Rule of Restraint
Decoration earns its space and visual weight.
Default
Remove redundant frames, nested cards, repeated labels, ornamental icons, and effects that compete with the evidence. Gridlines and separators should support reading without dominating the data. Headers and controls should leave room for the task's primary comparisons.
Why
Prominent visual elements should communicate relevant information.
Exception
Grouping, selection, warnings, and interaction affordances may need visible boundaries or emphasis. Preserve these functions. Minimal decoration is not a reason to erase useful labels, context, or controls.
Review
Treat excessive decoration as a design concern requiring judgment. An empty screen is not automatically a successful reduction of non-data ink. Decision surfaces: Avoid repeating the expanded item's headline summary in another large card. A scalar position often needs only its value and range as compact context. repeated-metric can limit declared summary identities per surface; max-height can bound explicitly selected scalar containers. Neither decides whether repetition or a richer visualization is justified. Expanded decision-surface reference.
Examples
The pair isolates this rule. A good example is not approval of the entire interface.
Good for this task
Frames, headers, and separators support grouping without competing with the evidence.
Shipment EP 1042
Oakland → Seattle · In transit
Bad for this task
Nested cards, oversized headers, and ornamental chrome consume attention and space.
Shipment EP 1042
Oakland → Seattle · In transit
These synthetic fixtures illustrate the stated comparison. Native checks can support review of declared scales, context, encodings, geometry, and legibility; they do not establish data truth or task relevance. Review the requirement and exceptions above.
Enforcement
review is the strongest mechanism Viewrule expects for the complete rule. Partial checks can still provide supporting evidence without proving the whole requirement.