◆ Static catalog. Every Results-view state rendered simultaneously (primary / repaired / unstable / "Why this lens" expanded / "More like this" expanded / F.1 sub-slots / ghost / tensions collapsed + expanded). Handlers are no-ops; the ◆ STATE captions are removable review scaffolding. Fixture: Manca dining group (`fixtures/sample-results.ts`).
◆ TENSIONS PANEL — both states
- Four diets barely overlapstructural
Four overlapping dietary restrictions shrink the viable restaurant set toward zero.
- No one can pick a placesocial
Even when options exist the group cannot converge on a single choice.
- Not-going has its own momentumemotional
Two years of not going out has built a habit that any single attempt must overcome.
◆ FAMILY GRID — Candidate B (2-column CSS masonry)
Reframe the Emotion
Change the affective character of an experience without changing what physically happens.
How might naming a restriction feel like helping the group decide, rather than the veto that ends the conversation?
force: the guilt of naming a restriction · target_state: helping the group decide
Addresses: No one can pick a place
What positive force already exists here, and how might we amplify it?
What negative emotional state could become positive?
What if the moment everyone hates became the moment people look forward to?
Challenge Assumptions
Surface a presupposition the problem statement depends on, and propose testing or removing it.
How might the group share a meal together without everyone needing to eat the same thing in the same place?
force: the assumption that shared eating requires shared food, location, and timing · target_state: decoupled sharing where the meal happens but the constraint dissolves
Addresses: Four diets barely overlap
How might shared meals stop requiring shared timing, so the group can taste the same thing across an evening instead of in one sitting?
force: the assumption that a shared meal means simultaneous eating · target_state: shared taste experienced across time, not at a single table
Addresses: Four diets barely overlap
How might the meal itself become something the group makes together, rather than something a restaurant has to accommodate?
force: the assumption that eating-out is the only social form · target_state: a shared act of making that holds the social weight a restaurant used to
Addresses: Four diets barely overlap
Who currently carries the burden, and what if someone or something else carried it?
What if the current constraint did not exist?
What if the situation became much harder?
Shift Perspective
Move agency or attention from one party to another.
How might the person with the strictest diet become the one whose taste the group trusts, rather than the obstacle everyone works around?
force: the strictest-restriction holder treated as the obstacle · target_state: trusted taste-setter for the group
Addresses: No one can pick a place
How would the challenge look from another person's perspective?
Who is easy to ignore, dismiss, or blame?
Change the System
Alter the structural conditions around the problem — assets, environment, timing, incentives, norms.
How might we make each member's accumulated diet expertise function as the group's shared knowledge rather than as private baggage each person carries alone?
force: the group's distributed but unshared diet expertise · target_state: shared knowledge functioning as a group asset
Addresses: Four diets barely overlap
How might the physical space shape behavior?
What could happen before, during, or after the pain point?
What behavior is currently rewarded, and what could be rewarded instead?
What social rule is making the problem worse?
Use Creative Provocations
Import a frame from outside the problem's normal domain — metaphor, analogy, inversion, extreme.
How might choosing where to eat feel less like negotiating and more like the easy give-and-take of a potluck the group can enjoy?
force: the treaty-negotiation feel of group decision-making · target_state: the easy give-and-take of a potluck
Addresses: No one can pick a place
What if we did the opposite of what a sensible person would do?
What would be ridiculous, magical, luxurious, or impossible?
What metaphor captures the deeper need?
Decompose and Recombine
Break a composite problem into smaller problems addressable separately.
Addresses: Four diets barely overlap
How might the group's four overlapping dietary constraints feel like a richer menu to design around rather than a smaller intersection to shrink toward?
force: the perception of constraints as a shrinking intersection · target_state: constraints felt as a richer design surface
Addresses: No one can pick a place
How might the moment of choosing feel like the group's shared pleasure rather than a negotiation no one wants to host?
force: the friction of group decision-making · target_state: choosing as shared pleasure
Addresses: Not-going has its own momentum
How might breaking the not-going-out habit feel lighter than its current weight, rather than requiring a hero attempt each time?
force: the accumulated inertia of withdrawal · target_state: lightness of restart, not heroic exertion
Where does the problem emerge over time?
Can we make the HMW more abstract or more concrete?