# "What if…" candidates A closed catalog of eight directional bets that `uplift` Phase 2b selects from when authoring `stardust/uplift-questions.md`. Each candidate is a **captured-but-underused brand trait** that variant B or C can amplify. The catalog is closed because the failure mode of "what if…" questions is improvisation toward editorial vocabulary regardless of the captured brand register. A closed list anchors the agent to brand-evidence-driven amplifications. ## The eight candidates ### 1 · Display-typography amplification **What if we extended `` from eyebrows into the page's structural voice?** **Triggering signal.** The captured surface carries a display font that's reserved for very small uses (eyebrows, all-caps section labels, badge text) while body / headings use the workhorse family. Detected by inspecting `_brand-extraction.json.type.families.display` usage count vs. its capability — if the display family ships axes or weights that the captured site never exercises, the family is underused. **Direction.** Promote display type into section headers, navigation labels, and key headlines. The captured family stays the same; its **scope** changes. **Natural register for C.** `kinetic-display`. **Disqualified when.** The captured display family is generic (Inter, Roboto, Helvetica vanilla) without a signature axis — no trait worth amplifying. --- ### 2 · Photography re-foregrounding **What if the captured photography breathed at editorial scale?** **Triggering signal.** The captured site has high-quality photography but the layout crops it to thumbnail size — 3:4 portrait cards in a 5-up rail, 16:9 wide tiles with thin captions, hero photo behind text without enough share-of-canvas. Detected by inspecting `pages/.json.images` for `naturalWidth/Height` of captured assets ≫ rendered card sizes. **Direction.** Restore photography to 3:2 or 4:3 with title overlays in the lower band. Hero photo becomes the layout, not a tile. Cards gain photo-first composition. **Natural register for C.** `editorial`. **Disqualified when.** Photography is generic stock with no identity (e.g. Unsplash-generic team photos, smiling-customer templates). Amplifying generic photography exposes the weakness. --- ### 3 · Live-data promotion **What if real-time operational signals were hero priority?** **Triggering signal.** The captured site exposes live data (security wait times, inventory levels, departure boards, status indicators, queue counts) but the live data lives below the fold. Detected by inspecting `pages/.json.sections` for operational-language signals (numbers + time stamps + per-row identifiers) that don't appear in the hero region. **Direction.** Promote the live-data band into the hero adjacency. Tickers, dashboards, count-up numerals, refresh-pulse indicators. Often pairs with a configurator-search composition. **Natural register for C.** `live-systems`. **Disqualified when.** The captured site has no live data — marketing brand surfaces without operational signals can't fake liveness. --- ### 4 · Signature-gesture extension **What if `` extended from one surface into a system?** **Triggering signal.** The captured site has a defining gesture — a giant monogram, a stadium identity, a transport wordmark, a custom illustrated motif — appearing only at the hero. Detected by inspecting `_brand-extraction.json.motifs.wordmarkAsMotif` or signature SVG / illustration appearing on `pages/.json`'s `landmarks[hero]` but absent elsewhere. **Direction.** Extend the gesture's vocabulary into section headers, dividers, accent surfaces, footer wordmark. The gesture is no longer an exception; it's the brand's structural voice. **Natural register for C.** `arrival` (composition-led) or `kinetic-display` (motion-led). **Disqualified when.** There is no captured signature gesture — the page reads as a template without a defining mark. --- ### 5 · Voice-register pivot **What if `` was foregrounded over ``?** **Triggering signal.** Voice samples in `_brand-extraction.json.voice` carry a tonal contrast — formal + casual, civic + warm, technical + plain. The captured page leans heavily on one side and uses the other only in margins (footnotes, support copy, employee-program blurbs). **Direction.** Foreground the underused tone in section heads and primary CTAs. The dominant tone retreats to legal / governance / secondary surfaces. **Natural register for C.** `editorial`. **Disqualified when.