Design

Quick Summary

Goal: Create (or describe) a UI design using design-intelligence databases and subagents, dispatched by --mode (input carrier) × --lane (design lane).

Renamed: folds the former /design-fast, /design-good, /design-describe, /design-screenshot, /design-video skills into --mode={fast|good|describe|screenshot|video} — those names no longer resolve as slash commands; use /design --mode=….

Absorbed lanes: the former frontend-design (marketing/creative) and interface-design (product-UI) skills now fold into --lane={marketing|product} — those names no longer resolve as slash commands; use /design --lane=…. Each lane's full body lives under references/lane-{marketing,product}/lane-guide.md.

Mode dispatch: --mode={fast|good|describe|screenshot|video} — default fast when omitted. Lane dispatch: --lane={product|marketing} — default product when omitted. Lane (the design tradition) is orthogonal to mode (the input carrier); any mode combines with any lane.

Shared workflow (5-stage spine):

1. Research — Run ui-ux-pro-max searches for design intelligence (ALWAYS FIRST)
2. Ingest — For visual modes (describe/screenshot/video), use visual analysis tooling to analyze the screenshot/video in super-detail
3. Design — Use ui-ux-designer subagent to create the design (or, for describe, an implementation plan), applying the selected lane's craft body
4. Implement — Build as code following the selected lane guide: references/lane-product/lane-guide.md (product UIs) or references/lane-marketing/lane-guide.md (marketing/creative). Skipped in describe mode.
5. Document — Present to user for approval; update ./docs/design-guidelines.md if needed

Key Rules:

• Always activate ui-ux-pro-max FIRST for design intelligence
• Default to pure HTML/CSS/JS if the user doesn't specify a framework
• Use visual analysis tooling for generating AND reviewing real visual assets
• Use media processing tooling (RMBG) to remove backgrounds from generated assets when needed

Be skeptical. Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence percentages (Idea should be more than 80%).

Arguments & Mode Dispatch

/design --mode={fast|good|describe|screenshot|video} --lane={product|marketing} <brief | screenshot | video>

• When --mode is omitted, default to --mode=fast.
• When --lane is omitted, default to --lane=product (the dominant PBI/app use). Pick marketing for landing pages, campaigns, and distinctive creative pieces.
• --mode (input carrier) and --lane (design tradition) are orthogonal — e.g. --mode=screenshot --lane=product recreates a dashboard screenshot in the product-UI craft tradition.
• $ARGUMENTS carries the full input after the command. Interpret it per mode: fast/good → a text design brief; describe/screenshot → a screenshot reference (path/URL/attachment); video → a video reference.

Lane selection (apply the chosen lane's craft body at stages 3-4)

• --lane=product (default) — product UIs: dashboards, admin panels, SaaS apps, tools. Domain-driven craft (intent → domain exploration → signature → layered surfaces/tokens). Full body: references/lane-product/lane-guide.md.
• --lane=marketing — marketing/creative: landing pages, campaigns, screenshot replication. Bold aesthetic direction (distinctive type, cohesive palette, atmosphere, motion). Full body: references/lane-marketing/lane-guide.md.

Do NOT inline the lane bodies here — read the matching lane-guide.md when the lane is selected.

Required Skills (Priority Order)

1. ui-ux-pro-max — Design intelligence database (ALWAYS ACTIVATE FIRST)
2. In-skill lane references — references/lane-{product|marketing}/lane-guide.md (+ their reference files) own implementation, screenshot/video analysis, and design replication for the selected lane.

Ensure token efficiency while maintaining high quality.

Shared First Step (ALL modes)

[BLOCKING] Step 0 — Understand the existing UI first (per the SYNC:existing-ui-research protocol carried by this skill). Before designing or updating any screen/component, inventory the existing related UI (screens, pages, components already serving this feature/domain) and map every connected feature flow that links to / embeds / navigates to-or-from it, so the design faithfully matches the current UI system. Skip only for non-UI work (state it explicitly).

