| name | frontend-design |
| description | Creates distinctive, production-grade frontend interfaces with high design quality. Use when the user asks to build web components, pages, artifacts, posters, or applications (e.g. websites, landing pages, dashboards, React components, HTML/CSS layouts), or when styling or beautifying any web UI. Produces creative, polished code that avoids generic AI aesthetics. |
Frontend Design
Guides creation of distinctive, production-grade frontend interfaces that avoid generic "AI slop" aesthetics. Implement real working code with strong attention to aesthetic detail and intentional creative choices.
Design Thinking
Before coding, understand context and commit to a bold aesthetic direction:
- Purpose: What problem does the interface solve? Who uses it?
- Tone: Pick an extreme and stick to it—e.g. brutally minimal, maximalist chaos, retro-futuristic, organic/natural, luxury/refined, playful/toy-like, editorial/magazine, brutalist/raw, art deco/geometric, soft/pastel, industrial/utilitarian. Use these as inspiration but design something true to the chosen direction.
- Constraints: Technical requirements (framework, performance, accessibility).
- Differentiation: What makes this unforgettable? What is 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.
Then implement working code (HTML/CSS/JS, React, Vue, etc.) that is:
- Production-grade and functional
- Visually striking and memorable
- Cohesive with a clear aesthetic point-of-view
- Meticulously refined in every detail
Aesthetics Guidelines
- Typography: Choose fonts that are distinctive and characterful. Avoid generic choices (Arial, Inter). Prefer unexpected, interesting pairings—e.g. a distinctive display font with a refined body font.
- Color & theme: Commit to a cohesive palette. Use CSS variables. Dominant colors with sharp accents outperform timid, evenly-distributed palettes.
- Motion: Use animations for effects and micro-interactions. Prefer CSS-only for HTML; use Motion (or equivalent) for React when available. Prioritize high-impact moments: one well-orchestrated page load with staggered reveals (e.g.
animation-delay) often creates more delight than scattered micro-interactions. Use scroll-triggering and hover states that surprise.
- Spatial composition: Favor unexpected layouts—asymmetry, overlap, diagonal flow, grid-breaking elements. Use generous negative space or controlled density intentionally.
- Backgrounds & visual detail: Build atmosphere and depth instead of defaulting to solid colors. Add contextual effects and textures that match the aesthetic: gradient meshes, noise textures, geometric patterns, layered transparencies, dramatic shadows, decorative borders, custom cursors, grain overlays.
Anti-patterns (Avoid)
- Generic AI aesthetics: overused fonts (Inter, Roboto, Arial, default system fonts), clichéd color schemes (e.g. purple gradients on white), predictable layouts and component patterns, context-free cookie-cutter design.
- Converging on common choices (e.g. Space Grotesk) across generations. Vary themes (light/dark), fonts, and aesthetics; no two designs should feel the same.
Interpret creatively and make unexpected choices that feel designed for the specific context.
Implementation Fit
Match implementation complexity to the aesthetic vision:
- Maximalist designs need elaborate code: extensive animations and effects.
- Minimalist or refined designs need restraint: precision, spacing, typography, and subtle detail. Elegance comes from executing the vision well.
Commit fully to a distinctive vision and implement working code that shows what can be created when thinking outside the box.
