Six treatments for the codebook author, shown in all three places it appears. Every weight and colour is an existing token — the scale is light 370 / normal 420 / emphasis 490 / starred 520 / strong 700.
The finding that matters: the house already renders a person at --bn-weight-emphasis in full text colour, in three separate places — including .preview-author-name, which is the author card on this very page. The muted byline is the outlier.
Palette
A · Current — muted labelbaseline
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10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface DesignJakob Nielsen
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10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design
Jakob Nielsen
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10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design
Jakob Nielsen
The apologetic one.--bn-text-label + --bn-colour-muted. Identical treatment to a timestamp or a file path.
B · House person treatment — CHOSENzero invention
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10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface DesignJakob Nielsen
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10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design
Jakob Nielsen
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10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design
Jakob Nielsen
This is already in the codebase..preview-author-name renders the author at --bn-weight-emphasis in full text colour — and so do .bn-speaker-editable-name and .rewatch-participant. So the same name is rendered two ways on the same page today: strong in the author card, muted in the byline beside the title. The muted one is the outlier, not the norm.
C · Weight only, still mutedhalf step
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10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface DesignJakob Nielsen
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10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design
Jakob Nielsen
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10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design
Jakob Nielsen
490 without promoting the colour. Gains presence in the type without changing the hierarchy of attention. The Finder/Music pattern: same size, demotion by colour alone.
D · Accent — a navigable entityApp Store / Music
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10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface DesignJakob Nielsen
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10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design
Jakob Nielsen
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10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design
Jakob Nielsen
How the App Store renders a developer and Music an artist: accent-coloured, because the person is somewhere you can go. Carries an obligation — if it is blue it must do something, which means browse-by-author. Do not take this one for looks.
E · Inversion — the person leadsMail's sender
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Jakob Nielsen10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design
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Jakob Nielsen
10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design
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Jakob Nielsen
10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design
The most direct answer to the observation. Mail puts the sender in semibold above the subject, because you scan for who. If Nielsen is better known than the title, then the title is the subtitle. Breaks down where there is no person — sentiment, uxr and cli-ux have no author, so those rows would lead with the title while the rest lead with a name. A mixed list is the cost.
F · Byline registereditorial
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10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface DesignJakob Nielsen
card
10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design
Jakob Nielsen
page header
10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design
Jakob Nielsen
Uppercase micro with tracking. Subtle and quiet, but it reads as a credit rather than a person — which is arguably the opposite of what is wanted here.
Chosen 29 Aug: B. It, and it is not a new idea — it is the treatment already applied to the same name eight centimetres away in the author card. It costs nothing, invents nothing, and removes an inconsistency rather than adding a flourish. D is the stronger statement but should only be taken alongside browse-by-author. E is the boldest and the most faithful to "Nielsen is better known than the title", but it makes the three authorless built-ins read as a different kind of row.