FIRST, run ui-ux-pro-max searches to gather design intelligence:

python $HOME/.claude/skills/ui-ux-pro-max/scripts/search.py "<product-type>" --domain product
python $HOME/.claude/skills/ui-ux-pro-max/scripts/search.py "<style-keywords>" --domain style
python $HOME/.claude/skills/ui-ux-pro-max/scripts/search.py "<mood>" --domain typography
python $HOME/.claude/skills/ui-ux-pro-max/scripts/search.py "<industry>" --domain color

Design Principles Contract (all modes)

The 40 UI/UX Design Principles (UI-1.1–UI-9.4) carried as the SYNC:ui-ux-design-principles block below bind EVERY mode of this skill. Project design-system docs OUTRANK them — surface a genuine conflict to the user with both sides, NEVER resolve it silently.

Generative modes (fast, good) — APPLY the clauses as an output contract on the design you produce:

1. States first. Design and build the empty, loading and error state BEFORE the populated state (UI-1.5), and reserve space for anything that loads so nothing shifts in (UI-9.3).
2. All 5 interaction states per interactive element — default, hover, focus, active, disabled — plus loading where it applies (UI-5.2); keep a visible focus ring, restyled if it clashes but NEVER removed (UI-5.5).
3. Declare the scales, never improvise them. State the type scale as 6 named steps with no one-off sizes (UI-2.5), body 16px web / 17px mobile and never below 14px (UI-2.2), measure 45–75 characters (UI-2.3); and declare ONE spacing unit — 4px or 8px base, every gap a multiple of it (UI-4.1). Both declarations belong in the summary you report back at stage 5; an undeclared scale is an incomplete design, not a style choice.
4. Contrast is measured, not eyeballed — state the target AND the measured value: 4.5:1 text, 3:1 UI edges (UI-3.1); colour NEVER carries meaning alone — pair it with an icon, label or position (UI-3.3).
5. Touch surfaces. When the design covers a mobile/touch surface, hit targets are ≥44×44pt and 8px apart (UI-8.1) and primary actions sit in the bottom third where the thumb lives (UI-8.2). When it does not, state that explicitly so the §8 skip is auditable.

Reporting modes (describe, and the analysis pass of screenshot / video) — REPORT against the clauses: the super-detailed description MUST name which clauses the OBSERVED design SATISFIES and which it VIOLATES, cited by ID — e.g. type-scale drift (UI-2.5), contrast failure with the measured ratio (UI-3.1), undersized touch targets (UI-8.1), missing empty/loading/error states (UI-1.5), a removed focus ring (UI-5.5). A violation is RECORDED, never silently reproduced: describe carries it into the implementation plan as a correction; screenshot / video then apply the five generative obligations above so the recreation FIXES the violation rather than inheriting it — flag any correction that changes the visual match and confirm it with the user before shipping it.

Mode Branches

--mode=fast (default) — quick design

1. Run the shared ui-ux-pro-max searches above.
2. Use ui-ux-designer subagent to start the design process.
3. If the user doesn't specify, create the design in pure HTML/CSS/JS.
4. Report back with a brief summary of the changes; ask the user to review and approve.
5. On approval, update ./docs/design-guidelines.md if needed.

--mode=good — immersive, high-quality design

Same spine as fast, raised to a higher quality bar (iterate on details):

1. Run comprehensive ui-ux-pro-max searches across all domains.
2. Use researcher subagent to research design style, trends, fonts, colors, borders, spacing, elements' positions, etc.
3. Use ui-ux-designer subagent to implement the design step by step based on the research.
4. If the user doesn't specify, create the design in pure HTML/CSS/JS.
5. Report back with a summary; ask the user to review and approve.
6. On approval, update ./docs/design-guidelines.md if needed.

• ALWAYS REMEMBER you have the skills of a top-tier UI/UX Designer who won many awards on Dribbble, Behance, Awwwards, Mobbin, TheFWA.
• Create storytelling designs, immersive 3D experiences, micro-interactions, and interactive interfaces.

--mode=describe — describe only (NO implementation)

Treat $ARGUMENTS as the screenshot/video to describe.

