About Intent First
What would it take for AI to understand the moment?
I'm Takao Umehara. I created Intent First and Context Grammar to explore how AI can help with more than the words we type—while keeping people in charge.
Why I started
At a familiar restaurant, ‘the usual’ can be enough. The staff remembers what you like, notices when you're in a hurry, and still asks before making a choice that belongs to you.
An AI assistant can answer a request, but it often misses the situation around it: what you already know, which screen you're using, who can see it, and how much you want it to do. Those details change what good help looks like.
A design language for those decisions
Context Grammar is my proposal for making that judgment visible and designable. It connects intent, six situation signals, relationship dials, rules, negotiation, and interface patterns. Memory and trust support the whole system. These are design principles and explorations, not a claim that every scenario already works in a product.
Where to begin
Understand the framework
Start with the restaurant story, then follow the six stages and the two layers that support them.
02See it in a moment
Explore concrete screens that show how a change in context can change the right response.
03Read the thinking behind it
Follow the published essays that led from the original question to this design language.
Have a question or a situation worth exploring together?
Get in touch