# Design Opportunity Notes

The direction should stay open between Faithful Polish and Premium Indie Puzzle App. The strongest constraint is that Swapple must still feel like the same word puzzle, not a new fake app.

## Path 1: Faithful Polish

Best when the goal is lower implementation risk.

Keep:

- Current modal structure.
- Warm paper card.
- Serif title and scores.
- Green/yellow semantic palette.
- Existing row data.

Improve:

- Mobile sizing and internal scroll.
- Focus states.
- Range filters.
- Loading/error/empty states.
- Row hierarchy and current-player treatment.
- More consistent button sizing and spacing.

## Path 2: Mobile Full-Screen Leaderboard

Best match for the user's stated priority.

The leaderboard becomes a destination-like surface on mobile:

- Full-screen warm paper panel.
- Sticky top header with close/back.
- Range segmented control.
- Top-three treatment or "orchard podium" area.
- Main ranked list below.
- Player/current score module if data supports it.

This can still be implemented as a dialog/view state, not necessarily a route.

## Path 3: Premium Indie Puzzle App

Higher visual ambition while keeping the puzzle identity.

Explore:

- Editorial newspaper puzzle composition.
- Richer score typography.
- Better tactile rank chips.
- More deliberate empty/loading/error states.
- Slight apple/orchard detail: stem, leaf, crate label, orchard ledger, not cartoon apple overload.
- Animated transition from victory score to leaderboard row.

## Path 4: Apple Theme, Subtle

Useful if it supports the product, not as decoration.

Good uses:

- Bonus apples already earned.
- Tiny leaf/stem mark in leaderboard header.
- "Top scores" as an orchard ledger or crate label.
- Gold first-place chip and green score numerals.

Avoid:

- Apple patterns everywhere.
- Big fruit mascots in the leaderboard.
- Red-dominant palette that fights the green/yellow tile semantics.

## Open Questions For Final Design

- Should leaderboard be all-time first, or should week/day be more prominent?
- Should the signed-in player's row be sticky, highlighted, or separated?
- Should a score-submission status live in victory overlay, leaderboard, or both?
- Should the full-screen leaderboard become URL-addressable later?
- Should static About/Privacy pages be brought into the same refined visual system?

## Design Red Lines

- Do not replace the board/tile semantics.
- Do not make the leaderboard look like a generic SaaS table.
- Do not add flashy component-library effects that compete with the puzzle.
- Do not hide the score or round/time context.
- Do not depend on data the API does not expose unless the implementation plan includes API changes.