1. Use visual analysis tooling to describe super-details of the screenshot/video so a developer can implement it easily.
   • Be specific about design style, every element, elements' positions, every interaction, every animation, every transition, every color, every border, every icon, every font style/size/weight, every spacing/padding/margin, every size/shape/texture/material/light/shadow/reflection/refraction/blur/glow/image, background transparency, etc.
   • IMPORTANT: Predict the font name (Google Fonts) and font size — don't just use Inter or Poppins.
2. Use ui-ux-designer subagent to create a design implementation plan following the progressive-disclosure structure so the result matches the screenshot/video:
   • Create a directory using the naming pattern from the ## Naming section.
   • Save the overview access point at plan.md, keep it generic, under 80 lines, listing each phase with status/progress and links.
   • For each phase, add phase-XX-phase-name.md with sections (Context links, Overview with date/priority/statuses, Key Insights, Requirements, Architecture, Related code files, Implementation Steps, Todo list, Success Criteria, Risk Assessment, Security Considerations, Next steps).
3. Report back with a summary of the plan. Do NOT implement.

--mode=screenshot — recreate from image as code

Treat $ARGUMENTS as the screenshot to recreate exactly.

1. Use visual analysis tooling to describe super-details of the screenshot (design style, trends, fonts, colors, border, spacing, elements' positions, size, shape, texture, material, light, shadow, reflection, refraction, blur, glow, image, background transparency, transition, etc.).
   • IMPORTANT: Predict the font name (Google Fonts) and font size — don't just use Inter or Poppins.
2. Use ui-ux-designer subagent to create a design plan following the progressive-disclosure structure (as in describe) so the final result matches the screenshot. Keep every research markdown report concise (≤150 lines).
3. Implement the plan step by step.
4. If the user doesn't specify, create the design in pure HTML/CSS/JS.
5. Report back with a summary; ask the user to review and approve.
6. On approval, update ./docs/design-guidelines.md if needed.

• ALWAYS REMEMBER you have the skills of a top-tier UI/UX Designer who won many awards on Dribbble, Behance, Awwwards, Mobbin, TheFWA.
• Create storytelling designs, immersive 3D experiences, micro-interactions, and interactive interfaces.

--mode=video — recreate from video as code

Treat $ARGUMENTS as the video to recreate exactly. Same as --mode=screenshot, but ingest a VIDEO and capture BOTH static layout AND interaction/animation/transition patterns.

1. Use visual analysis tooling to describe super-details of the video: every element, every interaction, every animation, every transition, every color, every font, every border, every spacing, every size/shape/texture/material/light/shadow/reflection/refraction/blur/glow/image, background transparency, etc.
   • IMPORTANT: Predict the font name (Google Fonts) and font size — don't just use Inter or Poppins.
2. Use ui-ux-designer subagent to create a design plan following the progressive-disclosure structure so the final result matches the video. Keep every research markdown report concise (≤150 lines).
3. Implement the plan step by step.
4. If the user doesn't specify, create the design in pure HTML/CSS/JS.
5. Report back with a summary; ask the user to review and approve.
6. On approval, update ./docs/design-guidelines.md if needed.

• ALWAYS REMEMBER you have the skills of a top-tier UI/UX Designer who won many awards on Dribbble, Behance, Awwwards, Mobbin, TheFWA.
• Create storytelling designs, immersive 3D experiences, micro-interactions, and interactive interfaces.

Notes (all modes)

• Design system (canonical): When implementing UI — HTML, CSS, or SCSS — read the project canonical design-system doc docs/project-reference/design-system/design-system-canonical.md first for design tokens, component patterns, and BEM conventions. Prefer designSystem.canonicalDoc + tokenFiles (resolved from docs/project-config.json) over per-app docs for new design work.
• Remember you have the capability to generate images, videos, edit images, etc. with visual analysis tooling skills. Use them to create the design and real assets.
• Always review, analyze, and double-check generated assets with visual analysis tooling skills to verify quality.
• Use media processing tooling (RMBG) to remove background from generated assets if needed (good/screenshot/video).
• Maintain and update ./docs/design-guidelines.md docs if needed.

[IMPORTANT] Use TaskCreate to break ALL work into small tasks BEFORE starting — including tasks for each file read. This prevents context loss from long files. For simple tasks, AI MUST ATTENTION ask user whether to skip.

