| name | frontend-design |
| description | Frontend design skill fused from Impeccable + custom extensions. Covers design philosophy, anti-AI-slop patterns, typography, color (OKLCH), spatial design, motion, interaction, responsive, UX writing, state management, engineering, and 4 style variants. Includes 20 command skills for audit/critique/polish/animate/etc. |
| license | Apache 2.0 (Impeccable) + MIT (custom extensions) |
| user-invocable | true |
| disable-model-invocation | false |
Frontend Design (Impeccable Fusion Edition)
This skill guides creation of distinctive, production-grade frontend interfaces that avoid generic "AI slop" aesthetics. It fuses Impeccable design philosophy with extended knowledge on state management, engineering, and design style systems.
Context Gathering Protocol
Design skills produce generic output without project context. You MUST have confirmed design context before doing any design work.
Required context — every design skill needs at minimum:
- Target audience: Who uses this product and in what context?
- Use cases: What jobs are they trying to get done?
- Brand personality/tone: How should the interface feel?
Gathering order:
- Check current instructions (instant): If your loaded instructions already contain a Design Context section, proceed immediately.
- Check .impeccable.md (fast): If not in instructions, read
.impeccable.md from the project root. If it exists and contains the required context, proceed.
- Run /teach-impeccable (REQUIRED): If neither source has context, you MUST run
/teach-impeccable NOW before doing anything else. Do NOT skip this step. Do NOT attempt to infer context from the codebase instead.
Design Direction
Commit to a BOLD aesthetic direction:
- Purpose: What problem does this interface solve? Who uses it?
- Tone: Pick an extreme: brutally minimal, maximalist chaos, retro-futuristic, organic/natural, luxury/refined, playful/toy-like, editorial/magazine, brutalist/raw, art deco/geometric, soft/pastel, industrial/utilitarian, etc.
- Constraints: Technical requirements (framework, performance, accessibility).
- Differentiation: What makes this UNFORGETTABLE? What's the one thing someone will remember?
CRITICAL: Choose a clear conceptual direction and execute it with precision. Bold maximalism and refined minimalism both work — the key is intentionality, not intensity.
Frontend Aesthetics Guidelines
Typography
Consult typography reference for scales, pairing, and loading strategies.
Choose fonts that are beautiful, unique, and interesting. Pair a distinctive display font with a refined body font.
DO: Use a modular type scale with fluid sizing (clamp) for display text; fixed rem scales for app UIs
DO: Vary font weights and sizes to create clear visual hierarchy
DON'T: Use overused fonts — Inter, Roboto, Arial, Open Sans, system defaults
DON'T: Use monospace typography as lazy shorthand for "technical/developer" vibes
DON'T: Put large icons with rounded corners above every heading — they rarely add value
Color & Theme
Consult color reference for OKLCH, palettes, and dark mode.
Commit to a cohesive palette. Dominant colors with sharp accents outperform timid, evenly-distributed palettes.
DO: Use OKLCH (not HSL) for perceptually uniform, maintainable palettes
DO: Tint your neutrals toward your brand hue — even a subtle hint creates subconscious cohesion
DON'T: Use gray text on colored backgrounds — use a shade of the background color instead
DON'T: Use pure black (#000) or pure white (#fff) — always tint
DON'T: Use the AI color palette: cyan-on-dark, purple-to-blue gradients, neon accents on dark backgrounds
DON'T: Use gradient text for "impact" — it's decorative rather than meaningful
DON'T: Default to dark mode with glowing accents
Layout & Space
Consult spatial reference for grids, rhythm, and container queries.
DO: Create visual rhythm through varied spacing — tight groupings, generous separations
DO: Use fluid spacing with clamp() that breathes on larger screens
DO: Use asymmetry and unexpected compositions; break the grid intentionally
DON'T: Wrap everything in cards — not everything needs a container
DON'T: Nest cards inside cards — flatten the hierarchy
DON'T: Use identical card grids — same-sized cards with icon + heading + text, repeated endlessly
DON'T: Center everything — left-aligned text with asymmetric layouts feels more designed
DON'T: Use the same spacing everywhere — without rhythm, layouts feel monotonous
Visual Details
DO: Use intentional, purposeful decorative elements that reinforce brand
DON'T: Use glassmorphism everywhere — blur effects used decoratively rather than purposefully
DON'T: Use rounded elements with thick colored border on one side — a lazy accent
DON'T: Use sparklines as decoration — tiny charts that convey nothing meaningful
DON'T: Use rounded rectangles with generic drop shadows — safe, forgettable
DON'T: Use modals unless there's truly no better alternative
Motion
Consult motion reference for timing, easing, and reduced motion.
DO: Use motion to convey state changes — entrances, exits, feedback
DO: Use exponential easing (ease-out-quart/quint/expo) for natural deceleration
DO: For height animations, use grid-template-rows transitions
DON'T: Animate layout properties (width, height, padding, margin) — use transform and opacity only
DON'T: Use bounce or elastic easing — they feel dated and tacky
Interaction
Consult interaction reference for forms, focus, and loading patterns.
DO: Use progressive disclosure — start simple, reveal sophistication through interaction
DO: Design empty states that teach the interface, not just say "nothing here"
DO: Make every interactive surface feel intentional and responsive
DON'T: Repeat the same information — redundant headers, intros that restate the heading
DON'T: Make every button primary — hierarchy matters
Responsive
Consult responsive reference for mobile-first, fluid design, and container queries.
