Second-pass simplification · upload modal canonical · Locked/Empty stripped · Expense disputes removed

Decision

Simplify the wireframes: Locked pages become a plain placeholder, Empty pages become a basic upload affordance, uploads always open a global modal (never redirect to /inbox), and the Expense "dispute" surface is removed entirely.

Why

The first pass added too much to /tax-locked and /inbox (blurred previews, tier-picker rails, readiness rings). The user clarified the spec: Locked pages should be a plain placeholder, Empty pages should be a basic upload affordance, and uploads should NEVER redirect to /inbox — they should open a global modal. Expense is view-only with at most goal-setting; the "Dispute" surface implied an action the app does not take, so it had to go. Layout must not change in any of this — only content.

Impact

• Global upload modal (new canonical pattern): added .context/designs/web/patterns/upload-modal.html + .context/designs/mobile/patterns/upload-modal.html. Every upload CTA across the wireframes now points at the modal via data-upload-modal. Files touched: dashboard, dashboard-empty, ask-empty, tax-empty, tax-review (Watchlist NPS row, deductions waterfall NPS link, "Upload broker P&L"), tax-with-ca (same), tax-family-stacked ("Upload receipts"), expense-empty ("Choose a file"), portfolio-empty, inbox / inbox-empty (dropzone + FAB on mobile). The user-facing rule: there is no in-product reason to leave the current screen just to start an upload.
• Tax locked stripped (web + mobile): removed the blurred KPI preview, deductions waterfall preview, sticky aside "What you unlock" + "Pick your tier" + "Then pick your filing path." What remains: header + AY pills + a single centered "Unlock Tax Review · ₹249" placeholder card with the tier prices inline. The 2-col grid layout is preserved; the aside is intentionally empty so the surrounding chrome stays.
• Empty pages stripped (web + mobile, tax-empty + inbox-empty): each is now a single upload affordance that opens the modal. Dropped: "What Tax Review needs" 4-card grid, "Pick your path" filing-path rail, "Start here · 3 docs", sample-doc CTA, "Get started · upload first" rail, "Inbox free forever" reassurance card, mobile "What we need to compute your return", mobile "Browse CAs" card.
• Inbox hub simplified: tax-readiness ring + 3-action checklist + tier-picker right rail all removed (the ring duplicated dashboard; the tier picker duplicated tax-locked). The doc list's Needs-you / Confirmed grouping is now the only per-doc action signal. Right rail kept: "Inbox is free" reassurance with a "Continue to Tax Review" link, and Suggested next uploads.
• Tax journey chart: /tax-review's year-over-year horizontal bars replaced by a richer 5-AY journey chart (SVG bars 22-23 → 26-27 · per-AY card showing refund/owe + regime + ITR form + filing status). Mobile gets a condensed strip + per-AY mini-cards.
• Expense dispute artifacts removed: deleted expense-anomaly-dispute.html on web + mobile. Stripped all super-header chips, mobile data-chrome-routes entries, inline "dispute →" links inside the largest-outflows row, "or file a dispute" bullet in the action-items list, and the "dispute helper" feature-list bullet on the locked page. Rationale: the app is view-only (parsing + analysis); the closest user action it supports is goal-setting. A dispute would imply we file/follow up on the user's behalf, which we don't. Anomaly detection and "verify the category" stay — they're advisory.
• Refines 2026-06-12-inbox-tax-hubs-aligned (the first-pass design this second pass simplifies).
• Affects pillar-tax, pillar-inbox, pillar-expense, pillar-dashboard, upload-only, and copy-strings.

Status

Partially superseded — the locked/empty stripping for Tax (and Expense empty/locked) was reverted on 2026-06-26 to a rich blurred-preview pattern. See 2026-06-26-pillar-locked-empty-rich-preview. The global upload modal, Inbox hub simplification, tax journey chart, and Expense dispute removal remain in effect.

Sources

• .context/wiki/decisions/* § "2026-06-12 (r2) — Second-pass simplification · upload modal canonical · Locked/Empty stripped · Expense disputes removed"