Design Language System

Design Language System Skill

This skill documents the professional colour scheme and design tokens for SG Cars Trends, optimised for automotive data visualisation (GitHub Issue #406).

When to Use This Skill

• Styling new components with the brand colour palette
• Implementing chart colours for data visualisation
• Ensuring colour consistency across the application
• Migrating arbitrary hex colours to design tokens
• Reviewing colour usage in code reviews

Colour Philosophy

Never use arbitrary hex colours in components. Always use:

1. CSS variables (var(--chart-1), var(--primary))
2. HeroUI semantic classes (text-foreground, bg-primary, text-default-500)
3. Tailwind colour classes mapped to CSS variables (text-primary, bg-muted)

Brand Colour Palette

CSS Variables

Core Semantic Variables

Defined in apps/web/src/app/globals.css:

:root {
  /* Primary - Navy Blue */
  --primary: hsl(240 63% 27%); /* #191970 */
  --primary-foreground: hsl(0 0% 100%);

  /* Secondary - Slate Gray */
  --secondary: hsl(210 13% 50%); /* #708090 */
  --secondary-foreground: hsl(0 0% 100%);

  /* Foreground - Blue-Gray */
  --foreground: hsl(220 15% 20%);
  --background: hsl(0 0% 100%);

  /* Muted - Light Blue-Gray */
  --muted: hsl(213 32% 95%); /* #F0F4F8 */
  --muted-foreground: hsl(220 15% 20%);

  /* Accent - Steel Blue */
  --accent: hsl(220 40% 49%); /* #4A6AAE */
  --accent-foreground: hsl(0 0% 100%);

  /* Success - Green */
  --success: hsl(142 71% 45%); /* #22C55E */
  --success-foreground: hsl(0 0% 100%);

  /* Destructive - Red */
  --destructive: hsl(0 72% 51%); /* #DC2626 */
  --destructive-foreground: hsl(0 0% 100%);

  /* Border */
  --border: hsl(214 32% 91%); /* #E2E8F0 */
}

Chart Colour Variables

Navy Blue gradient palette for data visualisation:

:root {
  --chart-1: hsl(240 64% 27%);  /* Navy Blue - Primary/Top ranking */
  --chart-2: hsl(220 51% 37%);  /* Medium Blue - Second ranking */
  --chart-3: hsl(220 41% 49%);  /* Light Blue - Third ranking */
  --chart-4: hsl(210 14% 53%);  /* Slate Gray - Fourth ranking */
  --chart-5: hsl(215 23% 65%);  /* Light Slate - Fifth ranking */
  --chart-6: hsl(212 17% 76%);  /* Pale Slate - Sixth ranking */
}

Usage Patterns

Text Colours

// ✅ Good - Use semantic classes
<span className="text-foreground">Primary body text</span>
<span className="text-default-600">Secondary text</span>
<span className="text-default-500">Muted/helper text</span>
<span className="text-muted-foreground">Captions, metadata</span>
<span className="text-primary">Brand emphasis</span>

// ❌ Bad - Hardcoded colours
<span className="text-[#2F4F4F]">Body text</span>
<span style={{ color: "#708090" }}>Helper text</span>

Background Colours

// ✅ Good - Use semantic classes
<div className="bg-primary text-primary-foreground">Primary action</div>
<div className="bg-content1">Card/panel background</div>
<div className="bg-default-100">Subtle background</div>
<div className="bg-default-200">Hover state</div>

// ❌ Bad - Hardcoded colours
<div className="bg-[#191970]">Navy background</div>
<div className="bg-white">Not theme-adaptive</div>

Chart Colours

// ✅ Good - Use CSS variables
<div style={{ backgroundColor: `var(--chart-${index + 1})` }} />
<div className="bg-[var(--chart-1)]" />

// For bar charts with multiple series
{data.map((item, i) => (
  <Bar
    key={item.name}
    style={{ fill: `var(--chart-${i + 1})` }}
  />
))}

// For single-highlight charts
<Bar
  className={isHighlighted ? "fill-[var(--chart-1)]" : "fill-default-200"}
/>

// ❌ Bad - Hardcoded hex colours
<div style={{ backgroundColor: "#191970" }} />
<Bar fill="#708090" />

Interactive States

// ✅ Good - Use semantic classes for states
<button className="bg-primary text-primary-foreground hover:bg-primary/90">
  Primary Button
</button>

<Link className="text-default-500 hover:bg-default-100">
  Navigation Item
</Link>

// Active/selected states
<Tab className={isActive ? "bg-primary text-primary-foreground" : "text-default-500"}>
  Tab Label
</Tab>

// ❌ Bad - Hardcoded state colours
<button className="bg-[#191970] hover:bg-[#14145A]">Button</button>

Chart Implementation Guidelines

Maximum Series Count

Limit charts to 6 series maximum to match the available --chart-1 through --chart-6 variables:

// ✅ Good - Within 6 series limit
{data.slice(0, 5).map((item, i) => (
  <Bar style={{ fill: `var(--chart-${i + 1})` }} />
))}

