dev_arc_aws/design-decisions.md

ArchNest — Design Decisions & Lessons Learned

This file captures all visual/UX decisions made during Glance page development. Apply these consistently to ALL future pages to avoid repeated iteration.

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Global Rules (Apply to Every Page)

Sidebar

• Expanded width: 200px (matches mockup proportions — needs room for labels)
• Collapsed width: 64px (icon only)
• User can manually collapse/expand via toggle button (not just responsive)
• Main content margin-left must match sidebar width exactly

Page Title (Top Bar)

• Color: Gold (#C8A434) — NOT white. Use inline style={{ color: '#C8A434' }} if Tailwind class doesn't apply
• Font: 18px, bold, uppercase, tracking-wide
• No border on top bar — blends into the page background

Colors — Use Inline Styles When Tailwind Fails

• Tailwind v4 @theme custom colors (text-gold, bg-card, etc.) may not always apply
• If a color isn't rendering correctly, fall back to inline style={{ color: '#C8A434' }}
• Always verify visually after changes

Content Alignment

• All rows must share the same horizontal padding (px-6 applied once at the parent container level)
• Do NOT use different padding for different rows — this causes misalignment
• The hero banner, status cards, middle row, and bottom row must all line up left and right edges

Hero Banner + KPI Overlap

• Banner height: 200px
• Status cards overlap via negative margin: -mt-12
• Banner image: object-cover with object-position: center 25% (show the top/skyline, not center)
• Cards use backdrop-blur-sm and bg-card/95 for glass effect over the banner

KPI Card Sizing

• KPI 1 (System Status) and KPI 4 (Network): wider — 1.3fr
• KPI 2 (Infrastructure) and KPI 3 (Security): standard — 1fr
• Grid: grid-cols-[1.3fr_1fr_1fr_1.3fr]
• Cards have compact padding: p-4 (not p-5 or p-6)

No Footer

• The mockup does NOT have a footer/status bar
• Do not add one unless explicitly requested

Target Display

• Primary design target: 16-inch screen / 1920px width
• Lots of horizontal space available — don't constrain content width unnecessarily
• Design should feel spacious, not cramped

Typography Sizes (smaller than default)

• Card titles: 10-11px, uppercase, tracking-[1.5px], secondary color, font-medium
• Large numbers: 24-28px, bold, primary color
• Subtitles/labels: 10-11px, secondary color
• Body text in lists: 13px, primary color
• Timestamps: 11px, secondary color
• Breakdowns: 9-10px, secondary color

Animations

• Card hover: border → gold, 0.2s ease
• Progress ring: animates from 0 to value in 1s
• Sparklines: draw animation 1s
• Progress bars: fill animation 0.8s

Icons

• Source: Lucide React (imported per component, tree-shaken)
• Size: 14-18px depending on context
• Color: gold for active/accent, text-secondary for inactive
• Gold glow on active sidebar items: shadow-[0_0_6px_rgba(200,164,52,0.5)]

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Page-Specific Notes

Glance Page

• No footer
• Status cards overlap hero banner
• Middle row: 3 equal-ish columns (30/40/30)
• Bottom row: 2 columns (65/35)
• Network Traffic card has its own background image at low opacity
• User avatar dropdown has: Profile, Appearance, Security, Help & Support, Sign Out

Infrastructure Page

• Hero banner rendered at the App.tsx layout level (not per-page), so it can extend behind the sticky TopBar — conditional via showHero = location.pathname === '/infrastructure'. TopBar and the search input are transparent on hero routes so the banner shows through.
• Hero image: object-position: center 5% to reveal the full arch + sky; faded out via linear-gradient mask (vertical) + a radial-gradient(ellipse 70% 100% at center, ...) overlay (sides/corners) — borderless, blends into page background.
• Sub-tabs trimmed to Overview only (Compute → Tags are future work, not built yet).
• Status cards: rgba(10,10,12,0.5) background (more transparent than other pages), content centered (justify-content/alignItems: center) with a fixed row height (110px) so there's breathing room instead of empty space below left-aligned content.
• Middle row (grid-cols-[1fr_1.6fr]): Resource Distribution (donut) and Node Status (server tile grid). Both use the /blank-kpi-bg.png background art with a cardDim (semi-transparent dark overlay) + cardVignette (radial-gradient closest-side blend) combo — keeps the background pattern visible but subdued, with borders blended rather than hard-edged. Card titles are rendered as our own text, NOT baked into the image (baked-in labels got covered by the dim overlay).
• Node Status card: originally a world-map-style region dot plot, replaced with a 4-column tile grid (one tile per server, colored status dot + name) — a world map didn't make sense for a small/single-site infra. Reuse this "small-scale" reasoning for any future map-like cards.
• Bottom row (grid-cols-[1.4fr_1fr_1fr]): Resource Trend / Cost Breakdown / Recent Activity — left plain/regular, no dim/vignette blending (explicit user preference, only the middle row gets the hero-style blend). Resource Trend uses the /archnest-network-traffic-bg.png background (plain, no dim/vignette) with 4 trend lines: blue #3B82F6 (compute), orange #E67E22 (storage), green #2ECC71 (database), brown #8B5E3C (network).
• cardVignette radial-gradient must use the closest-side keyword (not a fixed %) — otherwise straight edges of the card don't reach full opacity and a hard border line remains visible (only corners fade correctly with a fixed percentage).

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Future Integration Notes

Live Provider Data (AWS, Linode, etc.)

• All KPI/status card data (resource counts, health, pricing, budgets, cost breakdowns, utilization, regions/map data) is currently mocked/static.
• The Infrastructure page (and likely Glance) should eventually integrate with real cloud provider APIs — AWS, Linode, or any other VPC/cloud provider — via user-supplied API keys, to pull live data such as:
  • Resource inventory/counts and health status
  • Pricing and budget/cost data (replacing the static Cost Breakdown numbers)
  • Resource utilization metrics
  • Region/datacenter info for the Infrastructure Map
• Design the data layer so it's provider-agnostic (a common interface/adapter per provider) since users may connect more than one provider's API key.