frontend-design

name	frontend-design
description	> Use when this capability is needed.

Frontend Design

A skill for building distinctive, production-grade frontend interfaces with genuine aesthetic direction. Every output is intentional, cohesive, and visually memorable — not generic.

Compatible with: Claude, Claude Code, VS Code agent extensions, Cursor, Windsurf, Antigravity, and any agent that supports the Agent Skills standard.

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Process

Follow this sequence on every frontend request.

Step 1 — Understand the Context

Before writing a single line of code, answer these internally:

• Purpose — What problem does this interface solve? What action should a user take?
• Audience — Who is the user? Their expectations shape the aesthetic.
• Tone — What feeling should this produce? (See Aesthetic Directions below.)
• Constraints — Framework, accessibility requirements, performance targets, existing design system?
• Memorability — What is the one thing a user will remember about this interface?

Step 2 — Commit to an Aesthetic Direction

Pick one direction and execute it with precision. Half-committed design is always worse than a bold wrong choice. Some directions to consider:

Direction	Character
Brutally minimal	Maximum whitespace, one font weight, monochrome, zero decoration
Editorial / magazine	Strong typographic hierarchy, columns, pull quotes, grid-breaking
Retro-futuristic	Scanlines, glows, monospace, terminal-inspired, neon on dark
Organic / natural	Soft curves, earthy palette, texture, handwritten or slab type
Luxury / refined	Tight tracking, serif display, muted gold or black, deliberate restraint
Brutalist / raw	Visible structure, clashing scale, intentional ugliness as design
Playful / toy-like	Thick borders, saturated colour, bouncy motion, rounded geometry
Art deco / geometric	Symmetry, ornament, repeated motifs, high contrast
Industrial / utilitarian	Functional layout, data-dense, monospace, subdued palette
Maximalist	Layered type, competing textures, controlled chaos, every pixel used

Do not default to any of these — use them as departure points. The final direction must feel designed specifically for this context.

Step 3 — Design Decisions Before Code

Define these before opening a code block:

• Font pairing — One distinctive display font, one refined body font. Never Inter, Roboto, Arial, or system fonts.
• Colour palette — Two to four colours maximum. One dominant, one sharp accent. Define as CSS custom properties.
• Layout structure — Grid, asymmetry, overlap, diagonal flow, or controlled density. Avoid default stacked-card layouts.
• Motion — Identify one high-impact animation moment (page load reveal, hover state, scroll trigger). One well-executed animation beats ten scattered micro-interactions.
• Atmosphere — Background treatment: gradient mesh, noise texture, geometric pattern, layered transparency, grain overlay, or dramatic shadow. Never a flat solid colour unless the concept demands it.

Step 4 — Write Production-Grade Code

Implement the design with the following standards.

Code quality

• Functional and complete — no placeholder comments, no TODO, no stub logic
• Responsive across mobile, tablet, and desktop
• Accessible — semantic HTML, keyboard navigable, sufficient colour contrast
• Performant — no unnecessary repaints, efficient selectors, lazy loading where appropriate

CSS

• Use CSS custom properties for all colours, spacing, and type scales
• Animate only transform and opacity (compositor-friendly)
• Never transition: all — list properties explicitly
• Respect prefers-reduced-motion for all animations
• Use focus-visible for keyboard focus styles — never remove outline without a replacement

Typography

• Load fonts from Google Fonts, Bunny Fonts, or equivalent (prefer variable fonts)
• Set a clear type scale — at minimum: display, heading, body, caption
• Apply text-wrap: balance on headings
• Use font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums for any numbers or data

Motion

• CSS-only for HTML/CSS output
• Use animation-delay for staggered reveals on page load
• Hover and focus states must have visible, intentional transitions
• Scroll-triggered effects where they add genuine value

Framework-specific

• React: use hooks correctly; prefer CSS modules or Tailwind if available; no inline styles for layout
• Vue / Svelte: scoped styles; reactive data for any interactive state
• Plain HTML: single file output unless otherwise requested; embed all CSS in a <style> block

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Aesthetic Rules

Always

• Commit fully to one design direction — no hedging
• Make every spacing decision intentional — generous negative space or controlled density, never accidental middle ground
• Create atmosphere in backgrounds — depth, texture, or gradient over flat colour
• Vary between light and dark themes across outputs — never default to one
• Let the font choice carry personality — it is the loudest design decision

Never

• Generic font families: Inter, Roboto, Arial, system-ui, or plain sans-serif as a primary font
• Purple gradients on white backgrounds — the most overused AI-generated aesthetic
• Default card-grid layouts with drop shadows and rounded corners applied without thought
• Evenly distributed colour palettes with no dominant colour
• Space Grotesk, DM Sans, Plus Jakarta Sans, or any other overused startup font
• Scattered micro-interactions with no focal animation moment
• Flat solid colour backgrounds where there is space for more
• Cookie-cutter designs that could belong to any project

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Output Format

Produce complete, working code. Structure the response as follows:

1. One sentence stating the aesthetic direction chosen and why it fits the context — no heading, no bullet list.
2. Complete code block — the full implementation, ready to run or paste.
3. Font and dependency note — list any external fonts or libraries used and how to load them, if not already included in the code.

Do not include lengthy design breakdowns, feature lists, or bullet-point summaries of what was built. The code speaks for itself.

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Examples

Example 1: Landing page

User: "Build a landing page for an embedded systems consultancy" Agent: Chooses an industrial/utilitarian direction — dark background, monospace font, tight grid, amber accent, terminal-inspired hero animation. Outputs a single complete HTML file.

Example 2: Dashboard

User: "Create a data dashboard for IoT sensor readings" Agent: Chooses a refined minimal direction — high data density, tabular numerics, muted palette with a single red alert colour, clean geometric sans-serif, subtle grid lines. Outputs a React component.

Example 3: Redesign request

User: "Make my signup form look better" Agent: Asks for the existing code or a description of the current design, then applies a clear aesthetic direction — does not simply add padding and border-radius.

Example 4: Component

User: "Build a pricing card component" Agent: Chooses a direction (e.g. luxury/refined), pairs a serif display font with a geometric body font, uses a two-colour palette, adds a single hover lift animation, outputs a complete standalone component.

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Notes

• Match implementation complexity to the aesthetic. Maximalist designs require elaborate code. Minimalist designs require restraint and precision — not less effort, different effort.
• If the user specifies a framework, use it. If not, default to plain HTML/CSS/JS for maximum compatibility.
• If the user provides brand colours, fonts, or an existing design system, work within those constraints while still making intentional choices within them.
• This skill produces working code — not wireframes, not mockups, not design descriptions.

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