Planner Control Center Guide
Task 61 turns the planner occasion home into a true operating surface instead of a static overview page. The control center is the planner-facing center of gravity for occasion status, readiness, next steps, and cross-feature coordination.
Purpose
Task 61 turns the planner occasion home into a true operating surface instead of a static overview page. The control center is the planner-facing center of gravity for occasion status, readiness, next steps, and cross-feature coordination.
Control Center Model
The control center is occasion-first.
It answers four immediate planner questions:
- What is the current overall state of this occasion?
- What needs attention now?
- Which systems are healthy or incomplete?
- Which route should the planner open next?
The control center is not a duplicate of feature pages. It summarizes:
- core setup
- guests and RSVP
- forms
- communications
- timeline
- seating
- vendors
- publishing/distribution
- module/capability shape
Detailed editing stays inside the feature pages themselves.
Planner Information Architecture
The stable IA is now:
- Dashboard home: workspace and occasion selection entry.
- Occasion control center: primary operating surface for one occasion.
- Guided workflows: checklist-based deeper workflow layer.
- Feature pages: detailed editing and operational execution.
- Event detail pages: event-level drill-down when the issue belongs to one event.
Context preservation rules:
- every control-center action routes back into the current occasion
- event watchlist items link to the specific event route
- section summaries link to the corresponding feature page
- guided workflows remain available as the deeper checklist layer, not as a replacement for the control center
Status And Readiness Model
The backend computes readiness for:
- core setup
- guests and RSVP
- forms
- timeline
- seating
- vendors
- communications
- publishing
Each readiness surface resolves to one of:
readyattentionblockedunavailable
The control center also computes:
- lifecycle stage:
setup,planning,live,wrap_up - overall status from the worst active readiness state
- event watchlist summaries so multi-event issues stay attributable
Next-Step System
The next-step system is a backend orchestration layer, not a page-only heuristic.
It prioritizes:
- setup blockers like missing events or guest records
- operational actions like sending invitations or publishing seating
- exception handling like delivery failures or blocked timeline items
- capability-aware steps like vendor setup or printable generation
Each next step includes:
- title
- detail
- priority
- category
- action label
- route target
Quick actions are derived from the highest-value next steps plus the workflow hub.
Summary Sections
The control center renders concise cross-feature sections for:
- guests and RSVP
- communications
- operations
- vendors and collaboration
- publishing and outward distribution
- product shape
The sections are intentionally summary-depth only. They show enough to orient the planner without replacing the dedicated feature surfaces.
Capability-Aware Simplification
The control center integrates with the capability-driven experience profile.
Simple mode behavior:
- calmer section set
- fewer unavailable surfaces
- product-shape detail collapsed
- guided language and lighter density
Advanced mode behavior:
- richer summary depth
- explicit module/capability visibility
- more surface detail exposed at once
Multi-Event Considerations
The control center never assumes one occasion equals one event.
It supports:
- multiple event summaries
- issue attribution per event
- occasion-wide readiness plus event-specific drill-down
- cross-feature signals that roll up from event state
Future Extension Points
Future tasks can safely extend this model by:
- adding new readiness surfaces
- enriching event watchlist heuristics
- adding automation/assistant recommendations
- adding stronger event-scoped routing filters
- promoting more capability/package explanation into the product-shape section
Final Summary
The planner control center is now the operational brain of the planner dashboard. It gives planners a single calm surface for status, priorities, coordination signals, and action routing while keeping detailed feature pages as the execution layer beneath it.