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Brief 129

Navigation & Wayfinding Audit

The three questions every screen owes a user — where am I, where can I go, how do I get back — plus the nav that hides, the dead ends, and the jargon labels.

NAVIGATION.md4 phases8 lenses~3.0k chars

Free & open · no signup · read-only — it ends by asking · nothing leaves your machine

What it does

You are working inside this repo. Mission: judge whether a user can always answer three questions — where am I, where can I go, and how do I get back — and find the screens where the navigation goes silent.

Read-only pass. Walk the app or trace the routes, nav components, and menus; your only write is the report file.

What it looks for

8 lenses it looks through

Phase 2 sweeps the codebase through every one of these, citing file and line for each finding.

1

Where am I

active-state and title cues on every screen; the page that leaves you guessing which section you are in

2

Where can I go

are the next steps visible, or does the path forward depend on knowing a URL

3

How do I get back

back, breadcrumbs, and escape from modals and flows; the dead end whose only exit is the browser button

4

Depth & reach

clicks to each key destination; the important page buried four levels down

5

Label clarity

do nav labels match the user's words, or the org chart and internal jargon

6

Structure fit

does the IA group things the way users look for them, or the way the code is organized

7

Consistency

nav in the same place, order, and behavior across screens; the section that reinvents it

8

State & scale

active/hover/focus on nav items, and whether the menu still holds at 50 items, not just the demo's 5

The deliverable

What lands in your repo

One structured report at the repo root — or in reports/, if you keep one — the same shape every time, ready for a teammate — or the optional Studio — to act on.

NAVIGATION.md
1
The map
the nav tree as it actually is, with depth and dead ends marked
2
Journey walks
each core journey: where a user gets lost, stuck, or turned around
3
Findings
each: lens · route/component · what the user cannot answer · the fix
4
The one rule
the wayfinding convention this codebase should adopt
One file. Evidence-backed. It ends by asking before touching anything.
How it works

What it makes the agent do

Every Goal Prompt follows the same four steps, so results are consistent and repeatable — no matter which one you run.

1
Phase 1

Map the structure

Enumerate the routes/screens and the global navigation.

2
Phase 2

Audit through 8 lenses

Cite the route, component, or label for every finding.

3
Phase 3

Curate

Rank by how many core journeys each break touches — a broken back on the main flow outranks a mislabeled footer link.

4
Phase 4

Report

Create NAVIGATION.md at repo root.

Get started

Three ways to run this Goal Prompt

01 · COPY

Paste it in

Copy it and paste it into your agent inside the repo you want checked.

02 · INSTALL

As a slash command

Install the goal plugin once — two commands — then just type /goal:navigation-wayfinding.

1/plugin marketplace add GhostlyGawd/goal-prompts
2/plugin install goal@goal-prompts

Or install only this Goal Prompt as /goal-navigation-wayfinding:

curl -fsSL https://goal-prompts.vercel.app/install | BRIEF=129 sh
03 · AGENT

From an agent (MCP)

Let an agent fetch it mid-conversation, or pull the raw Goal Prompt by URL.

https://goal-prompts.vercel.app/raw/129.md
Transparency

The exact prompt

Nothing hidden — this is the whole Goal Prompt, verbatim. Read it in a minute, edit it, or copy it as-is.

Read the full brief (2,999 characters)
# Goal: Navigation & Wayfinding Audit

You are working inside this repo. Mission: judge whether a user can always answer three questions — where am I, where can I go, and how do I get back — and find the screens where the navigation goes silent.

Read-only pass. Walk the app or trace the routes, nav components, and menus; your only write is the report file.

## Phase 1 — Map the structure
- Enumerate the routes/screens and the global navigation: primary nav, secondary nav, footer, tabs, breadcrumbs.
- Draw the tree: what is top-level, what is nested, what is reachable only by deep link.
- For each key screen note the current-location cue and the way back. Pick 5–8 core journeys to walk.

## Phase 2 — Audit through 8 lenses
Cite the route, component, or label for every finding.
1. **Where am I** — active-state and title cues on every screen; the page that leaves you guessing which section you are in
2. **Where can I go** — are the next steps visible, or does the path forward depend on knowing a URL
3. **How do I get back** — back, breadcrumbs, and escape from modals and flows; the dead end whose only exit is the browser button
4. **Depth & reach** — clicks to each key destination; the important page buried four levels down
5. **Label clarity** — do nav labels match the user's words, or the org chart and internal jargon
6. **Structure fit** — does the IA group things the way users look for them, or the way the code is organized
7. **Consistency** — nav in the same place, order, and behavior across screens; the section that reinvents it
8. **State & scale** — active/hover/focus on nav items, and whether the menu still holds at 50 items, not just the demo's 5

## Phase 3 — Curate
- Rank by how many core journeys each break touches — a broken back on the main flow outranks a mislabeled footer link.
- Separate "lost" (no location cue), "stuck" (no way forward or back), and "buried" (too deep); fix lost and stuck first.
- For each, name the screen and the fix.

## Phase 4 — Report
Create `NAVIGATION.md` at repo root:
1. **The map** — the nav tree as it actually is, with depth and dead ends marked
2. **Journey walks** — each core journey: where a user gets lost, stuck, or turned around
3. **Findings** — each: lens · route/component · what the user cannot answer · the fix
4. **The one rule** — the wayfinding convention this codebase should adopt

Start the report with today's date. If `NAVIGATION.md` already exists from a previous run, read it first and lead with what changed since.

## Rules
- Every finding names a route, component, or label — not a vibe
- A dead end on a core journey is a bug, not a nicety
- No navigation surface in this repo? Say so in a one-paragraph null report and stop — a null result is a valid finding.
- If a `reports/` directory exists at the repo root, write the report there instead of the root.
- Before asking, present the top findings as a ranked list in plain words
- Report only — end by asking which wayfinding fixes to make

House rules for this Goal Prompt

  • Every finding names a route, component, or label — not a vibe
  • A dead end on a core journey is a bug, not a nicety
  • No navigation surface in this repo? Say so in a one-paragraph null report and stop — a null result is a valid finding.
  • If a reports/ directory exists at the repo root, write the report there instead of the root.
  • Before asking, present the top findings as a ranked list in plain words
  • Report only — end by asking which wayfinding fixes to make
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