** Voice samples are uniform — no tonal contrast to lean into. --- ### 6 · Color-ladder re-weighting **What if `` became the primary surface?** **Triggering signal.** The captured palette has a deep / accent / muted shade that's used in 1–3 places (a button hover state, a single footer band, an icon fill) but never as a primary ground. Detected by inspecting `_brand-extraction.json.palette.roles` for shades whose computed count is < 10% of the dominant background. **Direction.** Promote the reserved shade to one or two large surfaces (a band, a header, a footer pre-band). The palette is unchanged — only its **proportions** shift. **Natural register for C.** Any (color re-weighting is composition, not motion). **Disqualified when.** The captured palette is monochromatic + neutrals only — no shade to lift. --- ### 7 · Audience-routing reframe **What if the page foregrounded `` over the multi-audience compression?** **Triggering signal.** The captured page tries to serve multiple user intents in one composition (e.g. an airport homepage serving departing-today + arriving-today + parking + trip-planner + access + shopper + civic — seven intents, one surface). Detected by inspecting `pages/.json` for > 4 distinct CTA verbs in the above-the-fold region. **Direction.** Pick the most operationally-critical audience and foreground its path. The other audiences stay accessible but are demoted below the fold. The IA changes; the content set does not. **Natural register for C.** `live-systems` (when the foregrounded audience is operational) or `arrival` (when civic). **Disqualified when.** The captured page serves a single clear audience — no compression to untangle. --- ### 8 · Motif vocabulary swap **What if the layout primitive switched from `` to ``?** **Triggering signal.** The captured page uses one composition primitive heavily (e.g. cards-in-a-grid, badges-in-a-row, chips-in-a-pill-rail) while a different primitive appears once or twice (e.g. a list with index numbers, a banner with overlay text, a panel with a side rail). Detected by inspecting `_brand-extraction.json.systemComponents` for under-represented patterns. **Direction.** Promote the alternate primitive to the layout default. The card grid becomes an indexed list; the badge row becomes a labeled rail; the chip pill becomes a panel-and-rail. **Natural register for C.** `kinetic-grid`. **Disqualified when.** The captured page has only one composition primitive — nothing to swap to. ## Selection procedure (used in Phase 2b) 1. **Walk all eight candidates.** For each, read the triggering signal and check the captured brand surface for the trigger. 2. **Mark disqualifications.** A candidate is disqualified when its disqualification clause fires. Record the reason in `uplift-questions.md` so the audit trail is preserved. 3. **Rank remaining candidates** by trigger strength: how underused is the trait? How clearly does the captured evidence support amplification? 4. **C picks first.** The cinematic register was selected in Phase 3a; C takes the candidate that register naturally amplifies (see uplift SKILL.md Phase 3b matrix). 5. **B picks from remaining.** Prefer candidates whose move is composition / IA / voice (not motion) so B and C differentiate by axis, not intensity. 6. **A needs no candidate.** A is the faithful + improvements variant; its bet is the improvements list, not a trait amplification. If after disqualification fewer than two candidates remain, the brand surface is too thin for three differentiated variants — trigger the stop condition (uplift SKILL.md § Stop conditions (b) / (d)) and switch to `--two-variants` (A + C) or refuse. ## Format of `uplift-questions.md` ```markdown --- _provenance: writtenBy: stardust:uplift writtenAt: againstInput: readArtifacts: - stardust/current/_brand-extraction.json - stardust/current/pages/.json - stardust/current/brand-review.html --- # "What if…" candidates — ## Picked ### Variant C · What if: "" Cinematic register: Evidence: Motion bet: ### Variant B · What if: "" Captured trait amplified: Evidence: Composition bet: ## Disqualified - **** — disqualified because . - **** — disqualified because . ... ## Considered but not picked - **** — strong trigger but B/C differentiation better served by the picked candidate. ``` The disqualifications section is mandatory. Listing what was excluded (and why) is the audit trail that proves Phase 2b walked the catalog rather than reflexively picking the first match.