3 review artifacts

Captured screens are under docs/prototypes/v3/:

• living-mosaic-landing-v3.png
• living-mosaic-day-v3.png
• living-mosaic-mobile-v3.png
• monthly-almanac-expanded-v3.png
• monthly-almanac-collapsed-v3.png
• monthly-almanac-mobile-v3.png
• monthly-almanac-mobile-drawer-v3.png
• search-results-v3.png
• manage-reflection-v3.png
• reflection-update-v3.png
• upload-journal-v3.png
• artwork-warning-v3.png
• generated-artwork-v3.png
• unified-calendar-almanac-v3-design-qa-comparison.png

The executed review record is ../../design-qa-v3.md. The design handoff is ../../docs/prototypes/CALENDAR-UI-PROTOTYPE-v3.md.