Drift · Internal · Design exploration · 29 April 2026

A library, or a concierge?

Four candidate redesigns for the Collection flow — each is a different answer to the question "what is this screen primarily for?" Visual treatment is downstream.

The current screens treat the collection as a static library. The user's actual job is closer to "turn my impulsive saves into a real trip." All four candidates lift the path-to-plan to one tap, surface AI's view of the user's saves, and treat place as the unit (not reel). They differ in how the AI shows up — as a list of trip drafts, as a prose host, as a map, or as a toggle.

§ 01 · CANDIDATES

Four answers, side by side.

Same data. Same primitives (Surface, Display, Eyebrow, brass accent). Different headlines, different first taps.

9:41
Drift
Tuesday · late evening · drafted for you
3 saves
1 still working
Drafted from your 73 Japan saves
A cherry blossom run
through Kyoto + Tokyo.
8 days · 14 places · early april
Or draft something shorter
FROM 6 SAVES
A Pondicherry weekend.
2 days · 6 places · slow
→
FROM 12 SAVES · MOOD: COUPLES
A Bali honeymoon.
10 days · 12 places · slow
→
§ 01 / I
Trip Drafts Table
The collection IS a list of trip drafts the AI has stitched from your saves. Places live inside trips. The headline is action.
9:41
Drift
Tuesday · late evening · drift is listening
Good evening, Akshit.
You've been quietly pinning Kyoto temples and Tokyo street-food. April's still open on your calendar — should I draft a 7-day cherry blossom run?
7 DAYS · 14 PLACES
A cherry blossom 7-day · Kyoto + Tokyo
Drafted from your last 16 saves.
→
DRIFT THINKS YOU'D LIKE
Three Bali rice terraces match your saves
Same mood as your Kyoto pins.
→
PROCESSED · 2H AGO
Your three Saturday saves are ready
All three landed in Kyoto.
→
Browse all · 5 countries 73 places
Japan
73 places
Indonesia
19 places
Italy
24 places
§ 01 / II · RECOMMENDED
Concierge Briefing
A short prose briefing in the AI's voice opens the screen. Three suggestions sit below. Browse-all is the quiet fallback. AI is the host — Drift knows you.
9:41
Drift
Where you've been dreaming
Drift the world.
Spin the world, land somewhere…
JAPAN · 73
India · 11
Bali · 19
Italy · 24
Lisbon · 7
JAPAN · 35.6762° N
Tokyo street-food run.
73 places · last saved 4d ago
→
§ 01 / III
Map of Memory
Saved places are pins on a daylight globe. Drill in by tapping a country (zooms to cities), then a city (zooms to places). Geographic memory is the navigation.
9:41
Drift
Tuesday · late evening
Your dreams.
· Plan Dream ·
Cherry blossomsKyoto · From 8 reels
ShibuyaTokyo · 18 reels
TegallalangBali
HigashiyamaKyoto · 4 reels
DōtonboriOsaka · 6 reels
Fushimi InariKyoto · 11 reels
§ 01 / IV
Two-Lens Toggle
A top-level Plan ↔ Dream dial. Plan looks like Candidate I; Dream is a mood wall mosaic of every saved place. Same data, two interfaces.

Recommendation lives in the plan: Candidate II — Concierge Briefing, with a small map sliver borrowed from III on the country page. Below is the deep-dive of that pick across all three screens, both modes.

§ 02 · DAYLIGHT

Concierge Briefing — full flow.

Three screens, not four. The saved-places masonry is gone — its information now lives inside the country page.

9:41
Drift
Tuesday · late evening · drift is listening
Good evening, Akshit.
You've been quietly pinning Kyoto temples and Tokyo street-food. April's still open on your calendar — should I draft a 7-day cherry blossom run?
7 DAYS · 14 PLACES
A cherry blossom 7-day · Kyoto + Tokyo
Drafted from your last 16 saves.
→
DRIFT THINKS YOU'D LIKE
Three Bali rice terraces match your saves
Same mood as your Kyoto pins.
→
PROCESSED · 2H AGO
Your three Saturday saves are ready
All three landed in Kyoto.
→
Browse all · 5 countries 73 places
Japan
73 places
Indonesia
19 places
Italy
24 places
Portugal
7 places
India
11 places
§ 02 · A
Collection — landing
AI prose briefing above the fold. Three actionable cards. Quiet country grid as the fallback. One-tap to a planned trip.
9:41
Japan · 73 places · 17 cities
Japan.
Your collection is concentrated in Kyoto's Higashiyama and Tokyo's Shibuya. You've leaned culture-heavy — only 4 of 73 are food spots.
KYOTO · 23 TOKYO · 18 OSAKA · 6
Tap to expand
↗
DRAFTED · 7 DAYS
A cherry blossom run.
Kyoto + Tokyo · 14 places · early april
→
Cities you've been collecting
Kyoto
23 places
Tokyo
18 places
Osaka
6 places
Nara
4 places
Curated · drift picks
ROMANTIC · TOP PICK
Romantic Kyoto & Islands.
Kyoto · Naoshima · Miyajima
→
§ 02 · B
Country — Japan
Country-specific briefing. Map sliver borrowed from Candidate III — tap to expand. AI trip draft surfaces above cities. Curated trips remain.
9:41
Kyoto · Kyoto Prefecture · 23 places
Kyoto.
Mostly culture, some food. April is your most-saved month — that's cherry blossom.
All · 23 Eats · 4 Culture · 14 Nature · 3 Stays · 2
CULTURE · FROM 8 REELS
Fushimi Inari Taisha
"Walk the back trails before sunrise — the front gates clear out by 6am."
EVIDENCE · @kanagawa.bites · @memoriesfromabroad · +6
CULTURE · FROM 4 REELS
Yasaka Shrine
"At dusk the lanterns light up — the whole Higashiyama district feels like a stage set."
EVIDENCE · @memoriesfromabroad · +3
NATURE · FROM 2 REELS
Otagi Nenbutsu-ji
"1,200 hand-carved stone disciples in a moss garden — a 90-minute walk from anywhere touristy."
EVIDENCE · @anderson.travels · +1
EATS · FROM 1 REEL
Nishiki Market
"Don't eat breakfast — the soy donuts and tako-tamago will fill you twice."
EVIDENCE · @kanagawa.bites
§ 02 · C
City — Kyoto
Place is the unit, reel is evidence. Same temple seen in 8 reels = ONE row + creator credits. Tipped-in photos. Filter pills as eyebrow style with brass underline.
§ 03 · DUSK

