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Use Simple mode (business-friendly view)

Status: first cut (#412). What ships now: a working, persisted, per-browser Simple mode toggle that exposes the plain-language vocabulary layer, hides advanced/technical controls, and trims dense tables on the four highest-traffic surfaces — the Dashboard, the Results list, a single Result detail page, and the Rule Suites list + editor. Default is OFF (the advanced UI is unchanged). Deferred to follow-up work: business-named rule templates, a distinct plain-English form-based rule builder, a business glossary, AI-narrated "what went wrong?" explanations, and applying the mode to the secondary routes (datasources, checkpoints, schedules, anomalies, suggestions). See #412 for the full backlog.

Goal

You'll turn on Simple mode — a business-friendly view for non-technical data stewards, data owners, and compliance teams. Simple mode keeps the same data but speaks plain language ("Rules" and "Checks" instead of "expectations" and "checkpoints"), hides the engine-level controls a power user needs but a steward doesn't (the raw JSON preview, the "Custom SQL (advanced)" rule option, the expectation gallery, the engine-type tooltip, the raw result payload, and the "Ask AI" custom-SQL panel), and trims the most technical columns out of the dense tables. It's a per-browser display preference — like the theme and density toggles — so it's remembered on your machine and applied before the first paint.

Prereqs

  • Any signed-in role. Simple mode is a personal display preference, not an org setting and not a permission — every seat (owner, admin, editor, viewer, billing-only) can turn it on, and it changes only your own browser. It is orthogonal to role-based access control: a control hidden by Simple mode is hidden because the mode tucks away a whole technical region, not because you lack a permission.

Steps

  1. Look at the bottom of the left sidebar, just above Settings and Log out. The appearance row holds three small segmented controls side by side: the theme toggle, the density toggle, and the display mode toggle.
  2. The display-mode control has two options:
    • Advanced (the default, wrench icon) — the full power-user UI, unchanged.
    • Simple (sparkles icon) — the business-friendly view.
  3. Click Simple to apply it immediately. The dashboard, the Results list and detail pages, and the Rule Suites pages re-render in plain language with the technical controls hidden — no reload needed.

What Simple mode changes

  • Dashboard — the "Checkpoints" stat card reads Checks, the trend card reads "Check results — last 30 days", and the recent-runs table drops the engine-y Check-name / UUID column, leaving the outcome and the run time.
  • Results list — the table drops the technical Batch and Checkpoint columns, leaving the outcome, the run time, and a View link; the page description reads in plain language.
  • Result detail — each rule leads with its plain-English meaning and outcome; the raw expectation_type engine tooltip is hidden, and the per-failure "Technical details" raw-JSON disclosure is suppressed.
  • Rule Suites list — the "Browse expectations" gallery link is hidden.
  • Rule Suites editor — the raw JSON preview card, the Custom SQL (advanced) add-rule option, the gallery link, and the Ask AI custom-SQL panel are hidden, leaving the form-based, plain-named rule builder.

Nothing is removed for power users: switch back to Advanced and every one of those controls returns exactly as before.

Verify

  • Clicking Simple swaps the labels and hides the technical controls right away; clicking Advanced restores the full UI.
  • Reloading the page keeps your choice — it's remembered per browser (under the dq.simple key) and applied before the first paint, so there's no flash of the advanced UI before Simple mode takes effect.