Experimental Branch Summary

Branch: experimental-polar-steps. Ready for morning review.

What Was Done

This branch researched Polarsteps and FindPenguins, distilled their best ideas for a solo travel blog on Grav CMS, planned four milestones, and implemented all four.

What Was Built

Milestone 1 — Entry Enrichment

Location badge (📍 City, Country) on entry page and tracker feed cards
Weather badge (⛅ Partly cloudy · 19°C) on entry page header
"Get Weather" button on post form — auto-fetches via Open-Meteo (free, no key)
Photo gallery on entry pages — 2-col/3-col grid with full lightbox
Hero image on feed cards — falls back to first photo if no hero_image set
New post form fields: City, Country, weather auto-fill

Milestone 2 — Interactive Map (`/map`)

Leaflet.js with OpenStreetMap tiles
Marker per entry with GPS, route polyline in date order
Most recent entry highlighted
Click marker → popup with date, title, link to entry
Full-height map, mobile touch-friendly

Milestone 3 — Statistics Page (`/stats`)

Days on the road, entries posted, countries visited, distance traveled
Auto-updates as new entries are posted

Milestone 4 — Mini-map on Tracker Feed

Compact map above the entry list on /tracker
Tap marker → navigates to that entry
Hidden when no entries have GPS

Three links in site header: Journal · Map · Stats

Manual Verification Required on Mobile

Upload photos → verify gallery grid + lightbox works
Upload photo → verify hero image on feed card
Open /post logged in → Get Location + Get Weather buttons work end-to-end
Submit full entry → verify all badges appear
Open /map on phone → pinch zoom (no page scroll behind map)
Open /tracker → tap mini-map marker → navigates to entry
Check browser console → no JS errors

UI Redesign (2026-06-18)

Design direction: Field Notes — editorial travel journal aesthetic, not social app.

Typography: DM Serif Display (headings) + DM Sans (UI/body) — loaded via Google Fonts
Accent color: Deep teal #1F6B5A (replaces generic blue)
Background: Warm paper #F7F5F2
Signature element: Full-bleed 16:9 hero photos on feed cards with translucent date/location overlay
Design tokens: user/themes/intotheeast/css/tokens.css — single source of truth for all values
Post form: GPS lat/lng fields hidden from UI (filled by JS), cleaner status feedback
Design spec: user/docs/design/design-spec.md
Implementation plan: docs/working/plans/2026-06-18-ui-redesign.md

Demo Content

Seven sample entries for design/QA showcasing: feed, map route, stats, weather variety (including snow).

make demo-load   # copy entries into tracker, clear cache
make demo-reset  # remove demo entries, clear cache

Full instructions: user/docs/demo/README.md

What Was Skipped

Background GPS tracking, social features, video reels, 3D flyover, printed books, AI itinerary builder — all require native apps or don't suit a solo personal blog. Full reasoning in docs/working/pm-analysis.md.

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