ux-first-principles

Apply the foundational reasoning of a senior UI/UX designer to interface decisions — BEFORE and WHILE generating UI, not just styling it afterward. Use this skill whenever you are designing, structuring, or evaluating an application interface — choosing a layout, a navigation pattern, a flow, an affordance, how much to show at once, or how to group and prioritize elements. This is about design FIRST PRINCIPLES (visual hierarchy, cognitive load, Gestalt grouping, usability heuristics, accessibility) — the 'why' behind good design — NOT design EXECUTION (color tokens, fonts, spacing scales, brand systems, component libraries). Trigger it even when the user does not say 'principles' — phrases like 'design a screen for…', 'lay out this dashboard', 'what navigation should this app use', 'is this UI any good', 'structure this form', 'reduce clutter', or 'make this clearer' all warrant it. Composes alongside execution/styling skills — this one decides WHAT and WHY; those decide HOW it looks.

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Repository: davidortinau/FoundryForge
Last source activity: June 27, 2026 at 20:42
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UX First Principles

A reasoning skill, not a styling skill. Its job is to make interface decisions the way an experienced UI/UX professional would: by drawing on the established canons of design knowledge to choose what to build and why, leaving how it looks (tokens, color, type, brand) to execution skills that run alongside this one.

What this skill is for

Use this when a design decision is being made — not when colors are being picked. Good triggers:

Laying out a screen, dashboard, form, or flow

Choosing a navigation structure (tabs, drawer, sidebar, breadcrumb, wizard)

Deciding how much to show at once vs. defer (disclosure, density)

Grouping, ordering, and prioritizing elements on a surface

Reviewing or critiquing an existing interface

Resolving a "this feels cluttered / confusing / off" complaint into specific, fixable causes

If the task is purely "apply our color tokens" or "match the brand," that is execution — defer to the styling skill. This skill stops at the decision; it does not own the pixels.