Field

One focused chapter from the Thorbis interface research. 7 rules. Read the research index for every chapter and focused study.

Field

I built Thorbis for the person doing the work. The dispatcher who lives in it eight hours a day. The tech in a crawlspace. The owner closing Friday’s books. If they can’t finish the action in two taps during the morning rush, we redesign it.

Operators over admins. Same law as Build for the operator. Throughput beats decoration. A quarterly report does not win the working day.
Arrive. Collect. Two taps in the working day.
Real data, not demos. Specimens use actual field names, status values, and API names. We don’t mock workflows that don’t exist in production. Gold-standard screens are customers, jobs, estimates, invoices, and the schedule.
Morning board
Tab in. Arrows move. Enter opens.
Interruption is the default. Guided and field surfaces optimize for imperfect attention: one clear job, comfortable targets, explicit progress, resilient recovery. A tech can lock the phone mid-step and return.
Signature
3 photos waiting to sync.
Pending is a state. Not a failure.
Offline is a state, not an error. The field app is offline-first. Signatures, photos, and materials capture locally and sync on reconnect. The UI says what is pending, not that the user failed.
Signature
3 photos waiting to sync.
Pending is a state. Not a failure.
Money is sacred. Invoices, payments, payroll, and Safe to Spend are exact. Tabular numbers, consistent decimals, explainable formulas, and a confirmation on anything that moves cash.
Safe to spend
Today$2,480.00
Hold$186.00
Money is tabular. Same decimals. A confirmation if it moves.
Names from the trade. Job, stop, tech, truck, estimate, invoice, dispatch, not ticket, card, assignee, or deployment. Introduce as few unique terms as possible, and keep them stable.
JobStopTechTruck
Job. Stop. Tech. Not ticket. Not assignee.
Two taps in the working day. The test for any primary field or dispatch action: can it be completed in two taps during a morning rush? If not, the pattern is wrong.
Arrive. Collect. Two taps in the working day.

I built this for the dispatcher at 7 a.m., the tech in a crawlspace, and the owner closing the books. Quiet chrome. Precise work. I’m still learning. These are the notes.

Applied bookmark research

Reviewed 2026-09-06. These examples reinforce the existing owners; they do not introduce another visual style or claim the product behavior is implemented. Read the 26-source review and access limits.

A control keeps its meaning through every state

A button that changes width, a field that loses input, or a dialog that loses focus breaks the task even when the resting design looks precise.

Review the approved primitive as a sequence: resting, focused, activated, pending, resolved, and recovered. Keep the action label and footprint stable, associate errors with their fields, and preserve a visible keyboard path.

Thorbis example. Save estimate remains Save estimate while its state mark changes. A validation error keeps the entered values, explains the repair beside the field, and moves focus only when the interaction calls for it.

Verify. Test Tab, Shift-Tab, Enter, Escape where applicable, paste, invalid input, rapid activation, and a slow response. Repeat at 390px, in both themes, with zoom and reduced motion.

Do not import. No hand-built duplicate primitive, hidden label, disabled browser zoom, or borrowed shadow-only outer edge that violates D-017.

Open the ui skill · Evidence: Web Interface Guidelines; Invisible Details; components.build; Details that make interfaces feel better

Transfer the intent, not the desktop gesture

An interaction that works with a precise pointer or modifier key may be unusable for a tech holding a phone.

Preserve the record and task while adapting the visible action path to the device. Use the existing native owner for target sizing, safe areas, focus, and host behavior; no critical action relies only on hover or a hidden gesture.

Thorbis example. A field photo remains attached to the same job when the tech changes orientation or returns from another app. The visible capture action and retry path remain available without discovering a desktop shortcut.

Verify. Check one-handed use, software keyboard opening, text enlargement, orientation, focus visibility, and reduced motion on the relevant device. Keep permission refusal and return-from-interruption states in the review.

Do not import. No desktop hover contract on a phone, blocked zoom, silent clipboard access, or unverified claim that a web imitation is native behavior.

Open the native skill · Evidence: Web Interface Guidelines; Design Engineer Principles; Devouring Details