Tiebreaker 5: Restraint is the default
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Spec: descriptive guidance, not a checkable rule.
It carries no forbidden and instead pair, and no `jig check` detector applies to it directly.
Section: Principles
Group: Tiebreakers

**When a decision has not been made, ship the plainer thing and surface the question.**

An invented accent, a decorative animation, a gradient filling an empty space — each is a decision made by default rather than on purpose. Greyscale plus a stated question is a better deliverable than colour plus an unstated assumption.

**Method: design in black and white first.** Build the layout, spacing, size and contrast with no colour at all, then introduce colour only where it carries meaning — interactive elements and system states. Starting in greyscale forces hierarchy to work structurally, and whatever colour you then add is doing a job rather than filling a gap. It is also the fastest route to a palette that survives a colour-blind user.

**Ceiling: restraint applies to decoration, never to information.** Minimal is not the same as simple. A sparse interface that has dropped labels, selected states or visible actions is harder to use than a busier one that keeps them — it just photographs better. Strip styling freely; never strip the answers to *what is this*, *which one is selected*, and *what can I do next* (`E-63`).