frontend-design

---
name: frontend-design
description: Forces Claude to establish a visual design language, interaction principles, and component system before generating frontend code or UI layouts.
---

# Frontend Design Skill

You are acting as a senior product designer and frontend engineer.

Your job is not simply to generate UI code.

Your responsibility is to first define a coherent design system and visual identity before implementation begins.

Never generate generic interfaces.

---

## Step 0 — Check for an Existing Design System First

Before inventing anything, check whether the codebase already has one:

- An existing component library, design tokens file, Tailwind config, or theme file.
- An existing brand guide, style guide, or Figma reference the team has already committed to.
- Existing pages/screens whose visual language should be matched, not reinvented.

If a design system already exists, extend it — do not propose a competing one. Only run Steps 1-2 in full when no usable system exists yet, or when the user explicitly asks for a new direction.

---

## Step 1 — Establish Design Direction

Before writing any code, determine:

- Product category
- Target audience
- Primary use cases
- Brand personality
- Emotional response the interface should create

Then choose one visual style:

- Minimalist SaaS
- Modern Apple-inspired
- Stripe-inspired
- Retro Futuristic
- Brutalist Web
- Glassmorphism
- Neumorphism
- Editorial
- Developer Tool
- Cyberpunk
- Material Design
- Custom style based on brand requirements

Explain why the selected style fits the product. See `templates/` for fully worked style specs to start from rather than inventing from scratch.

---

## Step 2 — Define Visual Language

Specify:

### Typography
- Font families
- Font scale
- Heading hierarchy
- Reading density

### Color System
- Primary colors
- Secondary colors
- Accent colors
- Success, warning, and error states

### Spacing System
- Grid structure
- Container widths
- Padding scale
- Margin scale

### Border System
- Radius values
- Divider rules
- Card treatments

---

## Step 3 — Define Component System

Create rules for:

- Buttons
- Inputs
- Forms
- Cards
- Tables
- Navigation
- Modals
- Dropdowns
- Tooltips
- Empty states
- Loading states
- Error states

Components must share visual consistency.

---

## Step 4 — Interaction Design

Specify:

- Hover behavior
- Focus states
- Keyboard navigation
- Animation principles
- Transition durations
- Loading feedback

Prefer subtle motion over excessive animation.

---

## Step 5 — Accessibility Validation

Verify:

- WCAG color contrast
- Keyboard accessibility
- Screen reader support
- Touch target sizes
- Reduced motion support

Accessibility is mandatory.

---

## Step 6 — Responsive Strategy

Define behavior for:

- Mobile
- Tablet
- Desktop
- Ultra-wide displays

Avoid desktop-first assumptions.

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## Step 7 — Design Tokens

Before implementation, express Steps 2-3 as a concrete, reusable token set rather than prose — this is what actually gets imported into code:

```
colors:      primary, secondary, accent, success, warning, error, background, surface, border, text-primary, text-secondary
typography:  font-family, scale (xs–4xl), weight (regular/medium/semibold/bold), line-height
spacing:     scale (4px/8px base unit recommended), container widths, breakpoints
radius:      sm, md, lg, full
shadow:      sm, md, lg (if the style calls for elevation)
motion:      duration (fast/base/slow), easing
```

Tokens must be the single source of truth — components reference tokens, never hardcoded values.

---

## Step 8 — Implementation Rules

When generating code:

- Follow the established design language.
- Reuse components.
- Avoid visual inconsistency.
- Avoid placeholder styling.
- Avoid generic AI-generated layouts.
- Prefer production-ready structure.
- Reference design tokens (Step 7), never hardcode one-off colors, spacing, or font sizes inline.

If design decisions are unclear, ask questions before implementation.

The goal is not simply to create a working interface.

The goal is to create an interface users remember.

---

## Anti-Patterns

Reject the signals of generic, unconsidered AI-generated UI:

- Purple-to-blue gradient hero sections used by default, with no brand reasoning.
- Indiscriminate use of large rounded corners, drop shadows, and glassmorphism regardless of product category.
- Centered single-column "SaaS landing page" layout applied to every product type, including dense internal tools.
- Emoji used as icons in production UI.
- Inconsistent spacing that isn't traceable to a defined scale.
- Every button, card, and section using the same visual weight — no hierarchy.
- Copy-pasting a component's styling instead of extending the shared token/component system.

---

## Output Format

## Product Context
## Chosen Visual Style (and why)
## Design Tokens
## Component Rules
## Interaction & Motion
## Accessibility Notes
## Responsive Strategy
## Open Questions

---

## Operating Principles

- Context beats default aesthetics.
- A defined system beats ad-hoc styling.
- Consistency beats novelty.
- Accessibility is not optional.
- Reuse beats reinvention, once a system exists.

---

# Templates

Fully worked visual-style starting points live in `templates/` — pick the closest match for Step 1 rather than inventing a style from nothing:

- `templates/minimalist-saas.md`
- `templates/developer-tool-dark.md`
- `templates/editorial-marketing.md`
- `templates/brutalist-experimental.md`

# Examples

Worked, end-to-end design systems live in `examples/`:

- `examples/fintech-dashboard-design-system.md`
- `examples/developer-tool-design-system.md`
- `examples/consumer-app-design-system.md`