Think hard to plan & start working on these tasks follow the Orchestration Protocol, Core Responsibilities, Subagents Team and Development Rules. Parse --mode from the input (default fast) and route to the matching branch above: $ARGUMENTS

[BLOCKING] Understand the existing UI before you design or spec a new/updated screen. Before producing any wireframe, mockup, screen design, or UI spec:

1. Inventory existing related UI — search the project for screens, pages, and components already serving this feature or its domain (consult design-system docs + the real component inventory).
2. Map connected flows — identify every feature that links to, embeds, includes, or navigates to/from the new screen; trace its entry and exit flows so the new screen fits them.
3. Reuse before invent — prefer existing components, patterns, and layout conventions; justify any new component against what already exists.
4. Record findings — note the matched existing screens/components + connected flows in the artifact so downstream design faithfully matches the current UI system.

Skip ONLY when the feature is backend-only (no UI) — state that explicitly.

UI/UX Design Principles (Rev 1.0 — 40 clauses, web + mobile) — the working rule set for ANY task that designs, plans, implements, or reviews a user interface. Applies to BOTH platforms unless a clause names one (§8 is mobile/touch). Cite clauses by ID: UI-3.1, UI-8.2.

Precedence: project design-system / SCSS / frontend-pattern docs OUTRANK these clauses; these clauses outrank generic taste. A genuine conflict is SURFACED to the user with both sides — NEVER resolved silently. — why: the project's own recorded decision is the authority; these clauses are the default when it is silent.

1.0 Visual Hierarchy & Layout

• UI-1.1 One focal point per screen. Two elements competing for first read → demote one.
• UI-1.2 Signal order: size → weight → colour → position. Use the cheapest signal that works before adding another.
• UI-1.3 Group by proximity, NEVER by border. Whitespace separates cleanly; boxes inside boxes do not.
• UI-1.4 Align to a shared edge. Every unexplained indent reads as an accident.
• UI-1.5 Design the empty, loading and error state FIRST. The full state is the easy one.

2.0 Typography

• UI-2.1 Max 2 families, 3 weights each. More variety reads as inconsistency, not range.
• UI-2.2 Body text 16px web, 17px mobile. NEVER below 14px for anything a user must read.
• UI-2.3 Line length 45–75 characters. Constrain the measure, not the container.
• UI-2.4 Leading scales inversely with size: 1.5 body, 1.1–1.2 display.
• UI-2.5 Fixed type scale — 6 named steps shared with engineering. NEVER one-off sizes.

3.0 Colour & Contrast

• UI-3.1 Contrast 4.5:1 text, 3:1 UI edges. Measure it — NEVER judge by eye on a bright screen.
• UI-3.2 One accent, one job. An accent that is everywhere points at nothing.
• UI-3.3 Colour NEVER carries meaning alone — pair it with an icon, label or position.
• UI-3.4 Dark mode is NOT inverted light mode. Lift surfaces to signal elevation; soften pure-white text.

4.0 Spacing & Grid

• UI-4.1 One spacing unit, multiplied — 4px or 8px base; every gap a multiple of it.
• UI-4.2 Space belongs to the container, not the child. Use gap; reserve margins for exceptions.
• UI-4.3 Tighter inside, looser between — inner padding always smaller than the gap to the next group.
• UI-4.4 Breakpoints follow content, not devices. Break where the layout stops working.

5.0 Interaction & Feedback

• UI-5.1 Every action gets a response under 100ms, even when the result takes longer.
• UI-5.2 Specify all 5 states — default, hover, focus, active, disabled — plus loading where it applies.
• UI-5.3 Prefer undo over confirmation. Confirm ONLY what cannot be reversed.
• UI-5.4 Motion clarifies cause and effect: 150–250ms, ease-out, honours reduced-motion.
• UI-5.5 Keep the visible focus ring. Restyle it if it clashes; NEVER remove it.

6.0 Navigation & IA

• UI-6.1 Every screen answers: where am I, what's here, where next.
• UI-6.2 Max 5 top-level destinations. Depth beats a crowded first level.
• UI-6.3 Label by the user's word, not the internal one. Team vocabulary is not a taxonomy.
• UI-6.4 Every state deserves a URL or a back path. Deep links and hardware back must land somewhere sensible.

