The Contract
Five forces, one promise: a screen is a stage, held still, reachable, glanceable and right-sized. Keep all five, or it isn’t done.
Five modules, five forces. A screen is a stage that fits one viewport; it stays still under your thumb; its busy controls sit where the thumb reaches; its state reads in a single glance; and it shows the right density, the rest on demand.
They are not five preferences — they are one contract. Break any one and users feel it, even when they can never name which. This module hands you the whole promise at once: grade a screen against all five, then loop back to the stage where it began.
Five forces, one promise
Everything the series taught, in one place. A screen is not done until it keeps all five — miss one and users feel it, even if they can never name which.
The contract, kept or broken
One screen, two ways. Flip it between the version that breaks the contract and the one that keeps it — and watch the five checks turn from red to green together. A screen either honours all five, or it doesn’t.
A screen is a stage, held still, reachable, glanceable and right-sized — keep all five, or it is not done.
One promise, kept every time
The five forces feel like a checklist, but they are really one habit: before a screen ships, put it to the contract. Does it fit its frame, or has it grown into a page? Does it stay still, or does it shove under the thumb? Do the busy verbs sit where the hand rests? Can you read its state in a second? Is it the right amount, or a wall?
Most screens fail quietly on one of these — and that one quiet failure is what users mean when they say an app feels “cheap” or “tiring” without being able to point at why. The contract turns that vague feeling into five plain questions you can answer, and fix.
And the loop closes where it began: a screen that keeps all five is, once more, a stage — a fixed, still, reachable, legible, right-sized surface you operate, not a page you endure.
Where the contract breaks
Does it keep the contract?
Five face-offs, one per force. The same screen, two builds — one breaks that force, one keeps it. Pick the one that honours the contract, then see why.
The Contract glossary
The contract and its five forces, in six words. Tap a card to flip it.
Questions you actually ask
Sign the contract
Ten questions in seven formats — multiple choice, multi-correct, fill-in, match, order, read-think-connect and write-your-own — each with layered hints: a nudge, the reasoning, then a deeper connection. Served from the question bank, never hardcoded.
The five-force test
Open the five apps you use most and run the contract on the busiest screen in each: does it fit, hold still, reach, glance and right-size? These five start as passing; tap any that quietly breaks the promise.
Whatever your count — you just did the one thing you can never undo. You noticed the dial. From today, every screen you meet, you will feel whether its density was chosen — or whether it just accreted into a wall.