31Surface Intensity

Today is not a terminal. Diagnostics is not a spa.

Every Milo surface holds one of four densities. Which one it gets is not taste: information density increases with task specificity. A surface about what matters now earns space; a surface about the machine earns rows.

LEVELS 01 QUIET · 02 WORK · 03 STUDIO · 04 SYSTEMTOKENS tokens/surface-intensity.jsonGATE jev intensity

The law31.1

Density follows specificity.

The more specialised the task, the more the surface may say at once. The progression is a direction of travel, not a ranking — nothing at QUIET is better designed than something at SYSTEM.

QUIET

What matters now?

Today · conversation · reflection · onboarding. One decision on screen. Art may be large.

WORK

What is the state of this work?

Projects · tasks · artifacts · files. Ten to thirty rows. Imagery only where it is the thing being worked on.

STUDIO

How does this work get made?

Design · research · Daily Bread · code. Purpose-built regions. The artifact dominates.

SYSTEM

What is true about the machine?

Activity · fleet · models · costs · diagnostics. Tabular, mono, no decoration.

The full allowance table

	01 QUIET	02 WORK	03 STUDIO	04 SYSTEM
Information units	1 + ≤5	10–30 rows	artifact + 2–5 regions	30–200 rows
Decisions visible	1	3–6	workflow-specific	grouped, many
Type balance	display serif leads	sans dominant	sans + mono	mono dominant
Display sizes	xl · l · m	m	none	none
Imagery	large art or nature	contextual only	artifact or source	none decorative
Motion	ambient permitted	functional	workflow feedback	state change only
Microtype	sparse	moderate	moderate-high	high
Devices	structural + ≤1 signature	structural	structural + provenance	structural only
Section space	80px	32px	20px	16px
Row height	56px	52px	44px	40px

The same content, two levels31.2

One task, at QUIET and at SYSTEM.

Nothing changes but allowance: same colour, same families, same state vocabulary, same component behaviour. Only how much is said at once.

01 QUIET — Today

NOW

Reconcile the September invoices.

Milo has the statements open and can draft the summary when you are ready.

Not started

04 SYSTEM — Activity

09:14:02
Invoice reconcile · run 3 of 3
codex · local · 2m 14s · $0.00
Done
09:11:48
Statement OCR · 41 pages
mini-pc · local · 48s
Done
09:10:03
Fetch statements · 3 accounts
claude · remote · 11s · $0.02
Done
09:09:55
Plan · 4 steps
claude · remote · 3s · $0.01
Done

Art intensity31.3

Art intensity follows surface intensity.

Rembrandt behind GPU telemetry is wrong. A technical surface stays technical; its Milo-ness comes from hierarchy, spacing, semantic colour, microtype and precision.

QUIET	Large art or nature. Room for contemplation. sublime · archive · national-park
WORK	Contextual imagery only — the thing being worked on.
STUDIO	The artifact or the source dominates when relevant.
SYSTEM	Little or none. Charts and bars are the picture.

Declaring a level31.4

A surface states its intensity, and the gate checks it.

The attribute sets the rhythm variables; JEV fails a SYSTEM surface carrying art or display type, and a QUIET surface carrying more than one primary action.

<main class="app-main" data-intensity="work">

python3 tools/jev.py ask intensity --file site/pages/screens/costs.html
JEV PASS  [intensity] — level=system imgs=0 art=0 display=0 primaries=1; ok

Failure modes

Today has grown a table, three charts and a tab bar	A WORK surface is hiding inside a QUIET one.
Diagnostics is beautiful but slow to read	SYSTEM designed at QUIET. Restore density.
Every surface carries a landscape	Art intensity is not following surface intensity.
A system screen carries a 72px serif headline	Over-branding. The overbrand gate exists for this.