LiveDesign Lab

Header redesign — fitting the operator pill

Preview

The header today already feels packed. Adding a profile pill on top would make it claustrophobic. Three consolidation variants below — each shows current vs proposed for the same width.

BASELINE

Current header (reference)

What's there today. Use as your baseline when comparing.

COMMAND CENTER
GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE NETWORK
● DEFCON: ELEVATED● OPR: IDLESRC: 7 · EVT: 307 · GEO: 175LAST SYNC 19:24:37 UTC
19:28:38
Fri, May 8, 2026 (UTC)
VARIANT A

Stats-pill collapse

SRC / EVT / GEO collapse into a single compact 'STATS' pill. Hover or click to expand. LAST SYNC stays inline. Operator pill slots between gear and time clock. Smallest behavioural change — but loses inline labels (users have to hover to learn what 7/307/175 mean).

Anonymous
COMMAND CENTER
GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE NETWORK
● DEFCON: ELEVATED● OPR: IDLE
19:28:38
Fri, May 8, 2026 (UTC)
Pro
COMMAND CENTER
GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE NETWORK
● DEFCON: ELEVATED● OPR: IDLE
19:28:38
Fri, May 8, 2026 (UTC)
VARIANT B

Sync-into-button + stats-as-tally

LAST SYNC drops out of the header strip entirely — it lives in a tooltip on PULL FEEDS. Stats compress to a tighter format ('7 src · 307 evt · 175 geo' as one mono pill). Operator slots in. Most aggressive trim of redundant labels.

Anonymous
COMMAND CENTER
GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE NETWORK
● DEFCON: ELEVATED● OPR: IDLE7 src · 307 evt · 175 geo
19:28:38
Fri, May 8, 2026 (UTC)
Pro
COMMAND CENTER
GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE NETWORK
● DEFCON: ELEVATED● OPR: IDLE7 src · 307 evt · 175 geo
19:28:38
Fri, May 8, 2026 (UTC)
VARIANT C

Minimalist — operational core only

Only DEFCON, OPR, Operator, time stay primary. Stats + PULL FEEDS + LAST SYNC + help all move INSIDE the gear dropdown menu (not yet implemented in the live app, but a natural home). Most dramatic simplification.

Anonymous
COMMAND CENTER
GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE NETWORK
● DEFCON: ELEVATED● OPR: IDLE
19:28:38
Fri, May 8, 2026 (UTC)
Pro
COMMAND CENTER
GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE NETWORK
● DEFCON: ELEVATED● OPR: IDLE
19:28:38
Fri, May 8, 2026 (UTC)

Note: Pull Feeds, stats, last-sync, and help all move into the gear ⚙ dropdown menu (which doesn't exist yet in the live app — would need building out as part of this variant).

VARIANT D

Footer-action move — Pull Feeds + Last Sync drop to footer

Recommended

Pull Feeds is an operator action; Last Sync is its result. Both belong NEXT to Status Briefing in the footer (operator actions + operator status, unified). Header keeps stats with their full labels (no opaque pill, no hover required). Fewer items in the header without losing any information visibility.

Anonymous — header
COMMAND CENTER
GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE NETWORK
● DEFCON: ELEVATED● OPR: IDLESRC: 7 · EVT: 307 · GEO: 175
19:28:38
Fri, May 8, 2026 (UTC)
Pro — header
COMMAND CENTER
GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE NETWORK
● DEFCON: ELEVATED● OPR: IDLESRC: 7 · EVT: 307 · GEO: 175
19:28:38
Fri, May 8, 2026 (UTC)
Footer (where Pull Feeds + Last Sync now live)
BriefFull ▾Last sync 19:24:37 UTC

The footer already houses Status Briefing — adding Pull Feeds next to it groups all operator actions in one row. Last Sync gets a quiet timestamp inline (rather than a separate label).

How to choose

  • Variant A — compact, but stat acronyms become opaque without their labels. Users have to hover to learn what 7/307/175 mean. Probably not worth the trade.
  • Variant B — keeps labels inline at smaller weight. LAST SYNC drops out (tooltip on Pull Feeds). Mid-strength simplification.
  • Variant C — bold. Header becomes a status bar (DEFCON + operator). Tools migrate into the gear menu. Requires building out the gear dropdown if we ship this.
  • Variant D ⭐ — addresses both header crowding AND the labels concern. Pull Feeds and Last Sync move to the footer (where they belong, alongside Status Briefing). Header keeps stats with their full labels — nothing disappears, nothing gets cryptic. Most natural answer.

All three render the operator pill in “Variant 2” position from /lab/auth-placement (left of help icon).

These pages are isolated experiments — nothing here is wired into the shipping dashboard until you adopt it.All experiments →