Reader · design mock-ups

A Home page to start from

After signing in, the reader opens straight onto the library list. These mock-ups replace that with a Home page, reached by clicking the R at the top of the rail. It opens on the page of the paper you stopped reading, and three other views are a click away.

These pages were built by hand in the reader's own colours and type; the papers, highlights and notes in them are sample data. None of it is built yet. The full write-up is in the reader repository's docs/landing-ideas.md.

Home: most of the screen is the PDF page where reading stopped, with the lines already read dimmed, a highlight, a margin note and a dashed You stopped here line; papers in progress, recent highlights and up next in a column on the right; a view switcher at the top
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Continue reading, the default

The paper you last opened fills Home, and most of the page you stopped on is shown: the lines you'd read (dimmed), your highlight with its note in the margin, a You stopped here line, and what comes next. Resume here (↵) opens the paper at exactly that line. To draw it, the reader would save the top visible line as a text anchor, the way it already anchors highlights, and keep a small snapshot of the page when you leave.

The same Home page in the dark theme, with the page preview dimmed to match
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In the dark theme

The page preview dims with the rest of the app rather than staying bright white.

The Home view menu: Home opens on Continue reading, Today, Projects, Inbox or whichever was used last, and checkboxes for which views show as tabs
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Choose the views

The switcher holds Continue reading, Today, Projects and Inbox, on keys 1–4. Its ⋯ menu picks which one Home opens on (or whichever you used last), and which views show as tabs.

Today: a timed reading plan with a focus-session timer and this week's goals, and a strip at the bottom showing the lines where reading stopped with a Resume button
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Today

Pick how much time you have and Home proposes a plan from your queue, deadlines and stalled papers; drag to reorder. A focus session hides everything but the paper. On every view other than the default, a strip at the bottom keeps the lines where you stopped and Resume one key away.

Projects: a research question as the title, papers in To find, To read, Reading and Read and summarised lanes, and what you know so far built from highlights with citations
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Projects

A project is a question you're reading toward. Its papers sit in lanes, and what you know so far is built from your highlights, each with its citation; open questions are marked as having no source yet.

Inbox: new papers since the last visit, each with the reason it is there, and Add, Open, Later and Not for me buttons with keyboard shortcuts
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Inbox

New papers since your last visit: from authors you've read, papers citing the one you're reading, arXiv categories and saved searches. Triage from the keyboard: J/K to move, A to add, L for later, X for not for me.

The rest of the workflow

Ideas for how you get from Home into a paper and back, and how a paper ends up as something you've written.

A loop of six stages around R, Home: Find, Triage, Plan, Read, Wrap up, Review and write
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The loop

Find → Triage → Plan → Read → Wrap up → Review & write. Every step is one click from R, and each hands you to the next rather than back to a list.

The reader with a popover from the R button listing papers in progress, the next paper in the queue, and what is waiting at Home
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Hover R to switch papers

Click R for Home; hover it inside a paper for a quick switcher: other papers in progress on number keys, the next in the queue on N, and ⌘[ back to the last paper.

A dialog at the end of a paper: three takeaways drafted from highlights, a rating, where to file it, and the next papers from its references
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Wrap up at the end of a paper

At 100%, three takeaways drafted from your highlights, a rating and where to file it, and the next paper picked from its references. Save & open next (⌘↵) keeps the loop going.

A citation map of a project's papers coloured finished, reading and unread, with dashed nodes for papers several of yours cite but that are not in the library
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Library map

Your papers drawn as who cites whom. The dashed nodes are papers several of yours cite but you don't have yet, each with an Add button.

A writing view: highlights grouped by colour meaning on the left, one being dragged into a draft on the right where it becomes a citation, with a bibliography below
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From highlights to a draft

Drag a highlight into a draft and it becomes a citation; the reference list stays in step with the bibliography in the Git notes repository.

A search-first Home: one large box searching the library, papers, people and Ask Claude, with a drop area and four quick actions
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Search-first (an optional tab)

One box that searches your library first, so a paper you have resumes rather than being added twice, then the sources, people, and Ask Claude.

Review: a flashcard of an old highlight with Forgot, Fuzzy and Got it, open questions from notes, finished papers without a summary, and a reading heatmap
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Review (an optional tab)

A short pass over old highlights, the questions still open in your notes, and finished papers that have no summary yet.

First-run setup: a four-step checklist for Drive, importing papers, picking topics, and Git and a model, with starter papers and shortcuts
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First visit

For someone signing in for the first time: a checklist anyone can skip, two starter papers, and the four shortcuts worth knowing. It stands in for Home until the library has a few papers.

Still to decide