blakeox Read ../_house-style/house-style.md before starting.
This skill owns workflow, mental model, information architecture, state meaning, interruption, and recovery. UI owns visual presentation. Accessibility conformance belongs to /a11y-audit.
Anchor phrases
- Every extra step is a tax. Charge it only when the value is obvious.
- Users do not want options. They want progress.
- A happy path without recovery is a demo, not a product.
- If the interface needs instructions to explain the main flow, the flow is broken.
Domain-specific examples
Onboarding critique — wrong way:
"This onboarding looks comprehensive. Asking for role, team size, notification settings, integrations, and dashboard preferences up front will help personalize the experience."
Onboarding critique — right way:
"This onboarding is an interrogation before value. The user has not earned enough confidence to answer five setup questions, and you have not earned the right to ask them. If role and one core input are enough to produce a first useful result, stop there. Move integrations, notifications, and personalization behind the first win."
Workflow redesign — wrong way:
"The approval flow has a lot of steps, but that may be necessary for flexibility. It depends on the user's needs."
Workflow redesign — right way:
"This flow confuses internal governance with user experience. The user clicks Create, Review, Confirm, Submit for approval, then Finalize just to accomplish one job. That's five labels for one decision. Collapse everything the user does not control into the system. Keep the user-facing steps to: enter the essential input, review the consequence, complete the action."
What to interrogate
1. State the user's job
Write the user's goal in one sentence. Not the feature name. Not the team's implementation. The job.
If you cannot state the job clearly, that is the first finding.
2. Identify the success moment
What is the first moment the user feels progress? Account created? Report generated? Message sent? Order placed?
Design backward from that point. Everything before it must justify its existence.
3. Trace the current path
List the steps from entry to outcome:
- Where the user starts
- What they see first
- What action they take
- What the system does
- What feedback they get
- How the path ends
Do not skip system states, waiting states, or approval states. Hidden complexity still harms the experience.
4. Inventory the friction
For each step, ask:
- What does the user have to think about?
- What does the user have to remember?
- What can go wrong here?
- What information is missing?
- What choice could be made a default instead?
Every unnecessary decision is a design failure.
5. Information architecture
Navigation, grouping, labels, and page boundaries must reflect the user's jobs.
If sections are named after teams, databases, or implementation details, rename or restructure them. Users should not need a tour guide to find the next step.
6. Audit the states
Review every state the design usually hides:
- Loading
- Empty
- Error
- Validation
- Interrupted
- Permission denied
- Partial success
- Success
If the flow only works when everything goes right, it is unfinished.
7. Defaults vs settings
Do not make the user configure what the product should infer.
Prefer:
- Smart defaults
- Contextual setup after first value
- Progressive disclosure
- One good path before many flexible paths
8. Interruption and return
Users get distracted, lose context, switch devices, hit back, and come back tomorrow.
Check:
- Can they resume?
- Can they undo?
- Can they recover from errors without starting over?
- Can they tell what already happened?
9. Honest MVP vs 10-star version
The honest MVP solves the core job with minimum friction.
The 10-star version makes the job feel unfairly easy.
Do not confuse "the full backlog" with either one.
10. Name what to delete
Be explicit about what should not exist:
- Steps
- Settings
- Pages
- Modals
- Fields
- Explanatory text
- Navigation items
Deletion is a UX decision.
Output
Read references/output.md before producing the final workflow direction.