Editorial Surface

Editorial Surface

Treat reading experience as a product requirement, not decorative polish.

Use this when the surface is text-first and the common failure mode is bad hierarchy, empty cards, oversized hero treatments, weak excerpt logic, or unreadable body rhythm.

Best Fit

• article pages;
• blog and writing indexes;
• guide pages;
• book and booklet landing sections;
• featured and recent content cards;
• mixed text/media editorial layouts.

Design Priorities

• title, deck, metadata, and body must read as one system;
• body measure and paragraph rhythm win over decorative hero treatment;
• cards should carry the right amount of information for their role;
• media should support reading, not interrupt it;
• text-only surfaces should still feel intentionally composed.

Workflow

1. Identify the content role:
   • index, featured card, recent card, article page, guide, or mixed editorial section.
2. State the reading job:
   • skim, choose, commit, or read deeply.
3. Check the hierarchy:
   • label/source/date;
   • title;
   • deck/excerpt;
   • body;
   • supporting media;
   • actions and related links.
4. Fix the common structural failures first:
   • oversized title block;
   • empty right side on text-only featured cards;
   • recent cards with dead space instead of useful excerpt;
   • metadata too faint to scan;
   • body too light, narrow, or long-line;
   • video or external resources placed without narrative rhythm.
5. For mixed media, place media where it helps comprehension:
   • not automatically adjacent to cover art if that creates a media wall;
   • not after the entire article if it belongs near the core narrative.
6. Verify desktop and mobile reading comfort before calling the change ready.

Output Shape

Return:

• content role
• reading job
• hierarchy fixes
• excerpt rule
• media placement rule
• desktop/mobile reading checks

Guardrails

• Do not rewrite owner-approved article body unless explicitly asked.
• Do not turn editorial pages into generic marketing pages.
• Do not add decorative imagery to cover for weak hierarchy.
• Do not shrink content density so far that text-first surfaces become empty.
• Do not imitate Medium or Substack blindly when the project has its own identity.

Final Report

Include:

• the content role handled;
• the main hierarchy correction;
• the excerpt or media rule applied;
• desktop/mobile reading evidence;
• any remaining issue that still needs anti-slop-review or browser-verification.