Design Review Gate

Design Review Gate

Overview

A UI reads as "AI-generated" not because the components are ugly, but because the parts don't agree with each other — mixed corner radii, three accent colors, pure-black text, no hierarchy, missing states, robotic copy. This skill reviews a UI file (or a whole directory) against a concrete design rubric, scores it 0–100, and returns a prioritized fix list. It reviews and recommends; it never edits or deletes without being asked.

House rules (Andy overrides — these beat the rubric on conflict)

Andy's register is minimal/Swiss: type + grid + whitespace + restraint, one discordant note (see memory andy-design-taste). Two rubric adjustments follow:

• Cardlessness is a valid choice, not a violation. The Layout deduction "content on a bare page background, not in cards (−6)" applies only when the design language is a card-based one executed lazily. A deliberate hairline-ruled index — flush-left grid, big margins, rules instead of boxes — scores FULL marks. What you deduct for instead: rules and margins applied inconsistently (that's a Coherence violation, same −6).
• One discordant gesture is allowed and encouraged (a single off-grid color bar, one oversized number). Don't deduct it under Coherence — deduct only a second discordant gesture (restraint everywhere else is the rule that makes the first one work).

Everything else in the rubric stands as written.

When to use

• A React / Tailwind / HTML UI "looks off," generic, or unfinished and you can't say why.
• You want a design score / pre-ship check.
• The user asks to make UI "look professional / polished / designed, not AI-generated."
• After generating UI, to verify it before shipping.

How to review

Read the file(s). Score these seven categories (total 100); start each at full marks and subtract for violations you can cite by line. Be specific and evidence-based.

1. Coherence — 20 (the #1 "AI-generated" tell)

One choice per axis, applied everywhere. Deduct for each mixed axis:

• mixed corner radii — e.g. a sharp card with pill buttons (−6)
• two or more accent colors used for emphasis (−5)
• emoji used as UI icons (🚗🧺⭐ as list/nav/status/category markers) — injects many uncontrolled hues; use one line-icon set in currentColor (−6)
• mixed shadow languages / light directions (−3)
• mixed icon families, fill modes, or stroke weights (−3)
• inconsistent control heights (buttons/inputs differ) (−3)

2. Color discipline — 16

• pure black (#000 / text-black) text — the refined black is ~`#2A2A2A` (−4 each, cap −8)
• hardcoded hex where a semantic token exists (−2 each, cap −6)
• a normal / OK / default state shown in a status color instead of neutral grey (−4)
• status color on most/every row (no severity hierarchy — color should mark the minority that needs attention) (−4)
• decorative hues — gold stars, rainbow category dots, a different color per card — instead of accent/grey (−3)
• status conveyed by color alone, no icon/text (−4)
• contrast below WCAG AA (4.5:1 body, 3:1 large/UI) (−6)

3. Hierarchy & typography — 16

• number and its unit not ~2:1 (48px number / 24px unit) (−4)
• everything the same size and weight, no clear primary (−5)
• arbitrary font sizes; no scale (−4)
• wrong line-height (loose on display, cramped on body) (−3)

4. Layout & spacing — 12

• content structure absent — no cards AND no rules/grid discipline (see house rules) (−6)
• off-grid spacing (7/13/19px instead of an 8px scale) (−3)
• the gap around a group not larger than the gap inside it (−3)
• the same section type repeated in a row (−4)

5. States — 12

• missing empty / loading / error state on a data surface (−5 each, cap −10)
• empty state with no next action; error that blames instead of helping (−4)
• dead link — a button/anchor pointing at # with no action and no visible disabled styling (−3)
• current page/section not indicated in nav (−2)

6. UX writing — 12

• buttons that don't name the action ("Submit" / "OK" instead of "Send $2,400") (−4)
• error copy that blames or uses system-speak ("Invalid input", "An error occurred") (−4)
• two terms for one concept (delete vs remove); filler words ("please", "successfully") (−2)
• Lorem Ipsum, placeholder brand names ("Acme Corp", "SmartFlow"), or round fake numbers ("99.99%", "$100.00") instead of realistic content (−3)
• AI-cliché copy ("Elevate", "Seamless", "Unleash", "Next Gen", "Delve") (−2)
• Title Case Headers instead of sentence case (−2)
• exclamation marks in success messages, or "Oops!" in error copy, instead of a direct statement (−2)

