Sentiment + Emphasis

Two Independent Axes

Sentiment and Emphasis are independent axes, but their combination carries semantic weight.

• Sentiment = what to communicate (neutral, warning, highlight, new)
• Emphasis = how loudly (high, medium, low)

Low emphasis degrades a sentiment's signal across multiple properties simultaneously — reducing color intensity, saturation, and the presence of background or border surfaces. This is intentional: it enables advisory communication without alarming the user.

The Legibility Floor

This degradation creates a legibility floor. A warning at low emphasis may visually approach neutral. This is only appropriate when the warning is genuinely advisory rather than critical.

Hard Rule

The combination of sentiment + emphasis must reflect the actual urgency of the content. Reducing emphasis to lower visual weight when the situation is genuinely critical is a semantic error — not an aesthetic choice.

Decision Guide for Actions

Container vs Action Escalation

Containers (banners, cards, panels) and their action elements can carry different sentiments.

The pattern:

• Container defaults to neutral with appropriate emphasis for visibility
• Action element carries the specific sentiment
• Container only escalates when the situation becomes imminent or blocking

Not yet urgent

Now urgent

This separation prevents false alarms:

• Neutral container + warning action = "here is something to be aware of"
• Warning container + warning action = "act now"