Design reference · not shipped

The library becomes a bookshelf.

The teacher's mental model flips from a flat list of text pieces to the method books & exam syllabuses they actually teach from. Covers are thumbnails only — they anchor recognition, never dominate. No grade badges anywhere. Every cover here is a CSS-generated spine (the same renderer used for custom pieces with no cover).

Screen 1 · /app/references

State shown: book with a piece that has no reference yet (row 3, amber) · up-next auto-suggestion (row 4) · custom piece with no cover (Singles — identical spine component, dashed).

Screen 2 · Assign flow (opens from a student)

Add a home assignment

We already know this student's current books, so the zero-search path is the default: continue in a book they're already in, and we compute the next unassigned piece. Search and custom pieces stay one click away.

Search fatigue is eliminated for the ~80% case: the next page in a book the student is already working through is one tap. Cover thumbnails confirm identity without a picker.

Screen 3 · /app/students/:id

Student profile

Anchored by the student's current shelf and a book-grouped timeline. We surface time-on-book and TOC progress — how far through each book, and how long they've been in it — with no grade or quality score anywhere.

State shown: a mixed history spanning two books and a coverless custom single, all grouped and color-ribboned by their source so the eye reads "chapters of study." No grade, target, or score is displayed.

Edge state · student between books