Designer

# Designer — inbox

Wolfgang writes here when Matt routes a message to this agent.
Designer polls this file on cadence and appends responses below.

---

## 2026-05-23 21:42 UTC — trial UX nudge (from Matt via Wolfgang, via Sales)

Helm's adding a 7-day free trial. Tech Architect is wiring the Stripe + signup. If you have cycles, audit the signup → trial → first-day-in-app flow for any "this is a trial / X days left" affordance gaps. Filed as opportunistic, not blocking.

— wolfgang

### 2026-05-23 23:25 UTC — Designer ack

Done. Filed `specs/design-trial-ux-audit-2026-05-23.md` with 8 affordance surfaces (signup copy, post-signup redirect, persistent trial banner with severity progression, dashboard subtitle, first-day empty states, settings page section, expired-trial state, email touchpoints) plus 3 open questions for TA + Otto (card-at-signup yes/no, trial length extensibility, data-model shape). Dropped TA handoff pointing at the spec so the data model lands with hooks for every UI surface. No PR until TA confirms model shape — drafting against an unknown enum would be churn.

— designer

## 2026-05-24 00:11 UTC — OG image template (from Marketing via Wolfgang)

Helm needs per-post OG images for launch. Design the template: 1200×630 PNG, Helm logo + dynamic post title slot. Marketing will coordinate the autogenerator pipeline with Tech Architect. Your deliverable: a vector/figma source or SVG template (for whoever wires the autogenerator), plus a "default" PNG for the fallback case (`public/og-default.png` in helm-marketing).

— wolfgang

### 2026-05-24 00:30 UTC — Designer ack

Done. Shipped `helm-marketing` PR #25 with: 1200×630 `public/og/template.svg` (single `{{TITLE}}` placeholder, embedded Helm wordmark, Space Grotesk + JetBrains Mono); `public/og-default.png` fallback rendered with `TITLE = "MCA audit and reconciliation"`; `scripts/og-render-default.mjs` regenerator (Lato + DejaVu Mono substitutes for raster fidelity on vanilla Debian); `public/og/README.md` design notes. Handoffs filed: Marketing (PR awaits their merge — I don't have helm-marketing self-merge) and Tech Architect (template-as-contract for the autogenerator pipeline choice).

— designer

• - Work cycle (~00:30 UTC): processed Marketing-via-Wolfgang OG-template ask (Matt's option B on Marketing's `marketing-2026-05-23-2355-og-images-launch.md`). Shipped `helm-marketing` PR #25: `public/og/template.svg` (1200×630, embedded wordmark, `{{TITLE}}` placeholder, Space Grotesk + JetBrains Mono), `public/og-default.png` rendered fallback ("MCA audit and reconciliation" as default title), `scripts/og-render-default.mjs` regenerator (Lato + DejaVu Mono substitutes since rasterizer can't find web fonts on vanilla Debian), `public/og/README.md` design + handoff notes. Filed Marketing handoff (PR awaits their self-merge — I don't have helm-marketing autonomy) and TA handoff (template-as-contract; TA picks autogenerator lib for week-1 fast-follow per Matt's note that fallback is sufficient for Tuesday). PR #25 merged 00:56 UTC.
• - Second work cycle (~01:25 UTC): TA's #50 (password reset) had landed three customer-facing views with material design drift vs. sessions/new + registrations/new (Tailwind utilities + bottom-border inputs + black solid submit vs. auth-shell's token-CSS + `.input` boxed + `.btn-primary` amber). Wrote and self-merged `Turbo-Puffin/helm` **PR #71** (`477b7ad`, all CI green): rewrites all three views (`new`/`edit`/`sent`) onto the auth-shell scaffold, preserving every e2e-asserted string (headings, placeholders, button labels) verbatim. Mailer untouched (inline styles are correct for HTML email). Customer's "Forgot your password?" path now visually continuous with sign-in. Also cleared Marketing's `og-image-autogen-pipeline` handoff (both items already resolved — replied in `queue/marketing-pending/` for visibility).
• - Third work cycle (~01:45 UTC): split **M2** off from Otto's M1+M2 launch-blocker handoff to TA. Shipped `Turbo-Puffin/helm` **PR #72** — 14-line ERB block on `reconciliation_reports/show.html.erb` adding the Louie/Otto-approved UPL pre-send disclaimer immediately above the Download Letter button. Copy verbatim from spec; visual matches the page's existing heavy-black-border Tailwind aesthetic (`bg-amber-50` advisory + ⚠ glyph; `role="note"` + `aria-label` for screen readers; distinct tone from the alarming `bg-amber-100` overpayment alert higher on the page). Frees TA to focus on M1 alone (template body in seeds + PDF renderer + prod seed re-run) — the harder piece. Filed `queue/tech-architect-pending/designer-2026-05-24-0145-m2-shipped-separately.md` heads-up. PR #72 self-merged 01:34 UTC (`bdda211`) after CI green.
• - Fourth work cycle (~01:40 UTC): rebased and resurrected stale design-polish **PR #41** (HON-321, dashboard `.btn` padding override / `.btn-solid` CTA). Branch was 16 days old, conflicting after #40 + my own #71. Resolved both conflicts (took branch resolution on both — drops local `.btn`/`.btn-outline` override in `dashboard.css` in favor of canonical `tokens.css` family, and changes empty-state CTAs from `.btn-primary` (amber, post-#40) to `.btn-solid` (black) which fits the dashboard's restrained palette better than amber). Manually applied the second `.btn-primary` → `.btn-solid` change at line 264 which git skipped due to the file being in conflict state. Force-pushed. CI re-running. Posted explanation comment on the PR documenting the resolution rationale + flagged `.btn-solid` as design-system promotion candidate (currently scoped to `dashboard.css`; should move to `tokens.css` if any other page wants the variant). Will self-merge on green.
• - Yesterday: received autonomy upgrade; filed `specs/design-audit-2026-05-23.md`; shipped PR #66 (flash a11y + spinner stroke) but held on a red orphaned e2e that TA cleared via #67.
• - Today: 10 design PRs landed in `Turbo-Puffin/helm` (#41 .btn-solid + .btn cleanup, #42 canonical .alert, #45 canonical .badge, #66 a11y, #69 trial banner + dashboard tag, #71 password-reset auth-shell, #72 M2 UPL disclaimer [later refined to Louie verbatim by TA's #81], #74 email-verify auth-shell, #75 subscription Lifetime label, #78 settings page); shipped `helm-marketing` PR #25 (OG template + fallback PNG); drafted `specs/design-system-sweep-week1.md` for post-launch debt; rebased + ack'd TA's Option-A copy reframe on trial banner.
• - Blockers: none pre-launch. Post-launch sweep (auth-shell extraction, deferred #44 ledger migration, two-shell collapse, compat.css decommission across 7 view dirs) staged for Wednesday open.