design-engineering

Name: design-engineering
Author: softspark

161stars21forks

How to install design-engineering?

softspark/ai-toolkit/design-engineering

$npx -y skills add softspark/ai-toolkit --skill design-engineering

Installs into the current project.

Summary

UI craftsmanship: animation rules, easing, micro-interactions, state polish. Triggers: animation, transition, ease-out, motion, micro-interaction, hover, loading state, UI polish.

Files · 1

View on GitHub

SKILL.md

1	# Design Engineering Skill
2
3	Based on Emil Kowalski's design engineering philosophy — UI polish, component craftsmanship, and the compound value of invisible details.
4
5	## Core Principles
6
7	- Taste is trainable. Develops through studying exceptional work, reverse-engineering animations, and intentional practice.
8	- Invisible details create love. Most UI refinements users never consciously register — but combined they produce something stunning.
9	- Beauty differentiates. When functionality is table stakes, aesthetic excellence becomes genuine leverage.
10
11	## Anti-Slop Visual Checklist
12
13	Defaults that signal machine-generated UI. Each is a falsifiable thing to avoid:
14
15	- Avoid full-bleed saturated gradient backgrounds (purple-to-pink hero washes). A flat surface or a near-flat tonal shift reads as intentional; a loud gradient reads as a template.
16	- Avoid emoji as load-bearing decoration — emoji standing in for icons, bullet markers, or section badges. Use a real icon set or typographic hierarchy instead.
17	- Avoid the rounded-card-with-left-accent-border cliche repeated across every block. If three sections share that exact treatment, vary the layout or drop the accent.
18	- Avoid hand-drawn fake imagery in SVG (synthetic "photos", invented logos, faux screenshots). Use a real asset or an honest labeled placeholder.
19	- Avoid the overused default font stack (Inter/Roboto on system-ui for everything with no scale or weight intent). Pick type with a reason and lift the actual stack from source when one exists.
20
21	## Minimum-Scale Floors
22
23	Accessibility-grounded hard thresholds. Going below these is a defect, not a style choice:
24
25	\| Context \| Floor \| Basis \|
26	\|---\|---\|---\|
27	\| Slide / presentation body text \| ~24px \| Readable from the back of a room \|
28	\| Print body text \| ~12pt \| Legible at arm's length on paper \|
29	\| Mobile touch targets \| 44px × 44px \| Apple HIG minimum tappable size \|
30
31	Treat these as the lower bound, not the target. Captions and footnotes may approach the floor; primary content should sit comfortably above it.
32
33	## Context-First Discipline
34
35	High-fidelity work MUST be rooted in real context before any pixels are produced. This mirrors the toolkit's verify-don't-recall ethos:
36
37	- Read the source first. Inspect the codebase, design tokens, UI kit, and screenshots that already exist before generating anything.
38	- Lift exact values. Copy real hex codes, the spacing scale, the font stack, and radii straight from source. Do NOT reconstruct token values from memory — recalled values drift.
39	- Mock from scratch only as a last resort. Building a screen with no reference is the fallback when no codebase, kit, or screenshot exists, not the default.
40
41	## Question-Budget Gate
42
43	Calibrate questions to how bounded the ask is, then proceed:
44
45	- Rich context + bounded ask → ask nothing, build. Example: "match this card to the existing dashboard" with the repo in hand.
46	- Open ask → ask before building. Example: "prototype my onboarding" needs goals, target audience, and which dimension to diverge on (UX flow vs. visual treatment vs. copy). Resolve those three, then start.
47
48	## Explore Many Variations
49
50	For exploratory or open work, produce 3+ atomic variations across distinct axes, never three tweaks of one idea:
51
52	- Vary on different dimensions: layout, color, type treatment, interaction model.
53	- Deliberately mix safe matches with at least one novel direction — do not converge early.
54	- Order them basic → advanced so the reviewer can scan the gradient (the "Design It Twice" premise extended past two).
55
56	## Match Existing Vocabulary
57
58	When editing a live UI, conform to it instead of imposing a new style:
59
60	- Reverse-engineer the palette, interactive states (hover/active/disabled), motion timing, and shadow/card/density treatment.
61	- Match the copy tone too — terse product UI and chatty marketing copy are different vocabularies.
62	- A change that introduces a foreign style is a regression even when it looks good in isolation.
63
64	## No-Filler Content
65
66	- Every element earns its place. No dummy stats, decorative sections, or lorem blocks added just to fill space. If a block has no purpose, cut it.
67	- Honest placeholder beats a bad fake. A labeled placeholder ("[product screenshot]") is better than an invented icon or hand-drawn fake image. Do NOT fabricate assets — ask for the real ones.
68
69	## Animation Decision Framework
70
71	### Frequency determines approach
72
73	\| Usage Pattern \| Strategy \|
74	\|---\|---\|
75	\| 100+ daily \| No animation \|
76	\| Tens daily \| Drastically reduce \|
77	\| Occasional \| Standard animation \|
78	\| Rare/first-time \| Add delight \|
79
80	Never animate keyboard-initiated actions — they repeat hundreds of times daily, making

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design-engineering

161stars21forks

View on GitHub

How to install design-engineering?

softspark/ai-toolkit/design-engineering

$npx -y skills add softspark/ai-toolkit --skill design-engineering

Installs into the current project.