7. Motion & polish — 12

• ad-hoc fades instead of one consistent, named feel (−3)
• motion that delays content or blocks an action (−4)
• no prefers-reduced-motion handling on custom motion (−3)
• a single hard black shadow instead of a layered, low-opacity, tinted one (−2)

Clamp each category at 0; sum to a total. Bands: 90+ A · 80–89 B · 70–79 C · 60–69 D · <60 F.

Output format

## Design Score: 72 / 100   (src/Dashboard.tsx)   C

Coherence            13/20   sharp cards (l.22) + pill buttons (l.48); 3 accent hues
Color discipline     12/16   #000 headings (l.12, 40)
Hierarchy & type     15/16   number/unit 1:1 on hero (l.18)
Layout & spacing     10/12   two identical KPI rows (l.22-31)
States                7/12   no empty/loading state on the orders list
UX writing            8/12   "Submit" button (l.55); "Invalid input" (l.61)
Motion & polish      10/12   one hard black shadow (l.22)

### Fix first (highest score gain)
1. Unify radius (pick soft 8–12px) + collapse to one accent   → +11 coherence/color
2. Add empty + loading states to the orders list              → +7  states
3. Rename "Submit" → "Send $2,400"; "Invalid input" → "Check the card number" → +6 copy

Re-score after: ~90 / 100.

Ship checklist (pass/fail, not scored)

Separate from the 100-point rubric — these are completeness gaps, not design-quality ones. Run through this list once the score clears ~80. Flag anything missing; don't deduct points for it.

• Favicon, <title>, meta description, og:image, and social sharing tags present
• Alt text on every meaningful image
• Semantic HTML (<nav>, <main>, <article>, <aside>, <section>) instead of div soup
• Skip-to-content link for keyboard users
• Client-side form validation (email format, required fields)
• Custom, branded 404 — not the framework default
• Legal footer links (privacy, terms) where the site needs them

Rules

• Review from real evidence (cite line numbers); never guess.
• Order the fix list by score gain, not severity alone — fastest path to a better number.
• For a directory: one-line score per file, then the lowest file's full breakdown.
• Don't auto-edit. This skill measures and recommends. Apply fixes only when asked.
• Use it as a quality gate: review right after generating UI, apply the fix list, and re-review until the score clears ~80 before showing the user — no first-draft, incoherent UI (rainbow status lists, emoji icons, two accents, missing states) should reach them. The bar is a floor, not a ceiling: clear 80 and ship; don't chase 100 to delay.
• Pixel gate on top (when a renderer is available): the code score is necessary but not sufficient. If you can render (headless Chrome screenshot, playwright MCP, or a running dev server), screenshot the surface, actually look at the image, and fix what the pixels show. Never claim visual verification without having seen a screenshot; if you can't render, say so — a code-only review is disclosed as such.

Cherry-picked 2026-07-26 from StyleSeed (https://github.com/bitjaru/styleseed, MIT) after a full quality + security audit; rubric verbatim except the house-rules layer and the pixel-gate rule (the latter distilled from StyleSeed's ss-verify). The full engine (74 rules, skins, 20 skills) was deliberately NOT installed — heavy token weight, an ungated update channel, and doctrine overlap with the installed design stack.

Content-realism, dead-link/nav, and ship-checklist items added 2026-07-30 from elayadesign/ai-design-skills landing-page-design SKILL.md (MIT), after a skill-auditor pass. Only the content-realism (B8), states (B9), and ship-requirements (B10) items were taken — the visual system (Tailwind-locked type/spacing tokens, gradient hero text, glass-morphism island nav, mandatory tagline reveal) was left out as it conflicts with Andy's minimal/Swiss house rules above.