DO: Use container queries (@container) for component-level responsiveness
DO: Adapt the interface for different contexts — don't just shrink it
DON'T: Hide critical functionality on mobile — adapt, don't amputate
UX Writing
Consult ux-writing reference for labels, errors, and empty states.
DO: Make every word earn its place
DON'T: Repeat information users can already see
The AI Slop Test
Critical quality check: If you showed this interface to someone and said "AI made this," would they believe you immediately? If yes, that's the problem.
A distinctive interface should make someone ask "how was this made?" not "which AI made this?"
Review the DON'T guidelines above — they are the fingerprints of AI-generated work from 2024-2025.
Reference Library (Impeccable)
Deep-dive reference documents for each design dimension:
| Reference | Covers |
|---|
| typography | Type systems, font pairing, modular scales, OpenType, web font loading |
| color-and-contrast | OKLCH, tinted neutrals, dark mode, accessibility, 60-30-10 |
| spatial-design | 4pt spacing, grids, visual hierarchy, container queries, optical adjustments |
| motion-design | 100/300/500 rule, easing curves, stagger, reduced motion, perceived performance |
| interaction-design | 8 states, focus rings, Popover API, CSS Anchor, modals, keyboard nav |
| responsive-design | Content-driven breakpoints, pointer/hover queries, safe areas, srcset |
| ux-writing | Button labels, error formulas, empty states, voice vs tone, i18n |
Extended Knowledge (Original)
| Topic | Document | Covers |
|---|
| UI Aesthetics | ui-aesthetics.md | HSL color tokens, 8px grid CSS snippets, shadow scales, dark mode CSS |
| Component Patterns | component-patterns.md | CSS Grid/Flexbox layouts, responsive nav, glass card, Framer Motion |
| UX Principles | ux-principles.md | Nielsen 10 heuristics, WCAG, ARIA, keyboard, loading patterns |
| State Management | state-management.md | Redux/Zustand/Jotai/Recoil/Context — decision tree + code templates |
| Frontend Engineering | engineering.md | Web Vitals, code splitting, virtual scroll, Vitest/Playwright, Vite/Webpack |
Design Style Systems
Specific style variant specs with CSS tokens and component patterns:
| Style | Document | Aesthetic |
|---|
| Claymorphism | claymorphism/SKILL.md | Soft clay, large radii, dual inner shadows, offset outer shadows |
| Glassmorphism | glassmorphism/SKILL.md | Frosted glass, backdrop-filter, translucency, blur layers |
| Neubrutalism | neubrutalism/SKILL.md | Thick borders, offset solid shadows, high saturation, minimal radius |
| Liquid Glass | liquid-glass/SKILL.md | Apple-style translucent depth, spring animations, ambient response |
Command System (20 Impeccable Commands)
All commands are in ~/.ccsm/skills/ccsm/impeccable/. Each invokes this skill's guidelines first.
Quality & Audit
| Command | What it does |
|---|
/audit | Technical quality checks (a11y, performance, responsive, theming, anti-patterns) — scored 0-20 |
/critique | UX design review with Nielsen heuristics scoring (0-40), persona testing, cognitive load |
/teach-impeccable | One-time setup: gather design context, save to .impeccable.md |
Fix & Align
| Command | What it does |
|---|
/normalize | Align with design system standards |
/polish | Final pass before shipping — 20-item checklist |
/distill | Strip to essence, remove unnecessary complexity |
/clarify | Improve unclear UX copy, error messages, labels |
/optimize | Performance improvements (CWV, bundle, rendering) |
/harden | Error handling, i18n, text overflow, edge cases |
Style & Expression
| Command | What it does |
|---|
/animate | Add purposeful motion and micro-interactions |
/colorize | Introduce strategic color to monochromatic designs |
/bolder | Amplify boring designs with distinctive impact |
/quieter | Tone down overly bold designs to refined sophistication |
/delight | Add moments of joy, personality, and surprise |
Structure & Components
| Command | What it does |
|---|
/extract | Pull into reusable components and design tokens |
/adapt | Adapt for different devices and contexts |
/onboard | Design onboarding flows and empty states |
/typeset | Fix font choices, hierarchy, sizing, readability |
/arrange | Fix layout, spacing, visual rhythm |
/overdrive | Technically extraordinary effects (shaders, springs, scroll-driven) |
Combining Commands
/audit /normalize /polish blog # Full workflow: audit -> fix -> polish
/critique /harden checkout # UX review + add error handling
/audit # Find issues first
/normalize # Then fix inconsistencies
/polish # Final cleanup
Implementation Principles
Match implementation complexity to the aesthetic vision. Maximalist designs need elaborate code with extensive animations and effects. Minimalist or refined designs need restraint, precision, and careful attention to spacing, typography, and subtle details.
Interpret creatively and make unexpected choices that feel genuinely designed for the context. No design should be the same. Vary between light and dark themes, different fonts, different aesthetics. NEVER converge on common choices across generations.
Use Cases
- Design system establishment
- Component library development
- UI/UX audit and review (
/audit, /critique)
- Accessibility improvement
- Responsive layout design (
/adapt)
- Interaction and animation design (
/animate, /delight)
- Style variant selection (Claymorphism / Glassmorphism / Neubrutalism / Liquid Glass)
- Performance optimization (
/optimize)
- Pre-launch polish (
/polish)
- Copy improvement (
/clarify)
- Production hardening (
/harden)
- Typography refinement (
/typeset)
- Layout improvement (
/arrange)
