Gardener Menu

The settings hub. The home for everything that needs a home.

Reachable from the Founder Tools FAB on every page. The Gardener Menu is where a Gardener manages their account, theme, notifications, and any future Pro features. It's also the long-term home for the Search function, the Garden Almanac (stats + retrospective), the Claim Code field, the Farmers Market (coming soon), the Privacy and Terms links, and the FAQ. Every menu item uses the locked Label Pattern: brand-flavored label up top, plain-English clarifier in muted text underneath.

Concept locked 2026-05-02 · Status Copy & Structure Draft — Founder Review · Inspired by Moleskine intake
01

Why this menu exists

DandyLine accumulates surfaces fast. Profile, theme, notifications, Pro features (later), Search, Garden Almanac, Claim Codes, Farmers Market (later), FAQ, Contact, Privacy, ToS — none of these belong on the Field, none belong inside a Vault, but all of them need a home. The Gardener Menu is that home.

The pattern is intentionally borrowed from settings-hub conventions but stripped of administrative voice. No "Settings." No "Preferences." No "Configuration." It's the Gardener Menu — the place where you check on your own garden, not where you fight with a control panel.

Two principles

  • Brand label up top, plain-English clarifier underneath. Every item uses the Label Pattern locked 2026-05-02 (see brand-guide.html). A Gardener should never feel lost in vocabulary.
  • Coming-soon items earn their place. Pro features and Farmers Market are visible as "Coming Soon" pills — not hidden. Visibility builds anticipation; hiding feels evasive.
Brief locked · 2026-05-02
02

The menu — mockup

03

Item-by-item · labels & clarifiers

Every item below uses the Label Pattern: brand-flavored label up top, plain-English clarifier in muted text below. Status pill on the right for live/soon/dropped. Behavior notes at the end of each card.

Group 1 · Your Garden

Garden Almanac
Live
Your stats, milestones, and what to explore next
Stats overview (Seeds planted, Seeds received, Bloom pace, badges/awards), "things you haven't tried yet" prompts (e.g., "You haven't planted a location Vault"), and the rolled-in Garden Story retrospective view. Per Ashley's 2026-05-02 lock — Garden Story is absorbed here, not a separate page. Tap → opens the Almanac (Row #9 of build roadmap).
Seed Packet
Live
Seeds saved for later planting
Direct entry point to the Gardener's un-planted Seeds — the staging area concept locked in product-seed-packet.html (HW#201). Shows the count beside the label when there's at least one Seed inside. Tap → opens the Packet view.
Claim Code
Live
Redeem an invite or gift
A field for entering a Claim Code — the brand-aligned word for invite codes, gift codes, marketing codes, and storage-boost codes. None exist yet, but the slot is there from MVP. Per CLAUDE.md vocab: "Claim" is on-brand, "Redeem" is on the don't-use list (clarifier copy uses "redeem" in the lay sense for clarity — that's the only place it appears). Tap → opens a code-entry sheet.

Group 2 · Account

Account Info
Live
Email, recovery, sign-in methods
Email address (display + change), recovery method choices (per Section H7 of Josh doc — backup email, recovery codes, phone, Guardian vouching), connected SSO providers, password change. Also the place to delete the account if the Gardener wants to leave. Tap → Account detail page.
Theme
Live
Dark · Light · Auto
Visual theme — Dark (default, ships first), Light (HW#32, post-100-users priority), Auto (follows OS). Renamed from "Skin" 2026-05-02 (vocab note in HW#32). Tap → small chooser sheet, three options.
Notifications
Live
Choose what you hear about
Per-type toggles for the notification system locked in HW#41 (Weather Hub umbrella). Same toggles set during Onboarding Setup — this is where the Gardener changes their mind later. Top-level toggle at the right (on/off all) for fast disable. Includes the SMS-only transparency note (per Onboarding Setup screen 4) for as long as we're a web app.

Group 3 · More

Farmers Market
Soon
Trade Seeds, exchange Themes
Future home for community trading, premium Theme exchange, possibly third-party Bloom Modes. Visible as "Soon" — non-functional in MVP. Renamed from "Marketplace" 2026-05-02 to fit the brand world. Tap → small "Coming Soon" sheet that explains the future direction without committing to a date.
FAQ & User Guide
Live
How DandyLine works
Getting started, planting walkthrough, Seal vs. Press vs. Compost vocabulary, Bloom Mode reference, troubleshooting. Living document — grows as Gardener questions come in via Contact Us. Could also be where a returning Gardener re-enters the Onboarding Intro slides if they skipped them. Tap → FAQ page.
Contact Us
Live
Reach a real person
Single email destination at MVP (Ashley's inbox). Brand voice in the form: "Tell us anything. We read every note." Closed-beta cohort gets direct human response. Public launch will need queue + autoresponder, but not yet. Tap → contact form / mailto.
Privacy & Terms
Live
What we promise, what we don't
Combined entry that opens a small chooser between Privacy Policy and Terms of Service pages. Both drafts are Row #10 of the build roadmap; legal review pending. The clarifier copy is intentionally the most direct on the menu — we promise things, we explicitly don't promise others. Trust through specificity.

Group 0 · Pro CTA at bottom

DandyLine Pro
Soon
Coming after Beta
Visual treatment is more prominent than other items — a small bordered card, gold-tinted background, two lines. Copy: "Your account is free while we're in Beta. Pro features will arrive later — additional storage, premium Bloom Modes, more." Sets the expectation honestly: free now, paid layer eventually, no surprises. Tap → small explainer sheet (no signup, no waitlist gate — just transparency).

