Symphony is the desktop interface for Truffle, a private local intelligence device. Truffle connects to your apps, works continuously in the background, and retrains toward you over time. The device's autonomy is both its largest value and largest user friction point: how do you trust a system that works while you're not watching?
Topiary was brought in to rethink the core surfaces of Symphony. Our audit landed on an argument that shaped our engagement: trust couldn't live on a single page, it had to be embedded inside the entire experience.
The Process page made Truffle's background activity visible, but the user still had to learn the metaphor before they could understand what was happening. That observation became the design opportunity.
We built two competing mental models in code. The prototypes helped move discussion with the team away from “which visual direction feels better?” and toward “which mental model helps users understand autonomous work faster?”
I wanted to push the main chat interface into a more intelligent activity feed. One example of this was surfacing memory-creation events inline, so you see Truffle learning about you where you're already looking.
Users' confidence was lost during app installs. Installs needing further configuration gave no action signal, and app sources broke silently. We designed the state system as quiet, persistent notifications and honest error paths.
The old Onboarding flow had users downloading apps before they'd ever seen the product. We redesigned the experience to set the user up with appropriate context then land them on the App Install page, where the state system was already working in real time.
Another result of the work was rebuilding Symphony's design system with token architecture and components that could scale alongside a Design Engineer-led team.