7.0 Forms & Input

• UI-7.1 Ask for less. Every field needs a reason it exists today.
• UI-7.2 Labels stay visible. Placeholders are hints, NEVER labels.
• UI-7.3 Validate on blur, not on keystroke. Errors sit next to the field and say how to fix it.
• UI-7.4 Match keyboard to data type — correct input type, autocomplete and autocapitalise on every field.
• UI-7.5 NEVER lose entered data. Preserve input across errors, navigation and refresh.

8.0 Mobile & Touch (mobile/touch surfaces)

• UI-8.1 Hit target ≥44×44pt, 8px apart. The target may exceed the visible icon.
• UI-8.2 Primary actions in the bottom third — that is where the thumb lives.
• UI-8.3 Gestures are shortcuts, NEVER the only route. Anything swipeable is also tappable.
• UI-8.4 Respect safe areas and the keyboard. Notch, home indicator and on-screen keyboard all steal space.

9.0 Speed & Perceived Speed

• UI-9.1 Show structure before data — skeletons for known layouts, spinners only for unknown waits.
• UI-9.2 Assume success optimistically. Update UI first, reconcile after, roll back visibly on failure.
• UI-9.3 Reserve space for anything that loads. Images, ads and fonts must NEVER shift the layout.
• UI-9.4 Design for the slow connection. Offline, timeout and retry are states, NOT edge cases.

Apply by role — the clauses are one set; what you DO with them depends on the task:

Role	Obligation
DESIGN / PLAN a surface	Clauses shape the artifact: empty/loading/error specified first (UI-1.5), all 5 states enumerated (UI-5.2), type scale + spacing unit declared (UI-2.5, UI-4.1)
IMPLEMENT a component	Pre-completion gate: states · tokens · contrast · focus ring · touch target · reserved space (UI-5.2, UI-2.5/UI-4.1, UI-3.1, UI-5.5, UI-8.1, UI-9.3)
REVIEW UI code or a design artifact	Each clause is a fail-condition; every finding cites UI-<clause> + file:line + severity. NEVER a tick-box sweep — one focused pass per section
SCAN / document a UI system	Record where the PROJECT deliberately deviates, so the overriding doc becomes the recorded authority

Skip ONLY when the change has no user-facing surface (backend-only, tooling, docs) — state that explicitly so the skip is auditable, not an omission.

AI Mistake Prevention — Failure modes to avoid on every task:

Re-read files after context changes. Context compaction, resume, or long-running work can make memory stale; verify current files before acting. Verify generated content against source evidence. AI hallucinates APIs, names, claims, and document facts. Check the relevant source before documenting or referencing. Check downstream references before deleting or renaming. Removing an artifact can stale docs, generated mirrors, configs, and callers; map references first. Trace the full impact chain after edits. Changing a definition can miss derived outputs and consumers. Follow the affected chain before declaring done. Verify ALL affected outputs, not just the first. One green check is not all green checks; validate every output surface the change can affect. Assume existing values are intentional — ask WHY before changing OR flagging one as a defect. Before changing or reporting a constant, limit, flag, cutoff, wording, or pattern, read nearby context and history, the CALLER's ordering, and 2+ sibling call sites of the same convention. A doc stating WHAT without WHY is missing rationale, not proof of a missing guard. Surface ambiguity before acting — don't pick silently. Multiple valid interpretations require an explicit question or stated assumption with risk. Assert the outcome your system owns, not the intermediate state your infrastructure owns. When verifying async work, assert the final business state — never the delivery/retry bookkeeping held in shared infrastructure that any co-running process can write. Such a check passes when run alone and flakes the moment anything else shares that infrastructure. Keep shared guidance role-relevant. Universal guidance must help every receiving skill or agent; code-specific obligations belong only in code-specific protocols.

Critical Thinking Mindset — Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence >80% to act. Anti-hallucination: Never present guess as fact — cite sources for every claim, admit uncertainty freely, self-check output for errors, cross-reference independently, stay skeptical of own confidence — certainty without evidence root of all hallucination.

