SkateSpots/CORDN_UX_AUDIT.md

Cordn / MLS / Staircase — UX audit (2026-10-12)

Scope: every surface where a skater meets the crew's encrypted chat — the crew page (Private chat tab + sidebar card), the Messages hub, Settings → Coordinator, and the CrewForm fields — plus the Staircase / Cordn-web hand-offs.

The goal was a coherent story: two chats exist (built-in NIP-17 "Chat" and the real-MLS "Private chat"), and the UI must never make them contradict each other.

Terminology model (the fix that anchors everything)

Surface	Name	Protocol	Setup
Crew page tab (existing)	Chat	NIP-17 giftwrap	always on
Crew page tab (new)	Private chat	MLS via coordinator	created once by an admin
Sidebar card	Encrypted chat	covers both	—

Rule: never call the sidebar card "Private chat" (collides with the MLS tab), and never badge the MLS chat "On" when it hasn't been created.

Findings

#	Sev	Status	Finding
1	High	Fixed	The sidebar card badged "Private chat · On" (meaning the NIP-17 Chat tab) while the MLS tab said "not created yet" — a direct contradiction. The card now shows two explicit rows, Chat (always on) and Private chat (On / Set up / Join / Checking), reflecting the real MLS status.
2	High	Fixed	Name collision: card "Private Crew Chat" vs tab "Private chat". Card retitled "Encrypted chat"; row names are Chat / Private chat.
3	Med	Fixed	The card led with external apps ("Cordn (web)", "Copy for Staircase") even though the app now ships its own MLS chat. The in-app Private chat is now the primary CTA (one tap → ?tab=mls); external clients moved under a labelled "Open in another app" row.
4	Med	Fixed	Joining gave no feedback. The panel now says "Request sent…" after Ask-to-join and "No invite waiting yet…" after Check-for-invite.
5	Med	Fixed	An admin who created the chat wasn't told how members join. The panel now shows an invite hint while the group has one member.
6	Med	Fixed	Crews were invisible in the Messages hub. Added a Crews section (status badge + deep link to ?tab=mls).
7	Low	Fixed	The crew page's tabs weren't deep-linkable; now ?tab=events|chat|mls (explicit param wins over the auto-default).
8	Low	Open	cordnUi.* / new crewCoordinator.* copy exists only in en/es; other locales fall back to English. Acceptable for a new feature, worth translating once it has users.
9	Low	Open	Cordn (web) is broken against our coordinator (upstream issue, drafted). Kept as a secondary link only; prefer the in-app chat or Staircase.
10	Low	Open	CrewForm's "Cordn group" field is Staircase-era jargon; now that the app creates groups natively it mostly serves importing an external group. Consider moving it under an "Advanced" disclosure.
11	Info	By design	Interactive signer (Amber): no live updates — the panel shows a hint and the DM pages have a manual Refresh. This is the deliberate "never pop Amber in the background" posture.
12	Info	By design	The coordinator sees ciphertext + metadata only; the card and the Settings privacy note say so plainly.

Still open / next

• Unread for the Private chat: ⚠️ needs a signed fetch — the MLS messages are behind the coordinator's ContextVM RPC, with no cheap metadata peek (that was the retired sealed-relay path). Options: a silent-signers-only background fetch (no dot for Amber), or leave it. A local-only dot would be misleading.
• Shareable "join this crew's chat" link ✅ done — the panel's admin Invite action shares …/crew/<pk>/<id>?tab=mls via the OS share sheet / clipboard.
• i18n drift ✅ done — all 20 locales back to 100% (see AGENTS.md).
• Persisted DM decrypt cache: ✅ done (src/lib/dmDecryptCache.ts).
• Broad polish: still open — candidates: a "Clear cached messages" action, entry-bundle trim, a11y, empty/error-state consistency.

Verified

npm test + check-i18n green; ?tab=mls deep-link wired through the crew page. Not click-tested in a real browser this session (no logged-in browser fixture).