Summary

UI craftsmanship: animation rules, easing, micro-interactions, state polish. Triggers: animation, transition, ease-out, motion, micro-interaction, hover, loading state, UI polish.

Files · 1

View on GitHub

SKILL.md

1	# Design Engineering Skill
2
3	Based on Emil Kowalski's design engineering philosophy — UI polish, component craftsmanship, and the compound value of invisible details.
4
5	## Core Principles
6
7	- Taste is trainable. Develops through studying exceptional work, reverse-engineering animations, and intentional practice.
8	- Invisible details create love. Most UI refinements users never consciously register — but combined they produce something stunning.
9	- Beauty differentiates. When functionality is table stakes, aesthetic excellence becomes genuine leverage.
10
11	## Anti-Slop Visual Checklist
12
13	Defaults that signal machine-generated UI. Each is a falsifiable thing to avoid:
14
15	- Avoid full-bleed saturated gradient backgrounds (purple-to-pink hero washes). A flat surface or a near-flat tonal shift reads as intentional; a loud gradient reads as a template.
16	- Avoid emoji as load-bearing decoration — emoji standing in for icons, bullet markers, or section badges. Use a real icon set or typographic hierarchy instead.
17	- Avoid the rounded-card-with-left-accent-border cliche repeated across every block. If three sections share that exact treatment, vary the layout or drop the accent.
18	- Avoid hand-drawn fake imagery in SVG (synthetic "photos", invented logos, faux screenshots). Use a real asset or an honest labeled placeholder.
19	- Avoid the overused default font stack (Inter/Roboto on system-ui for everything with no scale or weight intent). Pick type with a reason and lift the actual stack from source when one exists.
20
21	## Minimum-Scale Floors
22
23	Accessibility-grounded hard thresholds. Going below these is a defect, not a style choice:
24
25	\| Context \| Floor \| Basis \|
26	\|---\|---\|---\|
27	\| Slide / presentation body text \| ~24px \| Readable from the back of a room \|
28	\| Print body text \| ~12pt \| Legible at arm's length on paper \|
29	\| Mobile touch targets \| 44px × 44px \| Apple HIG minimum tappable size \|
30
31	Treat these as the lower bound, not the target. Captions and footnotes may approach the floor; primary content should sit comfortably above it.
32
33	## Context-First Discipline
34
35	High-fidelity work MUST be rooted in real context before any pixels are produced. This mirrors the toolkit's verify-don't-recall ethos:
36
37	- Read the source first. Inspect the codebase, design tokens, UI kit, and screenshots that already exist before generating anything.
38	- Lift exact values. Copy real hex codes, the spacing scale, the font stack, and radii straight from source. Do NOT reconstruct token values from memory — recalled values drift.
39	- Mock from scratch only as a last resort. Building a screen with no reference is the fallback when no codebase, kit, or screenshot exists, not the default.
40
41	## Question-Budget Gate
42
43	Calibrate questions to how bounded the ask is, then proceed:
44
45	- Rich context + bounded ask → ask nothing, build. Example: "match this card to the existing dashboard" with the repo in hand.
46	- Open ask → ask before building. Example: "prototype my onboarding" needs goals, target audience, and which dimension to diverge on (UX flow vs. visual treatment vs. copy). Resolve those three, then start.
47
48	## Explore Many Variations
49
50	For exploratory or open work, produce 3+ atomic variations across distinct axes, never three tweaks of one idea:
51
52	- Vary on different dimensions: layout, color, type treatment, interaction model.
53	- Deliberately mix safe matches with at least one novel direction — do not converge early.
54	- Order them basic → advanced so the reviewer can scan the gradient (the "Design It Twice" premise extended past two).
55
56	## Match Existing Vocabulary
57
58	When editing a live UI, conform to it instead of imposing a new style:
59
60	- Reverse-engineer the palette, interactive states (hover/active/disabled), motion timing, and shadow/card/density treatment.
61	- Match the copy tone too — terse product UI and chatty marketing copy are different vocabularies.
62	- A change that introduces a foreign style is a regression even when it looks good in isolation.
63
64	## No-Filler Content
65
66	- Every element earns its place. No dummy stats, decorative sections, or lorem blocks added just to fill space. If a block has no purpose, cut it.
67	- Honest placeholder beats a bad fake. A labeled placeholder ("[product screenshot]") is better than an invented icon or hand-drawn fake image. Do NOT fabricate assets — ask for the real ones.
68
69	## Animation Decision Framework
70
71	### Frequency determines approach
72
73	\| Usage Pattern \| Strategy \|
74	\|---\|---\|
75	\| 100+ daily \| No animation \|
76	\| Tens daily \| Drastically reduce \|
77	\| Occasional \| Standard animation \|
78	\| Rare/first-time \| Add delight \|
79
80	Never animate keyboard-initiated actions — they repeat hundreds of times daily, making

People who liked this also viewed

6 picks

Type