[BLOCKING] Design distinctiveness gate (DD-1–DD-8) — binds on ANY task that designs, plans, mocks up, implements, or reviews a user-facing visual surface. Deep catalog: .claude/docs/design-knowledge.md. Cite findings as DD-<clause> + file:line.

Precedence (resolve in this order, never silently): the brief's own stated visual direction WINS outright — including when it asks for one of the DD-4 tells. Then the project's design-system / SCSS / frontend-pattern docs and accepted ADRs — a house style IS an intentional identity, and re-deciding it per feature is the incoherence this gate prevents. Then these clauses. A genuine conflict is SURFACED to the user with both sides, NEVER resolved silently.

Relationship to UI-1.1–UI-9.4: a different question, no overlap — the 40 clauses ask "is this usable, accessible, consistent?" (a measurable floor); this gate asks "is this THIS product's interface, or the one any generator would emit for any brief?". A surface can pass all 40 clauses and still be a template. BOTH bind; where they touch (type scale, colour, motion timing) the clause sets the floor and this gate picks the value.

• DD-1 Ground it in the subject matter. Before designing, name the concrete subject, the audience, and the design's primary job — and CONFIRM with the user when the brief is silent. Distinctive choices come FROM the subject's industry, materials and vernacular; they are never taste applied on top. Test: if the palette, type and layout would fit a different product unchanged, there is no identity yet.
• DD-2 Every choice carries a WHY. "It's common", "it's clean", "users expect it" are not reasons. A decision with no articulable reason is a default that arrived unnoticed. Defaults hide in what feels like infrastructure — typography, navigation, data display, and TOKEN NAMES. Token-name test: someone reading only your CSS variables should be able to guess what product this is (--ink/--parchment evoke a world; --gray-700/--surface-2 evoke a template).
• DD-3 Two passes, and the review pass is mandatory. (1a) Write a compact design plan — Colour (4–6 named hex values) · Type (families + roles + scale) · Layout (one-sentence prose + ASCII wireframes to compare alternatives, including alignment: left/centre/justified) · Principles (what makes THIS page unique). (1b) BLOCKING generic test — before any code: work through a similar prompt and see whether you arrive somewhere similar; any part that reads like the generic default for any comparable page rather than a choice for THIS brief gets REVISED, and you state what you changed and why. Then (2a) build the REVISED plan, (2b) critique. — why: writing a plan and going straight to code reproduces the default, because the plan came from the same patterns the code will.
• DD-4 Audit every FREE axis against the generated-design tell catalog ([model-knowledge], calibration not prohibition — each trait is legitimate for SOME brief): T1 cream #F4F1EA + high-contrast serif + terracotta near #D97757 (Anthropic's own interaction accent — on a user's brief it reads specifically as a tell) · T2 near-black + one acid-green/vermilion accent · T3 broadsheet hairline-rule pastiche, zero radius, dense columns · T4 the SaaS-card kit: identical rounded cards, ONE radius regardless of hierarchy, the same rgba(0,0,0,.1) shadow under each, gradient washes as decoration · T5 template chrome whatever the subject: tracked-out ALL-CAPS eyebrow above every heading, meta strings joined with middle dots (A · B · C), WORD — fragment labels with a spaced em dash, tinted near-black (#0B0B0B/#111) standing in for black, monospace for small data labels, → appended to link/button text. A match is a HYPOTHESIS about a missed decision, never a defect — promote it only by naming the axis, that the brief left it free, and what the subject suggested instead.
• DD-5 Typography carries the personality. One family, or two CLEARLY distinct ones — you do NOT need separate display and body faces. Choose deliberately, not the default you would reach for on any project. Set a real scale with intentional weights, widths and spacing. When type is a headline it is an ACTIVE part of the design, not a neutral delivery vehicle. Measure under ~80 characters; serifs tolerate slightly longer lines and want slightly more line-height than sans at the same size. Hierarchy needs weight/tracking/opacity, not size alone. Avoid the three commonest tells: accenting a single word in a headline (italic/bold/colour) · ALL CAPS labels · an eyebrow label that names the section the heading already names.
• DD-6 Structure is information, not decoration. Outlines, borders, numbering, eyebrows, dividers and labels must encode something about the content. Before adding numbered markers (01 / 02 / 03), check the content really IS a sequence — a stepped process, timeline or ranking. For every device ask: what does this tell the reader that whitespace would not? Nothing → cut it. Hero: open with the most characteristic thing in the subject's world, in whatever form fits (headline, image, animation, live demo, interactive moment) — big-number-plus-small-label-plus-gradient is the DEFAULT treatment, so use it only when it is genuinely best here. Composition: rhythm over monotone (same card size, same gap, same density everywhere is the sound of no one deciding); proportions must say something you can articulate; one dominant focal point.
• DD-7 Motion sparingly and deliberately. Non-user-triggered motion draws attention ONLY. One orchestrated moment — a single page-load sequence or one reveal — lands better than scattered effects; fade-and-slide-up entrances on each section and hover transitions on every card are the generic default and read as generated. Motion that ANSWERS a person's action (opening, expanding, confirming) is welcome when it shows what changed. Honour prefers-reduced-motion.
• DD-8 Spend boldness once, then remove one accessory. Let ONE element be the memorable thing and keep everything around it quiet and disciplined; cut any decoration that does not serve the brief. Critique the BUILT page, not just the plan — composition, craft (density is a decision, not a constant), content coherence, and CSS honesty (negative margins undoing a parent's padding, calc() values that exist only as workarounds, absolute positioning to escape layout flow are lies; the correct answer is always simpler than the hack). Take screenshots to review where the environment supports it — a picture is worth 1000 tokens. Then ask "if they said this lacks craft, what would they point to?" and fix that. Build the quality floor in silently — responsive, visible keyboard focus, reduced-motion respected, measured contrast, tokens never raw hex or magic numbers — and watch CSS selector specificity, where a type-based selector (.section) and an element-based one (.cta) most often cancel each other's padding/margin.

