Attune

Attune is an adaptive UI library. Your app is a canvas of panels, and the canvas rearranges itself around what the user is doing: the panel they work in grows and holds still, the panels that help move next to it, and the ones that do not matter now get out of the way.

Two parts share the work:

• A model judges. After the user does something, a model (Jev, from TypeSafe) reads a short description of the recent activity in words and answers small questions: what is the user trying to do, how useful is each panel right now, are they stuck, what is the likely next step.
• Code decides. Every layout decision is code: the weights, the thresholds, which panels show, their sizes, and where each card goes. The model never places a panel, so the same answers always give the same layout, and every change has a reason the user can read.

The calm relayout rules

An interface that moves by itself is only useful if it never moves under the user’s hands. Attune keeps these rules everywhere:

• The panel the user just worked in does not move during a relayout. Its top-left corner holds still, and the other cards move around it.
• The card under the pointer waits before it moves or leaves, and nothing slides under the pointer right after a manual edit.
• Layout changes are a few seconds apart at least, and each change is staged so the eye can follow it: the anchor grows first, leaving cards fly into the dock, moved cards glide, and new cards arrive one at a time.
• Every change has a reason on screen, and Undo puts the last layout back.

The packages