UI Design Workflow

Follow this pipeline for any project involving UI. Steps 0, 1, 3, and everything under Best Practices need no external tooling. Step 2 is optional and depends on an MCP server you may not have installed.

Step 0: Structural Wireframing (ASCII First)

• Before any visual design, produce ASCII wireframes for each screen or layout.
• This forces structural thinking (hierarchy, sections, flow) before aesthetics.
• Present wireframes for approval before moving to the PRD.

Step 1: PRD Creation

• Write the design PRD before writing any UI code.
• Save it to wherever the project keeps planning docs, for example docs/design/prd-design.md.
• The PRD must include:
  • Page and screen inventory with clear names and purposes
  • Layout structure (grid, sections, hierarchy)
  • Component breakdown (buttons, forms, cards, navs, modals)
  • Color palette, typography, spacing system
  • Responsive behavior (breakpoints, mobile-first rules)
  • Interaction states (hover, active, disabled, loading, error, empty)
  • Accessibility requirements (contrast, aria, keyboard nav)
  • Data flow per screen (what data populates what)
• Format the PRD with tables, bullet lists, and clear headings. No ambiguity.

If you also have a dedicated design-direction skill installed (Anthropic's frontend-design plugin skill, or any house equivalent), invoke it here to set aesthetic direction before the PRD is written.

Step 2: Mockup Generation (optional, via Stitch MCP)

Skip this step entirely if you do not use Google Stitch. Hand-built HTML mockups or any other design tool substitute fine; the rest of the pipeline does not depend on it.

With the Stitch MCP server connected:

• Use generate_screen_from_text to generate mockup screens from the PRD, one screen per screen defined in the PRD.
• Use extract_design_context on a finished screen to pull design tokens (palette, fonts, layout patterns), then feed that context into the next generation so every screen matches.
• Use fetch_screen_code to retrieve the production HTML and CSS.

Stitch MCP setup

The server is the community stitch-mcp npm package. It talks to Google Stitch using your own Google Cloud credentials, so it is per-user setup, not per-project.

1. Create or pick a Google Cloud project and enable the Stitch API:

   gcloud auth login
   gcloud config set project YOUR_PROJECT_ID
   gcloud auth application-default set-quota-project YOUR_PROJECT_ID
   gcloud beta services mcp enable stitch.googleapis.com

2. Install application default credentials so the server can authenticate as you:

   gcloud auth application-default login

3. Register the server with Claude Code:

   claude mcp add stitch --scope user -e GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT=YOUR_PROJECT_ID -- npx -y stitch-mcp

   Or add the equivalent block by hand to your MCP config:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "stitch": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": ["-y", "stitch-mcp"],
         "env": { "GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT": "YOUR_PROJECT_ID" }
       }
     }
   }

Replace YOUR_PROJECT_ID with your own Google Cloud project ID. Never hardcode credentials into the config; the gcloud auth application-default login step is what supplies them.

Step 3: Integration

• Use the generated code and design context as the foundation for the project UI.
• Maintain consistency across all screens by referencing the extracted design tokens.
• Any deviation from the PRD must be noted and justified.

UI Best Practices

Use shadcn/ui Components, Never Invent Primitives

• Always use shadcn/ui components for buttons, dialogs, cards, inputs, selects, tabs, and similar primitives.
• Never create a custom primitive when a shadcn equivalent exists.
• Add components via CLI: npx shadcn@latest add button card dialog
• If the project has not initialized shadcn yet, run npx shadcn@latest init first.
• Setup details and the component catalog live at ui.shadcn.com.

Build and Reference Design Tokens

• Encode all colors, spacing, typography, radii, and shadows as CSS custom properties (design tokens).
• Store tokens in globals.css using the shadcn and Tailwind v4 pattern (--primary, --background, and so on).
• Reference tokens by name in prompts: "style this card using the --primary and --card tokens".
• Multiple themes become trivial once tokenized. Swap token values, nothing else.
• Use OKLCH color format for perceptual uniformity (the shadcn default).