Memory: vary between briefs — light and dark, families, direction. NEVER converge on the same choice across generations (Space Grotesk, for example). Where the project already has a design system, tokens, or an interface-system.md, ADOPT and record it rather than re-deciding; write back any pattern used 2+ times with measurements worth remembering.

Skip ONLY when the change has NO user-facing visual surface (backend-only, tooling, docs) — state that reason explicitly so the skip is auditable, not an omission.

Words are design content, not decoration — binds whenever a task authors, changes, or reviews user-visible strings (labels, CTAs, headings, empty/error/loading text, toasts, placeholder content). Deep detail: .claude/docs/design-knowledge.md §8. Copy makes a design feel as templated as the visuals do.

Before writing anything, ask what the design needs to SAY and how it can best be said to help the person navigate the experience. Then:

1. Write from the end user's perspective. Name things by what users will understand in simple language, not by how the system is built — a user manages notifications, not webhook config. Describe what something is or does in plain terms rather than selling it. Being specific and legible to a new user ALWAYS beats being clever.
2. Active voice by default. A CTA says exactly what happens when it is used: "Save changes", NEVER "Submit".
3. One name per action, across the whole flow. The button that says Publish produces a toast that says Published. The vocabulary of an interface is the signposting for someone navigating the product — cohesion and consistency are how people learn their way around.
4. Failure and emptiness give DIRECTION, not mood. Explain what went wrong and how to fix it, in the interface's voice rather than a person's. Errors do NOT apologize, and are NEVER vague about what happened. An empty screen is an invitation to act.
5. Conversational tone, one job per element. Plain verbs, sentence case, no filler, tone matched to the brand and the audience; let each written element do exactly one job.
6. Real content, never lorem. When the brief supplies no copy, write plausible strings for the ACTUAL subject. Coherence check — read every visible string as a user would, checking for truth, not typos: could a real person at a real company be looking at exactly this data right now, or does the page title belong to one product, the body to another, and the sidebar metrics to a third? A beautifully designed interface with nonsensical content is a movie set with no script.

Skip ONLY when the change surfaces no user-visible text — state that explicitly.