// No modulo needed when series count is controlled
colour: `var(--chart-${index + 1})`

// ❌ Bad - Modulo for unlimited series (indicates design problem)
colour: `var(--chart-${(index % 6) + 1})`

Single-Highlight Pattern

For charts where one element is emphasised:

// Latest year highlighted, others muted
{data.map((item, i, arr) => {
  const isLatest = i === arr.length - 1;
  return (
    <div
      className={isLatest ? "bg-[var(--chart-1)]" : "bg-default-200 hover:bg-default-300"}
    />
  );
})}

Recharts Implementation

import { Cell, Pie, PieChart } from "recharts";

// Use CSS variables for fill colours
<Pie data={chartData} dataKey="value">
  {chartData.map((entry, index) => (
    <Cell
      key={`cell-${entry.name}`}
      fill={entry.fill}  // fill comes from data with var(--chart-N)
    />
  ))}
</Pie>

Data Preparation

// Prepare chart data with CSS variable colours
const chartData = data.map((item, index) => ({
  name: item.name,
  value: item.count,
  fill: `var(--chart-${index + 1})`,
}));

HeroUI Theme Integration

The colour system is integrated with HeroUI via apps/web/src/app/hero.ts:

import { heroui } from "@heroui/react";

export default heroui({
  themes: {
    light: {
      colors: {
        primary: {
          DEFAULT: "#191970",  // Navy Blue
          foreground: "#FFFFFF",
        },
        secondary: {
          DEFAULT: "#708090",  // Slate Gray
          foreground: "#FFFFFF",
        },
        success: {
          DEFAULT: "#008B8B",  // Dark Cyan
          foreground: "#FFFFFF",
        },
        foreground: "#2F4F4F",  // Dark Slate Gray
        // ... default scale for grays
      },
    },
  },
});

HeroUI Default Scale

Use the default scale for UI element states:

Dark Mode

Dark CSS variables are fully defined in apps/web/src/app/globals.css (.dark block) and packages/ui/src/styles/globals.css. Dark mode activation is deferred until after HeroUI v3 migration (#714, blocked by #587).

Dark mode readiness guidelines:

• Use bg-content1 instead of bg-white for card/panel backgrounds (HeroUI semantic, theme-adaptive)
• Use bg-background for page-level backgrounds (already in use)
• All CSS variable-based colours (--primary, --chart-N, etc.) automatically adapt to dark mode
• shadcn/ui and HeroUI components using semantic classes already support dark mode

Migration Checklist

When migrating existing code to the design system:

• Replace hardcoded hex colours with CSS variables or semantic classes
• Remove colour constant arrays (e.g., CHART_COLORS, MARKET_SHARE_COLOURS)
• Use var(--chart-N) inline for chart colours
• Replace text-gray-* with text-default-*
• Replace bg-gray-* with bg-default-*
• Replace bg-white with bg-content1 for card/panel backgrounds
• Ensure chart series count is 6 or fewer
• Remove modulo operations if series count is controlled
• Use text-foreground instead of text-gray-900 for body text

Anti-Patterns

Colour Constant Arrays

// ❌ Bad - Don't create colour arrays
const CHART_COLORS = ["#191970", "#2E4A8E", "#4A6AAE", "#708090"];
// ...later
backgroundColor: CHART_COLORS[i % CHART_COLORS.length]

// ✅ Good - Use CSS variables inline
backgroundColor: `var(--chart-${i + 1})`

Hardcoded Hex Values

// ❌ Bad - Hardcoded hex
<div className="text-[#2F4F4F]">Text</div>
<div style={{ backgroundColor: "#191970" }}>Box</div>

// ✅ Good - Semantic tokens
<div className="text-foreground">Text</div>
<div className="bg-primary">Box</div>

Arbitrary Gray Classes

// ❌ Bad - Tailwind gray scale
<span className="text-gray-600">Helper text</span>
<div className="bg-gray-100">Background</div>

// ✅ Good - HeroUI default scale
<span className="text-default-600">Helper text</span>
<div className="bg-default-100">Background</div>

Exceptions

OpenGraph Images

OG images require inline styles and cannot use CSS variables:

// apps/web/src/app/*/opengraph-image.tsx
// Inline hex colours are acceptable here
<div style={{ backgroundColor: "#191970" }}>

Theme Configuration

The hero.ts theme config uses hex values to define the source of truth:

// apps/web/src/app/hero.ts
primary: {
  DEFAULT: "#191970",  // This defines the --primary variable
}

Related Files

• apps/web/src/app/globals.css - CSS variable definitions
• apps/web/src/app/hero.ts - HeroUI theme configuration
• apps/web/CLAUDE.md - Colour System section
• packages/ui/src/styles/globals.css - Shared UI package styles

Accessibility (WCAG AA)

• Normal text: Minimum 4.5:1 contrast ratio
• Large text: Minimum 3:1 contrast ratio
• Interactive elements: Minimum 3:1 for focus indicators
• Colour alone must not convey information (use icons, text, patterns)

The Navy Blue primary (#191970) on white background meets WCAG AAA contrast requirements.

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