UI Consistency Review

UI Consistency Review

Purpose

Audit UI consistency across spacing, color, typography, interactive states, accessibility basics, and responsive behavior — with every finding anchored to the project's own design tokens and component system rather than personal taste. The output is a minimal-diff punch list: each issue names the offending file and line, the bad value, and the exact token or utility class that should replace it, so a developer can fix it without a second round of clarification. The review is static and visual only; it never refactors component APIs or invents a new design language.

When to use

• New components or screens were added and need a consistency pass against the established spacing scale, color tokens, and type system before review or release.
• Hardcoded hex values, magic pixel values, or missing interactive states (hover, focus, disabled, error, empty) have been spotted in the codebase.
• An accessibility concern was raised — missing focus rings, low-contrast text, or non-semantic clickable elements need a systematic sweep.
• The UI has grown across multiple contributors and visual drift (inconsistent font sizes, spacing rhythm, or button styles) has accumulated.
• A design system or Tailwind config exists and you need to confirm production code actually consumes it instead of bypassing it with arbitrary values.

When not to use

• The task is unrelated to frontend and web design work.
• The work would require production deploys, destructive data actions, or secret disclosure.
• The page has structural layout breakage (wrong hierarchy, broken mobile). Fix structure with web-design-review or responsive-layout-review first, then run consistency.
• A narrower skill already covers the exact need: design-system-review for token architecture and duplicate primitives, accessibility-audit for a full WCAG pass, visual-polish-pass for final pixel finish.

Procedure

1. Establish the intended system first. Locate the spacing scale, color tokens, type scale, radius/shadow scale, and component primitives before judging anything. Look in tailwind.config.{js,ts}, CSS custom properties in :root, a tokens.json, or a theme provider. Record the scale base (4px or 8px), the named color roles, and the bounded type steps. Review against this source of truth, not personal taste.
2. Audit spacing and layout. Confirm padding, margin, and gap values land on the scale. Flag inline style={{ }} overrides and arbitrary Tailwind values such as p-[13px] or gap-[7px]. Check that related elements (a label and its field) sit tighter than unrelated sections, and that gutters in a grid are uniform.
3. Audit color. Compare every hardcoded hex/rgb against the token palette — a literal #3b82f6 that equals colors.primary is a violation. Verify text contrast meets WCAG 2.1 AA: 4.5:1 for body text and 3:1 for large text (>=24px regular or >=18.66px bold), plus 3:1 for UI component boundaries and focus indicators.
4. Audit typography. Confirm a bounded type scale (roughly five to seven steps). Flag one-off font-size values off the scale, mixed font-weight at the same hierarchy level, and inconsistent line-height between similar text blocks.
5. Audit interactive states. Every actionable element needs :hover, :focus-visible, :active, and :disabled. Data-bound surfaces additionally need loading, empty, and error states. A button with hover but no disabled or focus-visible state is incomplete.
6. Audit responsive behavior. Check breakpoints, horizontal overflow, text truncation versus wrapping, and touch targets >=44x44px (Apple HIG) or 48x48dp (Material) at mobile widths. Confirm body text stays >=16px so mobile browsers do not auto-zoom inputs on focus.
7. Audit accessibility basics. Images need alt; form inputs need an associated <label> or aria-label; clickable behavior belongs on <button>/<a>, not <div onClick>. Decorative icons need aria-hidden="true".
8. Report per-component findings with severity and the token/value to use instead, leading with systemic issues (a missing token, a repeated bad pattern, a global outline: none) over isolated nits.

Concrete checks

Spacing and layout:

• Padding, margin, and gap values land on the 4/8px scale — no arbitrary p-[13px] or mt-[22px].
• No inline style={{ }} overrides that hardcode spacing outside the scale.
• Related elements (label and field, icon and caption) are grouped tighter than unrelated sections.
• Grid and flex gutters are uniform within the same layout.

Color and contrast:

• Every color is a token reference, not a literal hex that duplicates a token value.
• Body text meets WCAG 2.1 AA contrast of 4.5:1; large text and UI boundaries meet 3:1.
• Disabled and muted states remain legible, not washed-out gray on white.
• A single muted-text token and a single border-color token are used everywhere.

Typography:

• The type scale is bounded to roughly five to seven steps, all referenced by name.
• No mismatched font-weight at the same hierarchy level without a documented reason.
• line-height is consistent within body text and within headings.

States and accessibility:

• Every actionable element has :hover, :focus-visible, :active, and :disabled.
• Data-bound surfaces have loading, empty, and error states.
• <img> has alt; inputs have a <label> or aria-label; clickable behavior is on <button>/<a>.
• Touch targets are >=44x44px / 48x48dp at mobile widths; body text stays >=16px.

