Coordinator

UI Excellence — Coordinator

Overview

This skill is a triage router that coordinates twelve specialized UI skills organized in five groups. When invoked, it analyzes what you are working on and automatically loads the relevant skill(s) — often multiple at once.

"Great interfaces rarely come from a single thing. It's usually a collection of small things that compound into a great experience."

Skills Catalog

Foundations (original)

Systems (macro-design)

Audit (evaluation)

Interaction (micro-details)

Behavior (engagement)

Triage Logic

When this skill is invoked, follow this decision process:

START: What is the task?
│
├── Full UI audit / review?
│   └── YES → Apply foundations (all 4) + heuristics + refactoring
│
├── Landing page / conversion / "why visitors leave"?
│   └── YES → Apply cro + heuristics + copy
│
├── Onboarding / activation / "users drop off"?
│   └── YES → Apply retention + hooked + heuristics
│
├── New component build (modal, form, dropdown, tabs)?
│   └── YES → Apply web-standards + accessibility + animation-motion + microinteractions
│
├── Design system / tokens / color / spacing?
│   └── YES → Apply refactoring + visual-polish + typography
│
├── Typography / fonts / readability?
│   └── YES → Apply typography + web-standards (type section)
│
├── Animation / transition / motion?
│   └── YES → Apply animation-motion + microinteractions
│
├── Accessibility / WCAG / keyboard / ARIA?
│   └── YES → Apply accessibility + web-standards (a11y section)
│
├── Polish / refinement / "make it feel better"?
│   └── YES → Apply visual-polish + microinteractions
│
├── Messaging / copy / "make it memorable"?
│   └── YES → Apply copy + cro (copywriting section)
│
├── Engagement / "users aren't coming back"?
│   └── YES → Apply hooked + retention
│
└── General / unsure
    └── Apply web-standards + visual-polish (safe defaults)

Signal-Based Routing

When triaging, look for these signals in the task and files:

Route to animation-motion when:

• Files contain transition, animation, @keyframes, transform, spring config
• Task mentions: animate, motion, easing, gesture, drag, spring, entrance/exit
• Working with: modals, drawers, toasts, tooltips, popovers, dropdowns (animation aspect)
• CSS includes: transition-*, animation-*, will-change, @starting-style

Route to visual-polish when:

• Task is about refining/polishing existing UI
• Files contain: border-radius, box-shadow, font-variant-numeric, text-wrap
• Working with: spacing, shadows, alignment, text rendering, number displays
• Focus is on "make it feel better" rather than adding new functionality

Route to web-standards when:

• Building or reviewing any web component or page
• Files are .tsx, .jsx, .html, .css, .scss, or Tailwind configs
• Task involves: forms, images, performance, dark mode, i18n, navigation, state management
• Code review or audit requested

Route to accessibility when:

• Task mentions: accessibility, a11y, WCAG, screen reader, keyboard navigation
• Building interactive components: dropdowns, modals, tabs, forms
• Files contain: aria-*, role=, tabindex, <label>, focus management code
• Audit or compliance check requested

Route to refactoring when:

• Task mentions: "my UI looks off", "fix the design", color palette, visual hierarchy, design system
• Building design tokens, constrained spacing/color scales
• Creating dark mode themes or consistent component styling
• Files contain: Tailwind config, CSS custom properties, token definitions

Route to typography when:

• Task mentions: font pairing, typeface selection, line height, responsive type
• Working with: web font loading, variable fonts, typographic scales, FOUT/FOIT
• Files contain: @font-face, font-family, font-display, type scale variables

Route to heuristics when:

• Task mentions: usability audit, UX review, "users are confused", heuristic evaluation
• Reviewing navigation, form completion rates, information architecture
• Task mentions: Nielsen heuristics, cognitive walkthrough, usability testing

Route to cro when:

• Task mentions: conversion rate, A/B test, "landing page isn't converting", bounce rate
• Designing experiment hypotheses, auditing checkout flows
• Working with: landing pages, signup flows, pricing pages, objection handling

Route to microinteractions when:

