Design Spec

[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 ask user whether to skip.

Quick Summary

Goal: Create structured UI/UX design specification documents from requirements or PBIs for developer handoff.

Workflow:

1. Read Source — Extract UI requirements from PBI, story, or Figma URL
2. Determine Complexity — Quick Spec (sections 1-4) vs Full Spec (all 7 sections)
3. Build Component Inventory — List new vs existing components
4. Define States & Tokens — Interactions, design tokens, responsive breakpoints
5. Save Artifact — Output to team-artifacts/design-specs/

Key Rules:

• If Figma URL provided → auto-routes to /figma-design for context extraction
• If wireframe image provided → auto-routes to /wireframe-to-spec for structured analysis
• If screenshot provided → uses ai-multimodal for design extraction
• Reference existing design system tokens from docs/project-reference/design-system/
• Component patterns: docs/project-reference/frontend-patterns-reference.md
• Include accessibility requirements (keyboard nav, ARIA labels, contrast)

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

Design Specification

Create structured UI/UX design specification documents from requirements or PBIs for developer handoff.

When to Use

• A PBI or user story needs a design spec before implementation
• Translating requirements into concrete UI layout, states, and tokens
• Documenting component inventory and interaction patterns
• Creating responsive breakpoint specifications

When NOT to Use

• This skill auto-routes Figma URLs to /figma-design and wireframes to /wireframe-to-spec — no need to call those skills separately
• Building the actual UI -- use frontend-design
• Full UX research and design process -- use ux-designer
• Reviewing existing UI code -- use web-design-guidelines

Prerequisites

Read before executing:

• The source PBI, user story, or requirements document
• docs/project-reference/design-system/ -- project design tokens (if applicable)
• Existing design specs in team-artifacts/design-specs/ for format consistency

Frontend/UI Context

When this task involves frontend or UI changes, MUST READ .claude/skills/shared/ui-system-context.md and the following docs:

• Frontend patterns: docs/project-reference/frontend-patterns-reference.md
• Styling/BEM guide: docs/project-reference/scss-styling-guide.md
• Design system tokens: docs/project-reference/design-system/README.md

Workflow

1. Read source input & route by type

   Input Detected	Detection	Action
   Figma URL	figma.com/design or figma.com/file in text	Activate /figma-design to extract context, then continue
   Image/screenshot	Image file attached to prompt	Use ai-multimodal to extract design guidelines, then continue
   Hand-drawn wireframe	Image + "wireframe"/"sketch" keyword	Activate /wireframe-to-spec to generate structured spec, then continue
   PBI/story text	Acceptance criteria present	Extract UI requirements from text, continue
   Verbal/text requirements	No image, no URL, no PBI	Clarify with user, then continue

   For ANY visual input: extract design context FIRST, then proceed to spec generation.

2. Determine spec complexity

   IF single form or simple component → Quick Spec (sections 1-4 only)
   IF full page or multi-component view → Full Spec (all 7 sections)
   IF multi-page flow → Full Spec + Flow Diagram
   

3. Build component inventory

   • List all UI components needed
   • Identify reusable vs feature-specific components
   • Note existing components from shared component library or design system

4. Define states and interactions

   • Default, hover, active, disabled, error, loading, empty states
   • User interactions (click, drag, keyboard shortcuts)
   • Transitions and animations

5. Extract design tokens

   • Colors, typography, spacing, shadows, border-radius
   • Reference existing design system tokens where possible

6. Document responsive behavior

   • Mobile (320-767px), Tablet (768-1023px), Desktop (1024px+)
   • What changes at each breakpoint (layout, visibility, sizing)

7. Save artifact

   • Path: team-artifacts/design-specs/{YYMMDD}-designspec-{feature-slug}.md

Output Format

# Design Spec: {Feature Name}

**Source:** {PBI/story reference}
**Date:** {YYMMDD}
**Status:** Draft | Review | Approved

## 1. Overview

{1-2 sentence summary of what this UI does}

## 2. Component Inventory

| Component | Type     | Source           | Notes                       |
| --------- | -------- | ---------------- | --------------------------- |
| UserCard  | New      | Feature-specific | Displays user avatar + name |
| DataTable | Existing | shared library   | Reuse with custom columns   |

## 3. Layout

{Description or ASCII wireframe of layout structure}

- Desktop: {layout description}
- Tablet: {layout changes}
- Mobile: {layout changes}

## 4. Design Tokens

| Token      | Value          | Usage                 |
| ---------- | -------------- | --------------------- |
| $primary   | #1976D2        | Action buttons, links |
| $text-body | 14px/1.5 Inter | Body text             |
| $gap-md    | 16px           | Section spacing       |

## 5. States & Interactions

| Element  | Default    | Hover      | Active     | Disabled         | Error |
| -------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------------- | ----- |
| Save btn | Blue/white | Darken 10% | Scale 0.98 | Gray/50% opacity | --    |

## 6. Accessibility

- Keyboard navigation order
- ARIA labels for interactive elements
- Color contrast compliance notes

## 7. Open Questions

- {Any unresolved design decisions}

Examples

Example 1: Simple form spec

Input: "Design spec for employee onboarding form"

Output: Quick Spec with sections 1-4 covering form fields (name, email, department dropdown, start date picker), validation rules, submit/cancel actions, and mobile stacking behavior.

Example 2: Complex dashboard spec

Input: "Design spec for recruitment pipeline dashboard with drag-and-drop columns"

Output: Full Spec covering Kanban board layout, candidate cards (component inventory), drag-and-drop interactions, column states (empty, populated, over-limit), filter bar, responsive collapse to list view on mobile, and accessibility for keyboard drag operations.

Related Skills

IMPORTANT Task Planning Notes (MUST FOLLOW)

• Always plan and break work into many small todo tasks
• Always add a final review todo task to verify work quality and identify fixes/enhancements

Workflow Recommendation

IMPORTANT MUST: If you are NOT already in a workflow, use AskUserQuestion to ask the user:

1. Activate design-workflow workflow (Recommended) — design-spec → code-review
2. Execute /design-spec directly — run this skill standalone