Gustav DMS — Style Audit: Before & After

Matter Status Badges — 6 Color Maps → 1

The same four statuses (Active, On Hold, Closed, Archived) are rendered with different colors in every file that touches them. Status dots vary between circles and squares. Priority badges have two incompatible color schemes. We unify everything into one canonical map.

Before

Status badge colors by source file

Source	Active	On Hold	Closed	Archived
home.tsx	Active	On Hold	Closed	Archived
clients.tsx	Active	On Hold	Closed	Archived
matters.tsx	Active	MISSING	Closed	Archived
admin.tsx	Active	On Hold	Closed	Archived
search.tsx	Active	MISSING	Closed	Archived

Status dots — 3 shapes

browse.tsx w-2 h-2 rounded-full (circle)

matters.tsx w-2 h-2 NO rounded-full (square!)

home.tsx sidebar w-1.5 h-1.5 smaller, square

Priority badges — 2 incompatible schemes

Main app High Medium

AdminPage High Medium

5 different badge palettes, 3 dot shapes, 2 priority schemes. "On Hold" missing in 2 files. Archived sometimes yellow, sometimes gray.

After

One canonical status map — all files

Status	Badge	Rule
Active	Active	green-50 / green-700
On Hold	On Hold	amber-50 / amber-700
Closed	Closed	neutral-100 / neutral-600
Archived	Archived	neutral-50 / neutral-400

Unified priority badges

High Medium Low

All dots = w-2 h-2 rounded-full

One size, always round

1 status map, 1 dot style, 1 priority scale. Exported from a shared statusColors constant. All 5 files import the same map.

Why this matters

When "Active" is green-50 on the home page but green-100 on the clients page, users lose trust in the interface. The square vs. circle dot inconsistency makes the app look unfinished. Missing "On Hold" in two files means status filtering silently drops data. A single shared map eliminates all three problems.

Table Headers — 13 Patterns → 2

Every table in the app has a slightly different header style — different font sizes, weights, colors, text transforms, letter-spacing, padding, and background colors. Some are uppercase, some are not. Some have tracking, some do not. We reduce to two intentional patterns: Standard and Compact.

Before

6 of 13 real table header patterns

AdminPage main

Name	Status	Modified	Author

ClientsListPage

Name	Status	Modified	Author

MatterDetailPage

Name	Status	Modified	Author

RecentDocumentsPage

Name	Status	Modified	Author

admin.tsx route — NO uppercase, NO tracking

Name	Status	Modified	Author

Layout.tsx — NO uppercase, NO tracking

Name	Status	Modified	Author

6 shown of 13 total. Differences: font-size (text-xs vs 0.68rem), weight (500 vs 600), color (400/500/600), padding (px-1 to px-4, py-1.5 to py-2), uppercase (yes/no), tracking (none/wide/wider), bg (50/50%2f50/none), border (100/200).

After

Standard — full-width data tables

Name	Status	Modified	Author
Contract draft v3	Active	2 hours ago	Morten S.

text-xs · font-medium · text-neutral-500 · uppercase · tracking-wider · bg-neutral-50 · px-3 py-2

Compact — inline / sidebar tables

Name	Status	Modified	Author
NDA final.pdf	Closed	Yesterday	Aron T.

text-xs · font-medium · text-neutral-400 · uppercase · tracking-wider · no bg · px-2 py-1.5

2 patterns. Both always uppercase + tracking-wider. Standard has bg-neutral-50. Compact is transparent. That's it.

Why this matters

Table headers set expectations for column data. When one table uses uppercase tracking and another uses sentence case with no tracking, users have to re-learn how to scan data on every page. The two "non-uppercase" variants (admin.tsx route and Layout.tsx) break the established pattern and look like body text that accidentally ended up in a header row. Standardizing to always-uppercase with consistent padding makes tables instantly scannable.

Primary Buttons — 13 Patterns → 3

Primary buttons use the same blue but with 8 different padding/size combos, one missing font-medium, one with rounded-lg instead of default radius, and a hover direction bug. We consolidate to three named sizes: sm, md, lg.

Before

8 real button patterns at actual size

AdminPage tab — px-2 py-1 text-xs

Task comment — px-2.5 py-1 text-xs

Matter inline — px-3 py-1 text-xs MISSING font-medium

Modal footer — px-3 py-1.5 text-sm

Agent modal — px-4 py-1.5 text-xs

Admin modal — px-4 py-2 text-sm

Toolbar — h-6 px-2 (height-based, not padding)

Error page — px-4 py-2 text-sm rounded-lg (different radius!)

Hover direction bug

Darkens on hover

Lightens on hover!

bg-red-700 hover:bg-red-800 (correct) vs bg-red-700 hover:bg-red-600 (wrong — goes lighter)

8 size combos, 1 missing font-medium, 1 wrong border-radius, 1 reversed hover direction. All using the same blue.

