The reveal interaction for a single slot

PROPOSAL · Decision U-2 2026-08-25

How one collapsed help slot (one field's help, one block explainer) reveals its content in clean density: three candidate interactions, decided once for every slot.

Annotation · where this decision sitsIn I1 every user sees help SHOWN by default (D-g-4, 2026-08-25). The collapsed rendering drawn here exists in I1 only behind a QA harness state and reaches users with the post-I1 density preference. Deciding the reveal now prevents markup rework later: I1's slot markup is proven collapsible before it is locked (explain-layer design, item 5). The indicator for a hidden help REGION is already decided (D-g-4 Option C, styled on page 07); this page decides something narrower, how a SINGLE collapsed slot reveals. The base element on all three drawings is the GWP family field from the methodology-lock wizard step (gri-cycle-admin, wizard step 3), drawn twice per option: collapsed state and expanded state side by side. No option is drawn as chosen.

Option A · Info icon, expand in place · PROPOSAL

Collapsed · clean density

GWP family*

Select GWP family

Boundary approach*

operational-controlfinancial-control

Annotationa small circled i after the label is the only trace of the hidden help

Expanded · after clicking the icon

GWP family*

Select GWP family

Client-supplied; the control starts empty and never carries a default.

Boundary approach*

operational-controlfinancial-control

Annotationhelp renders directly under the field; the next field pushes down. Clicking the icon again collapses

Pro: the most conventional and discoverable of the three; users know circled i icons, and the trigger sits exactly on the labeled thing it explains. Con: it adds an icon to every field that has help, so a form where many fields carry help grows a column of icons; that is visual noise precisely on the dense screens clean density exists to serve.

Option B · Dotted-underline term with popover · PROPOSAL

Collapsed · clean density

GWP family*

Select GWP family

Annotationthe term itself carries a subtle dotted underline; the layout is otherwise untouched

Expanded · after hover, or tap on touch

GWP family*

Select GWP family

Annotationa small popover anchors to the term, floating over the content below; closes on outside click. The source link is a demo stand-in, no destination proposed here

Pro: the quietest of the three; layouts stay byte-identical to a page with no help at all, and nothing is spent per field. Con: the least discoverable; a dotted underline has to be noticed and understood, and a user who never hovers never learns the help exists. Touch caveat, stated honestly: there is no hover on touch devices, so on tablets and phones the popover opens on tap only, and tapping a form label is not a gesture users perform on their own.

Option C · Mini strip, matched to the decided region strip · PROPOSAL

Collapsed · clean density

GWP family*

Select GWP family

Show help

Annotationa one-line text affordance under the field, visually a smaller sibling of the decided region strip on page 07

Expanded · after click

GWP family*

Select GWP family

Hide help

Client-supplied; the control starts empty and never carries a default.

Annotationexpands in place, exactly where the help renders; the strip flips to Hide help with the chevron rotated

Pro: fully consistent with the decided region-level strip, so hidden help has ONE visual language everywhere: see a strip, click it, help appears there. Nothing new to learn per surface. Con: it spends a line under every field that has help even while collapsed, so it saves the least vertical space of the three; a dense form in clean density still carries one thin line per helped field.

Annotation · scope and contract notesWhichever option is picked applies to every explain-slot variant (field help, block explainer, table-adjacent note, dialog explainer) and is decided once. It only ever governs EXPLANATORY help: refusal text, warnings, validation, state reports, and composed per-clause entry help are functional and never collapse (guidance spec 7.4), so no functional copy ever sits behind any of these affordances. Keyboard reachability, the described-by association, and the announced reveal belong to the explain-layer component contract and ship with the picked option, not separately per option. The drawn help line stands in for the authored field-help record for the GWP family field; content itself is out of scope here.

Demo helper · static drawingBoth states of each option are drawn side by side, so nothing on this page toggles. The hover and click behavior described in the captions is the proposal being decided, not something this wireframe simulates.