---
term: navigation
category: spatial
status: canonical
authority: world.elonn.local
---

Navigation

The model governing how a member moves through runtime space. Navigation in Elonn is spatial — movement between surfaces and regions, not traversal of a document or menu hierarchy.

Elonn currently trends toward: spatial stack navigation.

Navigation models:
- stack — linear push/pop
- spatial — positional movement through space
- radial — arc-based arrangement
- hierarchical — tree structure
- linear — single axis

Sub-concepts:
- focus — the currently targeted interactive entity within the runtime
- context shift — movement between conceptually distinct states (e.g., messages → maps, calendar → navigation)

Interaction primitives:
- gesture — continuous user movement input (drag, swipe, pinch, rotate, hold)
- gesture capture — system ownership of input during an active gesture
- commit — finalize a state transition after the snap threshold is met
- settle — animated stabilization after interaction ends
- rebound — return to previous state after a failed threshold crossing

Allowed:
- navigation
- navigation model
- context shift
- gesture

Forbidden:
- routing (implies URL or page model)
- page navigation (surfaces are not pages)
- back / forward (implies browser history model)
- menu navigation (surfaces are not menus)

Notes:
- Navigation describes spatial movement, not document traversal. Do not import browser or filesystem navigation metaphors.
- Gesture interaction is the primary input model; programmatic, voice, gaze, and keyboard transitions are also valid.

Related:
- deck
- surface
- runtime
- region