After

3 named sizes — sm, md, lg

btn-sm

px-2.5 py-1 text-xs font-medium rounded

btn-md

px-3 py-1.5 text-sm font-medium rounded

btn-lg

px-4 py-2 text-sm font-medium rounded

Destructive variant

Always darkens on hover: bg-red-600 → hover:bg-red-700

Rules

Always font-medium — no exceptions
Always rounded — never rounded-lg
Hover always darkens — never lightens
No height-based sizing — padding only

3 sizes + 1 destructive variant. Every button in the app maps to exactly one of these. Exported as shared Tailwind @apply classes.

Why this matters

Eight nearly-identical buttons with subtly different padding makes the UI feel handmade in the wrong way. The missing font-medium on one button makes it look faded. The rounded-lg on the error page breaks visual consistency. The reversed hover direction on a destructive button is a genuine UX bug — users expect darker = more committed, lighter = retreating. Three named sizes eliminate all ambiguity.

Input Focus Rings — 6 Styles → 1

Focus indicators are critical for accessibility and perceived quality. Currently, every form context uses a different combination of ring width, ring color, border behavior, and opacity. One context has no focus style at all. We unify to a single, reliable pattern.

Before

6 focus styles (shown in "focused" state)

Modal inputs — ring-1 ring-primary-500

Admin modals — ring-2 ring-primary-500, border goes transparent

Task search — ring-2 ring-primary-500/30, border-primary-400

Agent modals — ring-1 ring-primary-400, border-primary-400

Admin forms — border-primary-600 only, NO ring

Agent selects — NO focus style (broken!)

Click does nothing — zero visual feedback

6 focus styles: ring-1/ring-2/none, primary-400/500/600, opacity 30%/100%, border transparent/colored/unchanged. One completely broken.

After

One focus style — all inputs, selects, textareas

Document title

Description

Draft description for the contract...

Agent

The rule

focus:border-teal-700 focus:ring-1 focus:ring-teal-700
/* Applied globally via @layer base */

1 focus style for everything: ring-1 + border match. Teal-700 matches the brand. Applied in the base layer so it can't be forgotten.

Why this matters

Focus indicators are a WCAG requirement. The broken agent selects have zero focus feedback, which is an accessibility failure. The five other variants create a flickering, inconsistent experience when tabbing through forms — some rings are thick, some thin, some colored, some transparent. A single focus style applied at the base layer means developers never need to think about it, and keyboard users get reliable, predictable feedback everywhere.

File Type Badges — 4 Implementations → 1

File type badges (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, etc.) are shown in four different places with four different implementations — different sizes, different color mappings, and one context where all types are gray. XLSX is even colored wrong in chat. We create one shared <FileTypeBadge> component.

Before

FileTypeBadge component

PDF DOCX XLSX

px-1.5 py-0.5 text-xs font-medium

home.tsx compact

PDF DOCX XLSX

text-[9px] px-1 py-px font-medium uppercase — TINY

ChatComponents

PDF DOCX XLSX

Text-only, no background. XLSX = text-blue-600 (should be green!)

MatterDetailPage portal

PDF DOCX XLSX

All gray — no type differentiation at all

Same file type, 4 appearances

PDF: PDF PDF PDF PDF

4 implementations, 3 different sizes, 1 wrong color (XLSX blue instead of green), 1 context with zero differentiation.

After

One <FileTypeBadge> component — two sizes

Standard

PDF DOCX XLSX PPTX MSG

px-1.5 py-0.5 text-xs font-medium rounded

Compact (sidebar, dense lists)

PDF DOCX XLSX PPTX MSG

px-1 py-px text-[10px] font-medium rounded

Color map (canonical)

Type	Background	Text
PDF	red-50	red-600
DOCX / DOC	blue-50	blue-600
XLSX / XLS	green-50	green-600
PPTX	purple-50	purple-600
MSG / EML	amber-50	amber-600
Other	neutral-50	neutral-500

1 component, 2 sizes (standard + compact), 1 color map. Always has background. Never text-only. Never all-gray.

Why this matters

File type badges serve a single purpose: let users quickly identify document types. When the same PDF badge looks different in four places — or when XLSX is colored blue (Word's color) instead of green (Excel's color) — that purpose is defeated. The MatterDetailPage's all-gray badges are the worst case: they take up space without providing any information. A shared component guarantees consistency, and the canonical color map matches the colors users associate with each file type from Microsoft Office and Acrobat.

Form Labels

4 different label combos across the codebase → 2 clean patterns

BEFORE — 4 label styles, each slightly different

Modal forms

Document title text-sm font-medium text-[#404040] mb-1

Admin inline

Practice area name text-xs text-[#737370] mb-1 (no font-medium!)

