# Tune - when the human says bland, loud, or busy

The three most common disappointment verdicts, each with a discipline. All three
share one law: SCOPE IS SOVEREIGN - touch only the named target, add no color, font,
radius, or primitive the surface does not already own; if the system truly cannot
express the direction, ask before expanding it.

## "Too bland" → bolder

The reflex answer - more effects - is the opposite of bold. Reject it first.

- **Diagnose why it reads flat.** A flat section is usually one that quietly opted
  out of the system's own strongest moves. Look at what the rest of the page does
  that this section does not: the display type at full strength, the signature
  motif, the density shifts.
- **Amplify what the system already owns.** Bolder should look MORE like the same
  brand, not less.
- **Commit, then quiet.** Make ONE decisive move completely, then calm everything
  around it so the move is legible. If every element got louder, the section got
  flatter.
- **Give it its own rhythm** - a peak in the scroll, a shift in density or pace.
- **The skeleton test**: strip the copy out mentally. Does the bare structure still
  say what this section is and why it matters? If it only works once the words
  return, the boldness is font-size, not design.

## "Too loud" → quieter

Quiet is harder than bold; subtlety needs precision. Think luxury, not laziness -
quiet without intent collapses to generic.

- Pull saturation DOWN a step from wherever it is (the check: colors read as chosen,
  not loud); fewer colors used more deliberately; neutrals do more work; high
  contrast reserved for what matters most.
- Reduce weights a step (900→600, 700→500); hierarchy moves to size, weight, and
  SPACE instead of color and boldness.
- Tinted grays over pure gray; never gray text on a colored surface - use a darker
  shade of that surface's hue.
- Shorter motion distances, gentler ease-out, no bounce; delete animations that
  serve nothing.
- Never: flatten all hierarchy, strip all color, or erase the personality. The
  point of view survives the cuts or the pass failed.

## "Too busy" → distill

Simplicity removes obstacles, not features. Every element justifies its existence.

- Name the ONE primary goal of the surface; one obvious primary action, few
  secondary, everything else tertiary or disclosed progressively.
- Remove redundancy: no heading restating the intro, no repeated explanations, no
  decorative borders/shadows/containers that serve no hierarchy.
- Cards are not a layout primitive - spacing and alignment group things; never nest
  cards.
- Cut copy until removing one more word would lose meaning or recovery. Active voice.
- Fewer choices beats organized choices: merge similar actions, apply smart
  defaults, ask only when necessary.
- Never: hide information a decision needs, sacrifice a11y, or oversimplify a
  genuinely complex domain - match complexity to the task's real complexity.

After any tune pass, run the review walk (instructions/review.md) before
re-presenting - a tuned surface that broke a state trades one disappointment for
another.