• Task mentions: button feedback, loading state, toggle design, state transitions
• Designing: form validation responses, progress indicators, confirmation dialogs
• Working on: any UI element where users expect immediate feedback
• Files contain: state machines, transition logic, feedback animations

Route to hooked when:

• Task mentions: engagement loops, habit formation, "users aren't coming back"
• Designing: notification strategies, streaks, progress systems, variable rewards
• Analyzing: daily active users, retention loops, habit zone

Route to retention when:

• Task mentions: "users drop off", activation rate, onboarding friction, churn
• Designing: activation milestones, time-to-value reduction, first-session experience
• Analyzing: cohort retention curves, aha moment identification

Route to copy when:

• Task mentions: "make it memorable", sticky messaging, tagline, value proposition
• Writing: pitch decks, product explanations, presentations
• Simplifying: complex product messaging, onboarding copy, error messages

Multi-Routing (Common Combinations)

Most UI tasks benefit from multiple skills simultaneously. Apply all that match:

Workflow

Step 1 — Identify Context

Determine the task type and files involved:

• Read the files being worked on (or the user's request)
• Identify which signals match (see routing sections above)

Step 2 — Load Skills

Invoke the matched skill(s) using their plugin namespace:

• /ui-excellence:animation-motion
• /ui-excellence:visual-polish
• /ui-excellence:web-standards
• /ui-excellence:accessibility
• /ui-excellence:refactoring
• /ui-excellence:typography
• /ui-excellence:heuristics
• /ui-excellence:cro
• /ui-excellence:microinteractions
• /ui-excellence:hooked
• /ui-excellence:retention
• /ui-excellence:copy

Load only the matched skills. For full audits, load foundations + heuristics + refactoring.

Step 3 — Apply

Follow each loaded skill's guidelines. When multiple skills are active, apply in this priority order:

1. Accessibility first — structural correctness before polish
2. Web standards — patterns and anti-patterns
3. Heuristics — usability evaluation (if applicable)
4. Refactoring — design system and visual hierarchy (if applicable)
5. Typography — type system (if applicable)
6. Visual polish — refinements and details
7. Microinteractions — feedback and state transitions
8. Animation — motion and transitions on top of solid foundation
9. Behavior (hooked, retention, copy) — engagement layer last

Step 4 — Review Output

Consolidate findings from all applied skills into a single output. Use file:line format for code review. Group by severity:

1. Must Fix — Accessibility violations, anti-patterns, broken interactions
2. Should Fix — Standards deviations, missing states, performance issues, usability problems
3. Polish — Visual refinements, animation improvements, detail enhancements
4. Engagement — Behavior/retention/copy suggestions (these are strategic, not defects)

When to Use

• Building any web UI component or page
• Reviewing or auditing existing interfaces
• Polishing interfaces before release
• Implementing modals, forms, dropdowns, tabs, toasts, drawers
• Refining animations, transitions, and microinteractions
• Checking accessibility compliance (WCAG 2.1 AA)
• Conducting design-to-code reviews or heuristic evaluations
• Optimizing landing pages and conversion funnels
• Designing engagement loops and retention mechanisms
• Crafting sticky messaging and product copy
• Building or auditing design systems and typography

When NOT to Use

• Backend/API-only code with no UI
• CLI tools or terminal interfaces
• Configuration files with no UI impact
• Database migrations or schema changes
• Pure business logic with no user-facing output

Attribution

This coordinator routes to skills from two sources:

Foundations (original):

• Emil Kowalski — Animation & motion design engineering
• Jakub Krehel — Visual polish and interface details
• Vercel — Web Interface Guidelines
• WCAG 2.1 — Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

Adopted (MIT, from wondelai/skills):

• Adam Wathan & Steve Schoger — Refactoring UI
• Jason Santa Maria — On Web Typography
• Jakob Nielsen & Steve Krug — Usability heuristics
• Dr. Karl Blanks & Ben Jesson — CRO methodology
• Dan Saffer — Microinteractions
• Nir Eyal — Hooked (habit-forming products)
• BJ Fogg — Behavior design (Tiny Habits)
• Chip & Dan Heath — Made to Stick