TaskCards

Assignee text-xs font-medium text-[#a3a3a0] mb-0.5

DevPage

Webhook URL text-xs font-medium text-[#525250] mb-1

AFTER — 2 patterns: Standard and Compact

Standard (modals, full forms)

Document title

Practice area

text-sm font-medium text-neutral-700 mb-1.5

Compact (inline fields, cards)

Assignee

Webhook URL

text-xs font-medium text-neutral-600 mb-1

Problem: Four different label styles with different sizes (text-sm vs text-xs), weights (some missing font-medium), colors (#404040 / #737370 / #a3a3a0 / #525250), and spacing (mb-0.5 vs mb-1). Fix: Two intentional patterns — Standard for full forms (text-sm, neutral-700) and Compact for inline/card fields (text-xs, neutral-600). Both use font-medium consistently.

Page Titles

4 different font sizes for the same semantic element → 1 consistent size

BEFORE — 4 sizes for page titles (12px to 18px)

Home 18px · text-lg font-semibold

Clients 16px · text-base font-semibold

Recent Documents 14px · text-sm font-semibold

Andersen Acquisition 12px · text-xs font-semibold

A 12px page title is visually indistinguishable from body text

AFTER — All page titles at 18px

Home 18px

Clients 18px

Recent Documents 18px

Andersen Acquisition 18px

Uniform text-lg font-semibold text-neutral-900 for every page title

Problem: Page titles range from 18px down to an absurd 12px. A 12px "page title" has zero visual hierarchy — it is smaller than most body text. Fix: Every page title uses text-lg font-semibold text-neutral-900 (18px). One size, one weight, one color.

Date Formatting

4+ formatting functions, inconsistent locales → 1 utility with intentional variants

BEFORE — 5 outputs from the same timestamp

              Input: 2026-02-25T14:32:00Z
            

Function	Output	Source
utils.formatDate()	Feb 25, 2026	utils.ts
utils.formatRelativeTime()	2 days ago	utils.ts
search formatRelativeDate()	2d ago	search.tsx
TaskCards formatDate()	Feb 25	TaskCards.tsx
toLocaleString('en-GB')	25/02/2026, 14:32:00	documents.tsx

en-GB locale — DD/MM/YYYY with 24h time. Every other date in the app is en-US format. This is an accidental copy-paste from a Stack Overflow answer.

AFTER — 1 utility, 4 intentional variants, all en-US

              formatDate(date, variant) — single source of truth
            

Variant	Output	Use case
'full'	Feb 25, 2026	Detail views, exports
'short'	Feb 25	Tables, cards (same year)
'relative'	2 days ago	Activity feeds, comments
'compact'	2d ago	Tight UI (search results)

All variants use en-US locale. No more accidental en-GB.

Problem: Five different date-formatting functions scattered across four files, each producing slightly different output. One function accidentally uses en-GB, producing DD/MM/YYYY in an otherwise all-American-format app. Fix: One formatDate(date, variant) utility with four intentional variants, all en-US.

Empty States

5 different empty-state patterns with inconsistent padding, color, and structure → 1

BEFORE — 5 variations, all slightly different

No clients found

text-[#a3a3a0] py-8 text-center text-sm py-8 (32px)

No requests yet

text-[#a3a3a0] py-4 text-center text-sm py-4 (16px) — half!

No deleted documents

text-sm text-[#a3a3a0] py-6 text-center py-6 (24px)

No results found

text-sm text-[#737370] py-6 text-center DARKER color (neutral-500)

No tasks

Drag tasks here

icon + text-xs font-medium + subtext text-xs text-[#d1d1ce] unique layout

AFTER — 1 consistent EmptyState component

No clients found

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No tasks

Drag tasks here to assign them

icon (optional) + message (text-sm font-medium text-neutral-600) + subtext + optional action link. Always py-8, always centered.

Problem: Five different empty states with three different vertical paddings (py-4, py-6, py-8), two different text colors (#a3a3a0 vs #737370), and one unique icon-based layout. The visual rhythm changes unpredictably. Fix: One <EmptyState> component with consistent padding (py-8), a single text color (neutral-600), optional icon, optional subtext, and optional action link.

Modals

4 different modal styles with mixed corners, shadows, widths, and borders → 2 standard sizes

BEFORE — 4 modal styles, each structurally different

AFTER — 2 standard sizes with consistent structure

Standard (max-w-md / 448px)

Edit Matter×

rounded-xl shadow-xl overflow-hidden · header | body | footer

Wide (max-w-3xl / 768px)

Agent Execution Log×

Same structure, just wider. Both use rounded-xl + shadow-xl + overflow-hidden.

Consistent 3-part structure: header (title + close) | scrollable body | sticky footer with actions

Problem: Four modal variants with conflicting styles — some have rounded corners, some do not. One has a border on top of the shadow. One uses shadow-2xl and max-w-5xl (1024px wide). One puts padding on the container instead of on inner sections. Fix: Two standard sizes (Standard at max-w-md, Wide at max-w-3xl), both sharing the same structure: rounded-xl shadow-xl overflow-hidden with a 3-part layout (header, body, footer).