Property model matrix
Type: Comparative view
Status: Active derived view
Canonical for: Comparison of semantic dimensions claimed and mixed by public property names
Depends on: Variant naming matrix and research-bundle reconciliation
| Property name | What it claims to represent | Values actually found | Frequent semantic leakage | Inferred interpretation issue; not measured DS performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
variant | an alternative form | primary, danger, invisible, link; or visual treatments | almost any dimension | semantically weak without a schema description |
appearance | presentation | primary, subtle, warning, rovo | hierarchy, consequence, product identity | property narrows interpretation only partially |
kind | category/type | primary, danger, ghost | hierarchy, consequence, appearance | nearly as open-ended as variant |
tone | affect/status/consequence | critical, success, info | sometimes color implementation | relatively coherent when color/intensity is separate |
intent | desired purpose or consequence | common in adjacent libraries; inconsistent public Button use | can collapse function, consequence and product job | promising label, not self-defining |
emphasis / category | relative prominence | primary, secondary, tertiary | treatment may be implied | clearly marks relational meaning, but needs surrounding context |
severity | magnitude of consequence/status | info, warning, error/critical | may imply color and urgency | stronger dimension for feedback than action purpose |
treatment / style | visual rendering | fill, outline | hierarchy guidance attached in prose | honest appearance axis; cannot select itself from task intent |
color | palette/intensity | subdued, strong, named hues | tone may be inferred from hue | should not substitute for consequence semantics |
state or booleans | current interaction/system state | selected, disabled, loading, expanded | sometimes modeled as a variant in design tools | keep separate from governed intent |
Key finding
Inferred: the property name is part of the semantics. tone="danger" tells a model which dimension danger occupies; variant="danger" does not. But a well-named axis still needs definitions and constraints. emphasis="secondary" clarifies that the value is relational while leaving the relation and selection rule unstated.
Figma/code parity
Figma variant axes frequently flatten implementation distinctions into a convenient control surface. The research found public code APIs more consistently inspectable than public library property schemas. Not established: there is not enough public, versioned Figma evidence across this sample to claim systematic parity or mismatch. A future audit should compare exported Figma component-property metadata, Code Connect mappings and TypeScript unions at the same release commit.