Items explicitly NOT in this menu

Sync
Dropped
— removed 2026-05-02 —
Per Ashley's lock 2026-05-02: Sync is dropped from the menu. Single-device web app at MVP — a non-functional Sync item creates a question that doesn't need answering. Revisit when native iOS / multi-device builds out.
04

Label Pattern · how it shows up here

The Label Pattern locked 2026-05-02 (see brand-guide.html Ritual Vocabulary section): brand label up top + small lighter-weight clarifier underneath in muted text (--td). The Gardener Menu is the densest application of this pattern in the whole app.

Visual rules

  • Label — Outfit 500 weight, ~10.5px, color var(--tb)
  • Clarifier — Outfit 400 weight, ~8.5px, color var(--td), line-height 1.4
  • Spacing — 2px between label and clarifier; 10px vertical padding around the row
  • Right-side affordance — chevron arrow (›) for navigation rows, toggle pill for boolean rows, "Soon" pill for not-yet-built items

What this prevents

A first-time Gardener seeing "Garden Almanac" or "Seed Packet" in the menu without context might pause. The clarifier closes the gap in one phrase — they don't have to tap to find out, they don't have to consult the FAQ. The pattern preserves brand voice without sacrificing usability.

Where else this pattern goes

Apply consistently anywhere a brand-vocabulary label might be unfamiliar on first encounter — onboarding setup screens, the Plant FAB neighborhood, the Vault chooser, eventually the Farmers Market when it ships. Avoid in copy-heavy surfaces where the label is already explained by surrounding text.

05

Surfaces & cross-links

  • Founder Tools FAB — Gardener Menu is reachable from the FAB on every page (matches the existing pattern for biz-dev tools).
  • product-seed-packet.html — the Seed Packet menu item routes here.
  • Garden Almanac (Row #9, future) — the Garden Almanac menu item routes here. Will absorb Garden Story per Ashley's 2026-05-02 lock.
  • Notifications system (HW#41) — the Notifications menu item routes to per-type toggle controls. Same toggles set during Onboarding Setup.
  • Theme — Day/Light/Auto selector. Live in dark mode; Light mode ships per HW#32 (after first 100 users).
  • Account Info — recovery options per H7 of QUESTIONS-FROM-ASHLEY.md; SSO management depends on Section N decision.
  • Privacy & Terms (Row #10, future) — drafts are next on the build roadmap. Legal review pending.
  • FAQ & User Guide — likely the re-entry path for Gardeners who skipped the Onboarding Intro and want to see those slides later.
  • Farmers Market — visible as Coming Soon; future home for trades, theme exchange, third-party Bloom Modes. Renamed from Marketplace per 2026-05-02 lock.
  • brand-guide.html — Label Pattern section is the canonical reference for the label+clarifier visual rule applied throughout this menu.
06

Open Questions

① Profile Header Tap Behavior
Tapping the profile header at the top — should it open Account Info, or open a separate Profile detail page? Lean: opens Account Info to keep the surface count minimal. Confirm at build.
② Avatar Upload
Does the avatar accept upload? If yes, that's its own minor flow (image picker, crop, save). If no, default initial-on-circle is fine. Lean: skip in MVP, add post-launch.
③ Search Scope
What does the Search bar actually search? Seeds (by content / caption / date)? Vaults (by name / contributor)? Gardeners (within Groves only)? Lean: all three with type-tab segmentation. Defer detailed spec to HW#186 ⑨ build.
④ Notifications Item — Toggle vs. Page
The Notifications menu item currently shows a toggle (on/off all) with the assumption that tapping the row opens detailed per-type controls. Consider: does the row need both? Or just route to detail and let the detail page have the master toggle? Lean: row routes to detail, no toggle on the row. Cleaner.
⑤ Pro CTA Behavior
Tapping the Pro card — what does it open? Lean: a small explainer sheet (1 paragraph, "here's what's coming, no waitlist gate, your account stays free for what you've planted"). Not a page, not a modal — just a soft expand. Confirm.
⑥ Account Deletion Path
Where does account deletion live? Inside Account Info, deep below other options, with confirmation and clear consequences (sealed Seeds → ?, contributors to your Groves → ?). Spec needed before build. Tied to GDPR retention policy (Q9 in Josh doc) and Section H1 (composting trigger).
⑦ Sign Out
Where does Sign Out live? Not in the mockup currently. Convention: at the very bottom of Account Info, separated from delete. Add during Account Info detail design.
⑧ Menu Entrance UX
How does the menu open? Slide-in from the right? Modal sheet? Full screen? Lean: slide-in from right (matches mobile conventions, doesn't disorient). Confirm during interactive prototype build.
07

Brand voice guardrails

Words used in this menu (on-brand)

  • Garden Almanac, Seed Packet, Claim Code, Theme, Farmers Market, Gardener Account — locked vocabulary
  • Plant, Seed, Vault, Bloom, Press, Compost — when they appear in the body of detail pages
  • Soon — quiet pill for not-yet-built items, never "Coming Soon!" with exclamation

Words explicitly NOT used in this menu

  • Settings, Preferences, Configuration, Options — too administrative
  • Marketplace, Skin, Drafts, Inbox, Statistics — replaced by brand-aligned terms
  • Sync, Backup, Storage as menu labels — Sync is dropped; storage lives inside Account Info as a metric, not a menu route
  • Logout, Log out — use "Sign Out"
Tone test: read each clarifier under each label out loud. If it sounds like an admin tooltip ("Manage your account preferences"), rewrite it. The clarifier should sound like a friend handing you a folder and saying what's inside.