Front-End Design Review Checklist — the EXECUTABLE review protocol for any artifact carrying a user-facing front-end surface. Full catalog (A1…Q, ~130 checks with failure signals and default severities): .claude/docs/design-review-checklist.md. This gate carries the protocol and the triage pass; the file carries the checks.

Applies when — and ONLY when — the change, plan, or artifact carries a user-facing front-end surface. A back-end-only diff, a doc edit, or a config change is N/A: state that once and move on. NEVER run a UI review on a non-UI change to manufacture coverage. When it DOES apply, MUST ATTENTION READ .claude/docs/design-review-checklist.md and work its sections — a review that cites a check ID without opening the catalog is asserting, not checking.

CL-1 Context before checks (§0.1). Establish platform · primary user & expertise · primary task · success metric · constraints · review scope · available artifacts. Fewer than four known → state the gap at the top of the report and mark affected findings low confidence — why: a check judged against an unknown task is a guess wearing an ID.

CL-2 Evidence or nothing (§0.2). Every finding cites a specific location (screen · element · file:line). NEVER invent a measurement — contrast, tap-target size, and load time that cannot be measured from the given artifact are NOT VERIFIABLE, never a guessed number. Tag every finding MEASURED · OBSERVED · HEURISTIC. Status values: PASS · FAIL · PARTIAL · N/A · NOT VERIFIABLE.

CL-3 Severity, then a cap (§0.3). P0 blocks task completion / loses data / excludes a protected group (ship blocker) · P1 significant friction or a legal accessibility floor (fix before release) · P2 measurable inefficiency (next iteration) · P3 polish (backlog) · P4 note. Cap the report at the top 10 by severity unless a full audit was requested. A clean section reports "no issues found" — NEVER pad. Every P0/P1 carries a concrete fix.

CL-4 Section sweep, in order. §A core usability heuristics · §B cognitive load & decision design · §C visual design & hierarchy · §D interaction + the eight screen states (ideal, empty, first-run, loading, partial, error, offline, maximum-data) · §E information architecture · §F web / §G mobile / §H desktop — conditional on platform · §I accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA; every item P1 minimum, P0 when it blocks the task) · §J content & UX writing · §K trust, ethics & privacy (dark patterns are P0) · §L AI & agentic patterns — conditional on the product having AI features · §M cross-cutting consistency · §N edge-case probes. One focused pass per section — why: a section skipped in the long middle silently becomes an unreported defect class.

CL-5 Quick Triage Pass (§P) when a full sweep is not possible — these 10 catch the majority of serious defects: (1) can a new user complete the primary task unaided · (2) does every action give visible feedback within 400ms · (3) do empty/loading/error states exist AND offer a forward path · (4) is the primary action obvious, singular, reachable · (5) text ≥4.5:1 contrast and focus visible · (6) whole flow completable by keyboard · (7) touch targets ≥44/48px · (8) destructive actions reversible · (9) holds at 320px and 200% zoom · (10) any dark patterns.

CL-6 Report shape (§O). Context (+ known gaps) → Verdict (Ship / Ship with fixes / Do not ship) → What works (2–4 specific strengths, cited) → Findings grouped P0→P3, each with Location · Evidence + tag · Impact · Principle (checklist ID) · Fix → Open questions → Coverage table. Any P0 caps the grade at Fail regardless of score; report a score only ALONGSIDE findings, never instead of them.

Precedence and no-double-counting. The project's design-system / SCSS / frontend-pattern docs and accepted ADRs OUTRANK this checklist; the brief's stated direction outranks aesthetic judgment. A deliberate, documented convention is NEVER a defect — check intent before flagging, and surface a genuine conflict to the user with both sides, NEVER resolve it silently. This checklist is the review PROCEDURE, not a third set of taste rules: UI-1.1–UI-9.4 ask "does it meet the usability floor?", DD-1–DD-8 ask "is this THIS product's interface?", and these checks ask "did the review actually look, with evidence, and rank it?". Where a check restates a UI-* or DD-* clause, report the defect ONCE under whichever ID the consuming skill already uses.

For a PLAN or a PLAN REVIEW. When the plan contains front-end work, the checklist b

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