Lane selection sheds its slab — a hairline edge with a soft halo, intensity inverse to area

The whole-lane wash-and-solid-ring scaled its emphasis with the lane's
area: what read as a ring on a card read as a slab on a column. Resettled
as the system focus ring's vocabulary at selection strength — a hairline
accent edge with a soft accent glow bleeding outward, riding the stroke
shape rather than the translucent plate (a shadow behind it would bleed
through as murk), and no wash at all: nothing tints the cards' backdrop,
and lane colour stays the accent band's alone. Under Increase Contrast the
halo yields to the solid full-alpha ring — "strengthens borders" means
crisper, and a blur is the one thing a border cannot become — so the
setting sees exactly the indicator it always has; cards and trash rows are
card-scale and keep the solid ring at every contrast. One selection
vocabulary, pinned by Accommodations.drawsSelectionHalo and its test.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_014PtZdPwqZuqEDLc6wZMtEy

Kanban/UI/Accommodations.swift

@@ -75,6 +75,20 @@ enum Accommodations {
         contrast == .increased ? 1 : base
     }
 
+    /// Whether a selected lane draws its **halo** — the soft accent glow bleeding outward from the
+    /// plate's hairline edge (`LaneView.selectionStroke`), the system focus ring's vocabulary at
+    /// selection strength.
+    ///
+    /// Under Increase Contrast the answer is no, and that is the setting's own logic rather than a
+    /// retreat: "strengthens borders and the selection indicator" means *crisper*, and a blur is
+    /// the one thing a border cannot become. The edge instead goes full-alpha and heavier
+    /// (`accentOpacity`, `borderWidth` at the solid ring's base), so the setting sees the same
+    /// unambiguous solid ring it always has — the halo is the resting treatment's softness, not
+    /// the indicator itself.
+    static func drawsSelectionHalo(contrast: ColorSchemeContrast) -> Bool {
+        contrast != .increased
+    }
+
     /// Increase Contrast, asked of AppKit rather than of the SwiftUI environment — for callers built
     /// outside a rendered hierarchy, where the environment's accessibility values are not reliably
     /// populated (`Motion.prefersReducedMotion`'s constituency).

Kanban/UI/Board/LaneView.swift

@@ -175,10 +175,6 @@ struct LaneView: View, Equatable {
             }
             .padding(BoardMetrics.lanePlatePadding(bodyPointSize: pointSize))
         }
-        .background(selectionBackground)
-        // Behind the selection wash, not composed into it: the plate is the lane's resting
-        // surface, the wash above it is the selection's own layer, and stacked `.background`s
-        // put the later one further back.
         .background(lanePlate)
         .overlay(selectionStroke)
         // The deferred cut's dim (04-interactions.md ▸ Clipboard) — on the whole lane, because a cut
@@ -1081,28 +1077,35 @@ struct LaneView: View, Equatable {
             .fill(Accommodations.lanePlateWash(reduceTransparency: reduceTransparency).style)
     }
 
-    /// The selection treatment: a subtle whole-lane accent wash and stroke. Deliberately quiet —
+    /// The selection treatment: a hairline accent edge with a soft accent glow bleeding outward —
-    /// 03-board-ui.md gives lane *colour* to the top-edge accent band, so selection must not read as
+    /// the system focus ring's vocabulary at selection strength (resettled 2026-08-06, replacing
-    /// a fill that would compete with it once that lands.
+    /// the whole-lane wash-and-solid-ring, whose emphasis scaled with the lane's area: what read as
-    private var selectionBackground: some View {
+    /// a ring on a card read as a slab on a column). No wash at all now — nothing tints the cards'
-        RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: cornerRadius)
+    /// backdrop, and lane *colour* stays the accent band's alone (03-board-ui.md § Styling).
-            .fill(isSelected ? AnyShapeStyle(Color.accentColor.opacity(0.08)) : AnyShapeStyle(.clear))
-    }
-
-    /// The selection ring — and, under Increase Contrast, the plate's resting edge as well
-    /// (10-accessibility.md: "Increase Contrast strengthens borders and the selection indicator";
-    /// `Accommodations`, and `CardFaceView.plateStroke` for the same three-way branch on a card).
     ///
-    /// A lane is otherwise bounded by its quiet wash and the gap between it and its neighbour,
+    /// The glow rides the stroke shape, never the plate: the plate is translucent
-    /// which is the distinction the setting most needs to restore here.
+    /// (`Accommodations.lanePlateWash`), and a shadow drawn behind it would bleed through as murk.
+    /// Under Increase Contrast the halo yields to the solid full-alpha ring — the two width bases
+    /// below — so the setting's selection indicator is exactly what it was before the resettlement
+    /// (`Accommodations.drawsSelectionHalo`; the trash's lane rows and `CardFaceView` are
+    /// card-scale and keep the solid ring at every contrast: one selection vocabulary, intensity
+    /// inverse to area).
     private var selectionStroke: some View {
         RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: cornerRadius)
             .strokeBorder(plateStroke, lineWidth: plateStrokeWidth)
+            .shadow(color: haloColor, radius: 5)
+    }
+
+    /// The halo's glow — clear whenever the halo doesn't draw, because a conditional modifier
+    /// would change the overlay's identity where a clear shadow just paints nothing.
+    private var haloColor: Color {
+        guard isSelected, Accommodations.drawsSelectionHalo(contrast: contrast) else { return .clear }
+        return Color.accentColor.opacity(0.3)
     }
 
     private var plateStroke: AnyShapeStyle {
         if isSelected {
-            AnyShapeStyle(Color.accentColor)
+            AnyShapeStyle(Color.accentColor.opacity(Accommodations.accentOpacity(0.55, contrast: contrast)))
         } else if Accommodations.drawsRestingBorder(contrast: contrast) {
             AnyShapeStyle(.separator)
         } else {
@@ -1111,7 +1114,10 @@ struct LaneView: View, Equatable {
     }
 
     private var plateStrokeWidth: CGFloat {
-        Accommodations.borderWidth(isSelected ? 1.5 : 1, contrast: contrast)
+        // The halo's edge is a hairline; with the halo off (Increase Contrast) the selected edge
+        // returns to the solid ring's 1.5 base, which `borderWidth` then strengthens as ever.
+        let base: CGFloat = isSelected && !Accommodations.drawsSelectionHalo(contrast: contrast) ? 1.5 : 1
+        return Accommodations.borderWidth(base, contrast: contrast)
     }
 
     // MARK: - Rename plumbing

KanbanTests/VisualAccommodationsTests.swift

@@ -255,6 +255,15 @@ struct IncreaseContrastTests {
             #expect(Accommodations.accentOpacity(base, contrast: .increased) == 1)
         }
     }
+
+    /// The selected lane's glow is the resting treatment's softness, not the indicator itself:
+    /// under Increase Contrast it yields to the solid full-alpha ring, because "strengthens
+    /// borders" means crisper and a blur is the one thing a border cannot become.
+    @Test("The selection halo yields to Increase Contrast")
+    func theHaloYieldsToIncreaseContrast() {
+        #expect(Accommodations.drawsSelectionHalo(contrast: .standard))
+        #expect(!Accommodations.drawsSelectionHalo(contrast: .increased))
+    }
 }
 
 // MARK: - Reduce Transparency