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Pattern by Knoveya

Progressive Feature Unlock

Knoveya

Reveal capabilities when context makes them useful without hiding essential controls.

Design intent

Reveal capabilities when context makes them useful without hiding essential controls.

When to use

Use this pattern when its control or information directly helps the current task. Start with a real user scenario rather than adding an AI-themed affordance by default.

Example

Introduce batch actions after a person successfully handles one item.

This is an illustrative Knoveya scenario, not a claim about a particular shipped product.

Implementation checklist

  • Define the trigger, visible state, allowed action, and completion condition.
  • Previously learned features remain discoverable.
  • Cover missing input, unavailable permissions, interrupted work, and partial results where they apply.
  • Keep keyboard focus, labels, and recovery behavior understandable without motion.

Trade-offs

Extra controls or explanations add reading and decision effort. Prefer the smallest presentation that exposes the relevant consequence. Do not display a guarantee, metric, or permission that the underlying system cannot enforce.

Verify

Reproduce the example with synthetic data and deliberately trigger its failure path. Previously learned features remain discoverable.