Commands

# --- color tokens ---
# hardcoded hex/rgb in components (should be tokens)
rg -n '#[0-9a-fA-F]{3,8}\b|rgba?\(' src/components src/app 2>/dev/null

# raw Tailwind color utilities used in place of semantic tokens
rg -n 'bg-(red|blue|green|gray|slate|zinc)-[0-9]{3}|text-(gray|slate)-[0-9]{3}' src

# rank the most-used literal colors (near-duplicate detection)
rg -oN '#[0-9a-fA-F]{6}' src | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20

# --- spacing ---
# arbitrary Tailwind spacing values off the scale
rg -n '\b[pm][trblxy]?-\[[0-9]+px\]|gap-\[[0-9]+px\]' src

# inline style overrides that bypass the system
rg -n 'style=\{\{' src

# --- typography ---
# count distinct font sizes (drift signal — expect <= ~6)
rg -oN 'text-(xs|sm|base|lg|xl|2xl|3xl|4xl|5xl)|font-size:\s*[0-9.]+(px|rem)' src | sort -u | wc -l

# distinct font-weights in use (expect a small, intentional set)
rg -oN 'font-(thin|light|normal|medium|semibold|bold|extrabold)|font-weight:\s*[0-9]+' src | sort | uniq -c

# --- states ---
# interactive elements vs how many declare hover/focus-visible
rg -c 'hover:|focus-visible:' src
rg -n '<button|<a |role="button"' src | wc -l

# focus removed without a focus-visible replacement (keyboard blocker)
rg -n 'outline:\s*none|outline-none' src | rg -v 'focus-visible'

# --- accessibility ---
# clickable divs that should be buttons
rg -n '<div[^>]*onClick' src

# images missing alt (quick a11y sweep)
rg -n '<img(?![^>]*\balt=)' src

# --- radius / shadow drift ---
# distinct border-radius values in use (expect <= 3)
rg -oN 'rounded-(sm|md|lg|xl|2xl|full|none)|border-radius:\s*[0-9.]+(px|rem)' src | sort | uniq -c

# distinct shadow utilities (elevation should be a small, ordered set)
rg -oN 'shadow-(sm|md|lg|xl|2xl|none|inner)' src | sort | uniq -c

# --- responsive / theme ---
# fixed pixel widths that may overflow on small screens
rg -n 'w-\[[0-9]{3,}px\]|width:\s*[0-9]{3,}px' src

# inputs with sub-16px font that trigger mobile auto-zoom
rg -n 'text-(xs|sm)\b' src/components | rg -i 'input|select|textarea'

# theme coverage: is dark mode a token swap or duplicated CSS?
rg -n 'dark:|prefers-color-scheme|data-theme' src | head

Common issues & anti-patterns

• Token defined, never used: colors.primary exists in the config but components write bg-blue-600 directly, so a palette change silently misses them.
• Orphan hover state: an element has cursor: pointer and an onClick but no visible hover or focus change — the affordance signal is absent.
• Focus killed for looks: outline: none applied globally with no :focus-visible replacement, leaving keyboard users with no visible focus position.
• Placeholder-as-label: an input whose only label is its placeholder — the label vanishes on input and is invisible to screen readers.
• Weight drift: some <h3> are font-semibold (600), others font-medium (500), with no rule, so the hierarchy reads inconsistently.
• Disabled that looks enabled: a disabled button at full opacity with no cursor: not-allowed, so users click it repeatedly.
• The 2px rounding error: padding: 22px instead of the scale's 24px, repeated with small variations across components until the grid feels chaotic.
• Mixed icon sizes: nav icons at 20px next to action icons at 16px and 24px, with no contextual rule, so the toolbar looks uneven.
• Near-duplicate grays: #6b7280 in one component and #64748b in another for the same muted text — visually similar, technically inconsistent, and impossible to theme.
• Color-only meaning: status conveyed solely by a red or green dot with no icon or label, which fails for color-blind users and screen readers.
• Inconsistent radius logic: inputs at rounded-sm, cards at rounded-md, modals at rounded-xl, and pills at rounded-full with no documented hierarchy, so the product reads as assembled from unrelated kits.

Required output

Return a structured report with:

1. System summary: where the tokens live (config or CSS variables), the scale base, and whether production code actually consumes them.
2. Findings by area: spacing, color, type, states, responsive, and a11y, each row as severity | component/file:line | issue | recommended token/value.
3. Accessibility blockers: contrast and keyboard-focus failures listed separately and explicitly, not buried among cosmetic nits.
4. Already-consistent areas: a short note on what is solid, so the report stays balanced.
5. Top three drift removers: the changes that would eliminate the most repeated violations, ordered by leverage.

Lead with systemic issues (a missing token, a repeated bad pattern, a global outline: none) over one-off nits.

Safety

• Review against the project's existing tokens and system; do not impose a new design language.
• Static and visual review only — do not refactor component APIs or rename props as a side effect.
• Keep recommendations token-based and minimal-diff; change one component at a time, since shared-token edits cascade to every consumer.
• Treat contrast and keyboard-focus issues as accessibility blockers, not optional polish.
• Do not modify shared token files without confirming every consuming component still renders correctly.
• Redact any secret-like values surfaced while reading config; describe key names only.

Completion criteria

Done means spacing, color, typography, interactive states, responsive behavior, and accessibility basics were each checked against the project's own system; every finding carries a severity and a concrete token/value fix with file:line; systemic issues are prioritized over isolated nits; accessibility blockers are called out separately from cosmetic drift; and the report ends with the three highest-leverage changes.