Interaction Patterns

Purpose

How the two dashboards behave, not just how they look — design.md is visual-only, this doc covers interaction.

Core Interaction Principle (from Mission & Principles)

"Reduce complexity relentlessly" — applies to interaction, not just layout: contextually hide irrelevant fields/actions rather than showing everyone everything with some parts disabled. A digital-goods Merchant never sees a shipping-related field at all, rather than seeing it grayed out.

Key Interaction Moments

• Campaign creation → live: should feel like very few steps (per the raw data doc's original "minimize form fields, add defaults" goal) — commission rate, product info, publish. No multi-page wizard for MVP.
• Application → approval → link generation: the approval action should immediately surface the generated AffiliateLink to the Creator (real-time or near-real-time notification, not a delayed email only) — this is one of the product's core "trust moments" and shouldn't feel like a black box.
• Checkout: stale — SellVia has no hosted checkout page (reversed 2026-08-07, 01. Money Flow); customers buy on the merchant's own Shopify store. The one remaining Paddle-Checkout-shaped surface — merchant billing setup — now uses Swich instead (updated 2026-08-23), and per design.md's restrained-animation rule should still feel calm and fast, not gamified, whatever Swich's actual widget/flow turns out to be.

Loading/Transition States

• Per design.md's animation restraint ("fade in, slight opacity transitions... nothing beyond that"), loading states should be simple and quiet — skeleton screens or fades, not spinners with playful copy.

Open Questions

• None blocking — this doc translates already-stated design and product principles into interaction guidance; specific micro-interactions get refined during actual screen design.