UX/UI Design Assessment

Produce an evidence-based UX/UI document for a project — either by auditing an existing interface or by designing the UX/UI for a new one. The methodology is the ten-topic UX/UI body of knowledge in references/ux-ui-knowledge.md.

This skill documents and plans. It does not implement UI code — that is the job of the companion ui-design-engineering skill.

Choose The Mode

• Audit mode — evaluate an existing project's interface against the ten UX/UI dimensions; produce a report file describing how the project's UX/UI currently is.
• Design mode — design the UX/UI for a new (or redesigned) product; produce a design document.

If unsure, ask the user one question: "Is there an existing interface to evaluate (Audit), or are we designing UX/UI for something new (Design)?"

Knowledge Base (read on demand)

• references/ux-ui-knowledge.md — the ten topics: UX/UI foundations, Design Thinking, user research (persona/empathy map/affinity), information architecture, wireframe/mockup/prototype, visual hierarchy, color and typography, responsive design, moodboard, usability testing.
• references/audit-rubric.md — Audit mode: ten-dimension rubric, severity scale, evidence rules.
• references/design-workflow.md — Design mode: the 7-step loop and sub-templates (persona card, empathy map, problem statement, user flow, wireframe checklist, moodboard).
• references/external-techniques.md and references/credits.md — what was adapted from external skills (design-lab, ui-ux-pro-max, improve-ui, rams, web-design-guidelines).

Audit Mode Workflow

1. Inspect the project — read the framework, routes, components, design tokens, and any DESIGN.md. Open the real pages in a browser when possible.
2. Identify user and task — name the primary user, their immediate goal, the environment, and how often the workflow runs.
3. Evaluate against the ten dimensions — for each, find evidence and apply the rubric. Never guess; every candidate must pass the three-part proof gate (contract + runtime + correction) and survive falsification.
4. Rate and prioritize — assign a rating (Strong/Adequate/Weak/Missing/N/A) and a severity (P0-P3) to each finding. If nothing survives falsification for a dimension, write "No supported findings".
5. Write the report — fill templates/UX-UI-ASSESSMENT.md: overall summary, dimension table, findings by severity, responsive/accessibility/usability sections, prioritized fix list.

Design Mode Workflow

Follow references/design-workflow.md for the full loop. Summary:

1. Empathize — interview with open-ended questions (never leading).
2. Define — write a problem statement and top pain points.
3. Ideate — generate meaningfully distinct variants.
4. Information architecture + wireframe plan — sitemap, user flow, taxonomy, wireframe structure before any styling.
5. Visual design — color, typography (max 2 fonts), hierarchy, moodboard.
6. Prototype + usability test plan — clickable flow, full component states, open-ended test tasks.
7. Finalize — write templates/UX-UI-DESIGN-DOC.md.

Output Files

• Audit mode -> UX-UI-ASSESSMENT.md (place at repo root or under docs/; do not overwrite existing project files unless asked).
• Design mode -> UX-UI-DESIGN-DOC.md.

Companion Skill

After Audit mode, the prioritized fix list is handed to ui-design-engineering, which implements and browser-validates the changes. This keeps assessment and implementation separate: this skill stays evidence-based and read-only toward code.

Guardrails

1. Evidence, not opinion. Every finding cites a file:line reference or an observed browser behavior on the real route. If you cannot prove it, do not report it.
2. Open-ended questions only. In Design mode and usability planning, never ask leading questions. Ask "What would you expect this to do?" rather than "Is this easy to use?".
3. No emoji in output files. Use named icons (e.g., Lucide) or named SVGs for any visual indicator.
4. Do not edit UI code. This skill produces documentation only; code changes go to ui-design-engineering.
5. Quantitative bars. Apply the shared thresholds: contrast 4.5:1 text / 3:1 UI, touch targets 44x44px, base font ~16px / line-height ~1.5, max 2 fonts per screen, visible :focus-visible, respect prefers-reduced-motion.
6. Honesty. If a dimension has no supported findings after falsification, say so. Do not invent problems to fill a template.

Source And Attribution

This skill is an original Skill-Agents synthesis. It adapted techniques from public UI Skills directory skills; it is not official or verbatim upstream content. See references/credits.md for full attribution and references/external-techniques.md for exactly what was adapted.