Critique-Then-Redesign Pattern

Claude is better at redesigning than at designing from scratch. Follow this loop:

1. Build a first pass. It does not need to look great.
2. Run: "Critique the design of [component/page]. List every issue."
3. Run: "Redesign [component/page], fixing all critique items."
4. The critique gives Claude specific context for a much better second pass.

Visual Feedback Loop

• After generating UI code, render it in a real browser and look at the result. A browser automation MCP such as Playwright MCP (browser_snapshot, browser_take_screenshot) does this well; install it with claude mcp add playwright -- npx -y @playwright/mcp@latest.
• Compare rendered output against the PRD and the design tokens.
• Fix discrepancies in a tight build, check, fix loop.
• This closes the gap between "code that looks right" and "UI that actually looks right".

Feed Reference Screenshots

• When starting a new UI project, gather 2 to 5 screenshots of sites or apps whose design you admire.
• Ask Claude to break down each screenshot: layout, components, colors, typography, spacing.
• Cherry-pick the features you want and discard the rest.
• Feed the selected design features into the PRD and the design tokens.

Specify All Interaction States

Every interactive element must have these states defined explicitly:

• Default, the resting appearance
• Hover, cursor over
• Active/Pressed, during click or tap
• Focus, keyboard navigation
• Disabled, non-interactive
• Loading, async operation in progress
• Error, validation failure
• Empty, no data or zero state

Anti-Vibe-Code Checklist

Audit every screen against this list before shipping. These are the telltale signs of AI-generated UI.

Icons & Emojis

• Never use emojis as UI icons. They scream vibe-coded. Use Phosphor Icons (preferred), Lucide, or similar.
• Never use AI-selected decorative icons (colorful circles, gradient blobs). Use purposeful, monochrome interface icons.

Colors

• Never let AI choose colors. It always picks bright, clashing palettes.
• Introduce color through data visualizations (charts, sparklines), not through buttons and decorative icons.
• Muted, cohesive palettes with one dominant color plus one sharp accent.

Layout & Information Architecture

• Never let AI choose your layout. Human intervention gives the biggest ROI here.
• Eliminate redundant KPI cards. One instance per metric, maximum.
• Tighten sidebar spacing and left-align navigation items.
• Replace gradient profile avatar circles with proper account cards.
• Tuck secondary or rare links into popovers (click to reveal).
• Collapse busy action buttons into triple-dot overflow menus.
• Group related settings together (settings plus billing plus usage).

Forms & Modals

• If a form or flyout has few fields and lots of empty space, use a modal instead of a full page.
• Collapse advanced options by default. Show only core fields initially.
• Design layouts that let new features slot in easily. Tabs beat static sections.

Pricing Pages

• Maximum 3 to 4 pricing tiers. Five or more is confusing and screams AI-generated.
• Show actual discount amounts prominently, not just "save X%".
• Make price the largest text element, not the plan name.
• Follow proven SaaS pricing patterns (Resend, Supabase, Vercel).

Landing Pages

• Never ship a landing page with just text and generic icons. You need real graphics.
• Use actual product screenshots with perspective transforms (skew, rotation).
• Replace generic feature icons with cropped screenshots of the actual feature.

Low-Hanging Fruit

• Add data comparison toggles, for example splitting a chart into individual items.
• Add informational icons with color splashes in data rows.
• Replace boring bar charts with richer visualizations (maps, donut charts, sparklines).

Keep the Codebase Clean

• Messy code degrades Claude's ability to produce good UI suggestions.
• Before starting new UI work, audit existing code for inefficiencies and dead code.
• Fix structural issues first. Clean code leads to better emergent UI output.

HTML Style Guides as References

• For rapid style exploration, generate pure HTML single-file style guides with no build step.
• Use these as a visual library Claude can reference: "match the style from [guide name]".