Design Audit

Design Audit — Kill the Defaults

Find where component library defaults leak through your brand. Fix them.

When to Use

• "This looks like shadcn out of the box"
• "Some buttons are black, some are blue, some are green"
• "The cards feel generic"
• After a sprint of feature work (consistency drifts)
• Before launch / client review

Process

1. Extract Brand DNA (5 min)

Before auditing, know what the brand actually is. Check existing files:

# Find brand colors already in use
rg "#[0-9a-fA-F]{6}" src/ --type css --type tsx -o | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20
rg "bg-\[#" src/ --type tsx -o | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -10

# Find the accent color (most-used non-gray hex)
rg "bg-\[#|text-\[#|border-\[#" src/ -o | grep -v "gray\|white\|black" | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -5

# Check tailwind config for custom colors
cat tailwind.config.* 2>/dev/null | grep -A5 "colors"

Result: one accent color, one secondary, warm vs cool palette.

2. Screenshot Sweep (ABP)

Systematic screenshots of every page/section. Use browser automation:

B=~/.pi/agent/skills/browser-testing/browser.js

# Per page: top + scroll to each section
$B nav "$URL" --port 8222
$B wait 4000 --port 8222
$B screenshot --port 8222 --markup none

# Scroll through in chunks
for dy in 1500 3000 4500 6000; do
  $B scroll 640 400 --dy $dy --port 8222
  $B wait 300 --port 8222
  $B screenshot --port 8222 --markup none
done

For batch (many pages):

for page in $PAGES; do
  $B nav "$BASE/$page" --port 8222
  $B wait 4000 --port 8222
  $B screenshot --port 8222 --markup none --format png
  # save with page name
done

3. Identify Leaks

Look for these 7 common leaks in screenshots:

Leak 1: Black Buttons (most common)

Symptom: bg-gray-900 / bg-black CTA buttons when brand has a color. shadcn Button default is dark. Devs never override it.

Fix: Replace with brand accent. All primary CTAs = one color.

bg-gray-900 → bg-[#BRAND]
hover:bg-gray-800 → hover:bg-[#BRAND_DARK]

Leak 2: Pill Tabs vs Everything Else

Symptom: Navigation tabs are heavy black pills (bg-gray-900 text-white rounded-full) but the rest of the page is light and airy.

Fix: Underline tabs are lighter. Reserve pills for filters/toggles.

# Heavy pill (before)
bg-gray-900 text-white rounded-full

# Light underline (after)
border-b-2 border-[#BRAND] text-gray-900

Leak 3: Plain Cards Without Identity

Symptom: Grid of cards where each card is just border border-gray-100 rounded-xl p-4 + bold title + body text. No icons, no color differentiation. Could be any website.

Fix: Add per-category visual identity:

• Colored icon in a tinted circle (bg-blue-50 + text-blue-500)
• Subtle tinted border/bg per category
• Different icon per card, not same generic one

Leak 4: Generic Placeholder Icons

Symptom: Hotel/building/file icons where content-specific icons should be. <Hotel className="w-4 h-4 text-gray-500" /> for every hotel regardless of tier.

Fix: Star-tier colors, category-specific icons, or just remove the icon if it adds nothing.

Leak 5: Centered All-Caps Labels

Symptom: text-center uppercase tracking-wider text-gray-400 on cards. Classic Bootstrap pricing table pattern.

Fix: Left-align. Use colored dots or accent-colored labels instead of gray caps.

# Bootstrap-y (before)
<span className="text-center uppercase text-gray-400">BUDGET</span>
<div className="text-2xl font-bold text-center">$25-40</div>

# Branded (after)
<div className="flex items-center gap-2">
  <div className="w-1.5 h-1.5 rounded-full bg-emerald-400" />
  <span className="text-emerald-600 text-xs uppercase font-semibold">Budget</span>
</div>
<div className="text-2xl font-bold">$25-40</div>

Leak 6: Mixed Accent Colors

Symptom: CTA #1 is bg-emerald-600, CTA #2 is bg-gray-900, CTA #3 is bg-blue-600. Three competing accent colors = no brand identity.

Fix: One primary accent for all CTAs. Secondary actions get ghost/outline style.

Primary: bg-[#BRAND] text-white
Secondary: bg-white text-[#BRAND] border border-[#BRAND]
Tertiary: text-[#BRAND] (text link)
Ghost: bg-white/15 text-white (on dark backgrounds)

Leak 7: Shadow/Radius Inconsistency

Symptom: Some cards rounded-lg, some rounded-xl, some rounded-2xl. Some with shadow-sm, some with shadow-lg, some with none.

Fix: Pick one radius for cards, one for buttons, one for pills. Document it.

4. Fix Pattern

For each leak found:

1. Search for all instances — don't fix one button and leave 6 others

grep -rn "bg-gray-900" src/pages/ src/common/ --include="*.tsx" | grep -v "//\|bg-gray-900 text-white p-4" # exclude content blocks

2. sed for mechanical replacements — when pattern is exact

sed -i '' 's/bg-gray-900 hover:bg-gray-800/bg-[#FF611E] hover:bg-[#e8561a]/g' src/pages/guide/\[code\].tsx

3. Before/after screenshots — always visual proof

# Comparison image (ImageMagick)
magick before.png after.png \
  \( -clone 0 -resize 640x -splice 0x30 -annotate +10+20 "BEFORE" \) \
  \( -clone 1 -resize 640x -splice 0x30 -annotate +10+20 "AFTER" \) \
  -delete 0,1 +append comparison.png

4. Type-check after changes

npx tsc --noEmit

5. Document Brand Rules

After fixing, add to project's AGENTS.md or a brand.md:

## Brand / UI Rules
- **Accent**: #XXXX (all primary CTAs, active states, icons on hero)
- **Active tab**: underline `border-b-2 border-[#XXXX]`, not black pill
- **Cards**: colored icon per category in tinted circle
- **CTA hierarchy**: accent bg primary → white/ghost secondary → text link tertiary
- **Never**: bg-gray-900 for interactive elements (only for content blocks)
- **Radius**: xl for cards, lg for buttons, full for pills/badges
- **Shadows**: sm for cards, lg for floating elements, orange-glow for primary CTA

This prevents drift in future sessions.

Checklist

Quick scan — rate each 1-5 for "how default does this look":

• Primary CTA button — uses brand color?
• Navigation tabs — match page weight?
• Card grids — have per-item visual identity?
• Icons — content-specific or generic placeholders?
• Labels — left-aligned and branded or centered gray caps?
• Accent colors — one primary or competing?
• Radius/shadow — consistent across components?
• Hover states — branded or just hover:bg-gray-100?
• Empty states — designed or just "No data"?
• Loading states — branded spinner or generic?

Score < 30 = needs audit. Score > 40 = probably fine.

Anti-Patterns

Don't:

• Replace ALL gray with accent color (over-branding)
• Make every element colorful (visual noise)
• Add animations to fix design problems
• Use gradients to hide flat design

Do:

• One accent, used consistently
• Secondary elements stay neutral
• Color = meaning (categories, tiers, status)
• White space > decoration