Scoop UI Refactor

Scope

• Project root: /home/bender/classwork/Thesis
• Frontend: frontend/app and frontend/components

Required outcomes

• Preserve all existing features (view modes, filters, research, modals).
• Increase density and reduce empty vertical space.
• Make globe selection flow clear and usable.
• Have grid view have snap scroll.
• Keep feed snap-scroll while preserving global header visibility.
• Remove emojis from UI, logs, and docs.

Workflow

1. Review primary surfaces

• frontend/app/page.tsx (home layout)
• frontend/components/globe-view.tsx and frontend/components/interactive-globe.tsx
• frontend/app/search/page.tsx (research UI)
• frontend/app/globals.css (theme tokens)

2. Home layout refactor

• Compress the lead story into title + summary + action row.
• Move big narrative blocks into a compact summary card.
• Convert long "Contact" sections into short action rows.
• Keep view mode controls and filters visible and separated.

3. Globe view UX

• Add a clear country focus header.
• Show source count and top sources for the selected country.
• Keep a clear "reset" action visible.
• Remove all country flag emojis and any emoji usage.

4. Research workspace

• Use a top query bar.
• Add Brief and Flow modes (Flow shows reasoning steps in sequence).
• Move history or chat list into a sidebar.
• Ensure research visuals are distinct from the main feed styling.

5. No-emoji enforcement

• Use ripgrep to find emoji usage and remove it.
• Replace emoji with icons or labels.
• Apply to UI strings, logs, and docs.

6. Feed view snap-scroll (TikTok style)

• Use full-viewport sections (h-screen, snap-start) within a scroll container that has snap-y snap-mandatory scroll-smooth.
• Keep the global header visible by only calling event.preventDefault() on wheel/touch when a snap transition actually occurs; allow default scrolling when at the first/last item.
• Track activeIndex and an isAnimating guard; call scrollIntoView for the next/previous section and clear the guard after a short timeout.
• Support wheel, touch (deltaY threshold), and arrow keys; debounce small deltas to avoid accidental snaps.
• Retain modals, bookmarks, likes, and favorites behavior; do not regress existing feed actions.

Checks

• Confirm view modes still switch correctly.
• Confirm modals and source filters still work.
• Confirm research results still render with embedded sources.
• Confirm feed snap-scroll still works on wheel, touch, and arrow keys, and that the header remains accessible at top-level scroll.

Recent context

• Snap-scroll feed clips lower content if sections are fixed to h-screen without accounting for surrounding layout; prefer a flex parent (flex-1 h-full min-h-0) and per-section h-full min-h-full snap-start inside the scroll container so each article uses the available viewport height without hiding titles.
• Lint currently fails with pre-existing warnings/errors across the frontend (unused vars, hook ordering, explicit any); fixes are pending and not related to snap-scroll layout.