Visual Direction Review Skill
Purpose
Judge whether a design holds together: cohesion, hierarchy, rhythm, and emotional consistency with its stated direction.
When to use
Use this skill when a page works technically but feels generic, incoherent, or off-tone, and when reviewing work against the direction it claimed. Use impeccable-ui.md to fix craft defects and web-design-guidelines.md for conformance rules; this skill judges whether the whole reads as intentional.
Inputs
- the page, screen, or flow under review, ideally as a rendered screenshot
- the stated design direction or brand, if one exists
- the audience and what the design is meant to make them feel
- what the surrounding work looks like, for consistency
Output
Return:
- a one-line verdict: does this read as designed, or as assembled
- findings under cohesion, hierarchy, rhythm, and emotional consistency
- for each, the specific evidence, not an impression
- the single highest-leverage change, named first
- what is working and must be preserved through any revision
Constraints
- judge against the stated direction; a design that succeeds at a direction you dislike is a success
- Cohesion — do type, colour, spacing, and shape read as one system, or as parts from different projects
- Hierarchy — does the eye reach the primary element first; does anything secondary outweigh it
- Rhythm — is the spacing scale felt as a pattern; does vertical rhythm break where sections meet
- Emotional consistency — does the tone hold across hero, body, empty states, errors, and footer, or does it decay into neutral defaults
- name the specific element for every finding; "feels cluttered" is not a finding
- distinguish direction failures from execution failures — the fixes are completely different
- if the design has no discernible point of view, say that plainly rather than listing small corrections
- limit to the few findings that would change the design; a long list reads as noise
Examples
- Review whether a landing page delivers the editorial direction it committed to
- Judge why a redesign feels less distinctive than the version it replaced
- Check tone consistency across a product's onboarding, empty, and error states
1---2name: visual-direction-review3description: Critique whether a design holds together — cohesion, hierarchy, rhythm, and emotional consistency — and say whether it reads as intentional. Use when a page technically works but feels generic, incoherent, or off-tone, and when judging a design against its stated direction.4---56# Visual Direction Review Skill78## Purpose9Judge whether a design holds together: cohesion, hierarchy, rhythm, and emotional consistency with its stated direction.1011## When to use12Use this skill when a page works technically but feels generic, incoherent, or off-tone, and when reviewing work against the direction it claimed. Use `impeccable-ui.md` to fix craft defects and `web-design-guidelines.md` for conformance rules; this skill judges whether the whole reads as intentional.1314## Inputs15- the page, screen, or flow under review, ideally as a rendered screenshot16- the stated design direction or brand, if one exists17- the audience and what the design is meant to make them feel18- what the surrounding work looks like, for consistency1920## Output21Return:22- a one-line verdict: does this read as designed, or as assembled23- findings under cohesion, hierarchy, rhythm, and emotional consistency24- for each, the specific evidence, not an impression25- the single highest-leverage change, named first26- what is working and must be preserved through any revision2728## Constraints29- judge against the stated direction; a design that succeeds at a direction you dislike is a success30- **Cohesion** — do type, colour, spacing, and shape read as one system, or as parts from different projects31- **Hierarchy** — does the eye reach the primary element first; does anything secondary outweigh it32- **Rhythm** — is the spacing scale felt as a pattern; does vertical rhythm break where sections meet33- **Emotional consistency** — does the tone hold across hero, body, empty states, errors, and footer, or does it decay into neutral defaults34- name the specific element for every finding; "feels cluttered" is not a finding35- distinguish direction failures from execution failures — the fixes are completely different36- if the design has no discernible point of view, say that plainly rather than listing small corrections37- limit to the few findings that would change the design; a long list reads as noise3839## Examples40- Review whether a landing page delivers the editorial direction it committed to41- Judge why a redesign feels less distinctive than the version it replaced42- Check tone consistency across a product's onboarding, empty, and error states
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