Tour Dash · Dashboard · Design directions

Marking the dashboard's opening line as a summary

The dashboard already opens with one sentence that says what is happening today. Six ways to make that read as a generated summary of the moment, each with an AI icon, drawn on the app's own tokens so the dark theme comes along.

Saturday, September 19, 2026Demo data, Dana WhitfieldUse the theme switch to see both grounds

What is there today

Under the date, the dashboard writes a sentence from the day's rows: whether anything is booked, how many people are waiting on you across how many posts, and where tomorrow starts. It is plain text at body size, and nothing says it was composed for you rather than typed once. Michael's ask is to make it read as the AI summary of what is currently happening, with an icon that says so.

Two things to hold while looking. First, the sentence is the same in every variation; only its frame changes. Second, the app has one amber, and it is spent on the primary action and today's date in the week strip, so none of these use amber for the icon. The icon is ink or muted ink, and it earns attention by shape.

Tour Dash/Dashboard/Summary icon, Sept 2026

Current · as it ships

The date, the sentence, the week strip

Saturday, September 19

Nothing booked today. 7 people are waiting on you across 3 posts, and tomorrow starts at 10:00 am in Short Hills.

A · A sparkle in the line

Lightest touch

Saturday, September 19

Nothing booked today. 7 people are waiting on you across 3 posts, and tomorrow starts at 10:00 am in Short Hills.

Why it works. One glyph, muted, hanging off the front of the sentence like a bullet. It says "this was written for you" without adding a row to the header. Cost. It is quiet enough that a first-time user may read it as decoration, and the sparkle is the icon every product now uses for AI, so it says "AI" but not "Tour Dash".

B · A small label above the sentence

Names the thing

Saturday, September 19

Today's summary

Nothing booked today. 7 people are waiting on you across 3 posts, and tomorrow starts at 10:00 am in Short Hills.

Why it works. The label does the explaining, so the icon can stay small. "Today's summary" is sentence case, 12px, muted, and reads as a caption rather than an eyebrow. It also gives the line a name people can refer to. Cost. One more row in the header; on the phone the date, the label and the sentence stack to three lines before the week strip.

C · The sentence in a card

Reads as an object

Saturday, September 19

Nothing booked today. 7 people are waiting on you across 3 posts, and tomorrow starts at 10:00 am in Short Hills.

Written from your bookings and posts just now

Why it works. The card makes the summary a thing on the page with a source line under it, which is the honest shape for generated text: here is what it says, here is what it was made from. The icon sits in a tile so it has weight. Cost. It competes with the Needs you card directly below, which is also a bordered white box, and the header stops feeling like a header.

D · A reversed tag, like the rail labels

Matches today's change

Saturday, September 19

Summary

Nothing booked today. 7 people are waiting on you across 3 posts, and tomorrow starts at 10:00 am in Short Hills.

Why it works. The Earn nearby and Recent activity labels went ink-on-paper this morning, so a small ink tag here uses the same move and the page has one way of saying "label". It pops without amber. Cost. Three reversed blocks on one screen is close to the limit; a fourth would make it a pattern that means nothing.

E · A badge on the date

The whole block is generated

Saturday, September 19

Nothing booked today. 7 people are waiting on you across 3 posts, and tomorrow starts at 10:00 am in Short Hills.

Why it works. Nothing moves. The icon rides the h1, so the header keeps its two lines and the badge is the only new pixel. It suggests the date and the sentence are one briefing. Cost. The date is not generated, so the badge is slightly in the wrong place, and a round badge next to a heading looks like a button people will try to press.

F · A hairline gutter with the icon on it

Quote-like

Saturday, September 19

Nothing booked today. 7 people are waiting on you across 3 posts, and tomorrow starts at 10:00 am in Short Hills.

Why it works. The hairline sets the sentence off as a voice, the way a pulled quote does, and the icon breaks the line so the eye lands on it. It borrows the page's existing hairline language. Cost. The indent shortens the measure on the phone, and the quote shape can read as "someone said this" rather than "this is about you".

The icon itself

Five draws, any of them drops into A to F
SparkleThe four-point star. Instantly read as AI because everyone uses it. Cleanest at 14 to 16px.
SparklesOne big, one small. A touch friendlier and reads as "generated" more than "magic".
WandSays "made for you". Busier, and the diagonal fights the text baseline at small sizes.
OrbitSays "model" rather than "magic". More technical, less warm, holds up well at 16px.
The mark with a sparkThe Tour Dash A in its rounded square with a small star at the corner. Says "Tour Dash wrote this", which none of the others do.

Where I would land

B · Label aboveRecommended

It says what the line is in two words, keeps the icon small and muted, and stacks cleanly on the phone. Pair it with the Sparkles draw, or the mark with a spark if the point is that Tour Dash is speaking, not a generic model.

D · Reversed tagIf you want the pop

The strongest visual and it rhymes with this morning's rail labels. Take it if the summary should be the first thing the eye hits, and accept that the page then has three ink blocks.

A · Sparkle in the lineIf nothing else should move

Zero layout change. The safe pick for a first look on the live app, and easy to upgrade to B later by adding the label.

One thing to decide separately

Today the sentence is composed by rules in the dashboard from the day's rows, not by a language model. It is a summary, and calling it one is honest. If the icon is meant to promise that a model wrote it, that is a second piece of work: a prompt over the same rows, a place to cache the result, and a fallback to the rule-written line when the call fails or is slow. The icon can ship first either way.