Same flow, after sunset.

Brass lifts, glass darkens, italic still leads. The aesthetic is the same room with the lights down.

9:41
Drift
Tuesday · late evening · drift is listening
Good evening, Akshit.
You've been quietly pinning Kyoto temples and Tokyo street-food. April's still open on your calendar — should I draft a 7-day cherry blossom run?
7 DAYS · 14 PLACES
A cherry blossom 7-day · Kyoto + Tokyo
Drafted from your last 16 saves.
→
DRIFT THINKS YOU'D LIKE
Three Bali rice terraces match your saves
Same mood as your Kyoto pins.
→
PROCESSED · 2H AGO
Your three Saturday saves are ready
All three landed in Kyoto.
→
Browse all · 5 countries 73 places
Japan
73 places
Indonesia
19 places
Italy
24 places
§ 03 · A
Collection — landing
Brass at #D9B778 lifts the underlines. Glass tints to dark warm-walnut. The italic prose still leads — that's the brand.
9:41
Japan · 73 places · 17 cities
Japan.
Your collection is concentrated in Kyoto's Higashiyama and Tokyo's Shibuya. You've leaned culture-heavy — only 4 of 73 are food spots.
KYOTO · 23 TOKYO · 18 OSAKA · 6
Tap to expand
↗
DRAFTED · 7 DAYS
A cherry blossom run.
Kyoto + Tokyo · 14 places · early april
→
Cities you've been collecting
Kyoto
23 places
Tokyo
18 places
Osaka
6 places
Nara
4 places
§ 03 · B
Country — Japan
The map sliver inverts to the Soft Dusk Mapbox style — Honshu in walnut, water in deep teal. Brass pins read clean in dark.
9:41
Kyoto · Kyoto Prefecture · 23 places
Kyoto.
Mostly culture, some food. April is your most-saved month — that's cherry blossom.
All · 23 Eats · 4 Culture · 14 Nature · 3 Stays · 2
CULTURE · FROM 8 REELS
Fushimi Inari Taisha
"Walk the back trails before sunrise — the front gates clear out by 6am."
EVIDENCE · @kanagawa.bites · @memoriesfromabroad · +6
CULTURE · FROM 4 REELS
Yasaka Shrine
"At dusk the lanterns light up — the whole Higashiyama district feels like a stage set."
EVIDENCE · @memoriesfromabroad · +3
NATURE · FROM 2 REELS
Otagi Nenbutsu-ji
"1,200 hand-carved stone disciples in a moss garden — a 90-minute walk from anywhere touristy."
EVIDENCE · @anderson.travels · +1
EATS · FROM 1 REEL
Nishiki Market
"Don't eat breakfast — the soy donuts and tako-tamago will fill you twice."
EVIDENCE · @kanagawa.bites
§ 03 · C
City — Kyoto
Same place-as-unit treatment. Tipped-in photos sit warm on the dusk paper. Brass underlines the active filter.

The five moves underneath the visuals.

§ 1 · Architecture

Three screens, not four. The saved-places masonry is gone — its information now lives inside the country page. The user has one fewer level of drill-down between them and what they want.

§ 2 · Path to plan

Every screen has a brass-anchored CTA that turns the saves on it into a planned trip. Today it's a single floating button buried on screen 3. From any candidate, it's one tap.

§ 3 · AI as host

The AI's view of the user shows up as prose, not as a feature card. "You've been pinning Kyoto temples" is more useful than a dropdown labelled "AI suggestions."

§ 4 · Place ≠ reel

Same temple seen in four different reels = ONE row + four creator credits at the bottom. The dedup migration (0062) already does this server-side; the city page has just been ignoring it.

§ 5 · Geography is structure, not chrome

The map sliver on the country page (and the small Mapbox snippet on the city page in v2) gives the user a spatial anchor without making them navigate by map. Best of both.

§ 6 · Editorial voice, finally

Italic Instrument Serif. Brass as the only accent (not terracotta — a recent project decision). Geist Mono eyebrows tracked at 2.4px. Three primitives, one rhythm. The handoff aesthetic, applied where it had been skipped.

Open Plan/i-want-to-redesign-sorted-tide.md for the full reasoning, including the 4 candidates' tradeoffs and the sequence of PRs to land it.