Design

Kitcn Design

Design from the live subject, data, and interaction. A polished shell around fake states is not done.

Read First

1. VISION.md and the named product/API source.
2. The live route and its data contract.
3. www/app/global.css, www/components/ui/**, and nearby documentation UI.
4. example/src/app/globals.css, example/src/components/ui/**, and the matching example feature.
5. Existing loading, empty, error, permission, and mutation states.

Treat live tokens and components as the palette. Do not introduce an isolated design language in a feature file.

Tokens And Primitives

• Use semantic color, spacing, radius, type, and motion tokens.
• Extend the token owner when a reusable need is real; do not hide raw values behind one-off aliases.
• Prefer existing shadcn-derived primitives and composition patterns.
• Change primitive behavior only when every consumer benefits.
• Keep docs and example variants consistent when they express the same product concept, while preserving their distinct runtime ownership.

Subject And Hierarchy

Start with the user's decision:

• What is the primary object or action?
• Which facts change the decision?
• What is supporting context?
• What is optional detail?

One view gets one dominant hierarchy. Remove competing cards, repeated labels, and decorative metadata that do not improve comprehension.

Honest States

Design every state before declaring the happy path complete:

• initial/loading and background refresh;
• empty versus filtered-empty;
• missing setup or permission;
• inline validation and server rejection;
• mutation pending, success, partial failure, and retry;
• stale or unavailable external data;
• destructive confirmation and irreversible completion.

Do not render zero as missing, missing as zero, or inferred data as confirmed. Label samples and previews. Preserve the user's input after failure.

Accessibility

• Use semantic elements before ARIA.
• Give controls visible labels or accessible names.
• Keep keyboard order aligned with visual order.
• Provide focus visibility, escape behavior, and focus restoration for overlays.
• Announce important async success/error changes without noisy repetition.
• Do not encode status only by color.
• Respect reduced motion and usable target sizes.

Copy And Formatting

• Use product language already established in docs and examples.
• Prefer direct verbs and concrete nouns.
• Explain consequences before destructive or expensive actions.
• Format dates, numbers, identifiers, and durations from typed values with the intended locale/timezone; do not pre-format them in the data layer.
• Empty copy should say what is absent and the useful next action.

Motion

Motion explains state change. Keep it short, interruptible, and restrained. Never delay the user's next action for decoration. Skeletons should preserve layout; spinners belong to bounded operations.

Process

1. Inspect the running surface and representative data.
2. Write the state and interaction matrix.
3. Reuse or adjust live tokens/primitives.
4. Implement the smallest coherent component ownership.
5. Test responsive, keyboard, reduced-motion, loading, empty, error, and permission states.
6. Use Browser for route/DOM/responsive/screenshot proof. Use Chrome or Computer only when native browser/OS behavior requires it.
7. Run focused tests and React review rules, then autoreview.

Definition Of Done

• The real subject and primary action are obvious.
• All states are honest and actionable.
• Tokens and primitives have clear owners.
• Keyboard, focus, names, contrast, and motion are proven.
• No fake data or silent permission assumption is needed for the screenshot.
• Browser evidence covers the route and relevant breakpoints.
• Docs/example source ownership remains correct.