Provides an objective design review of UI components, generating a findings table based on visual hierarchy and usability.

Install

mkdir -p .claude/skills/critique-educlopez && curl -L -o skill.zip "https://agentskills.codes/api/skills/download/17271" && unzip -o skill.zip -d .claude/skills/critique-educlopez && rm skill.zip

Installs to .claude/skills/critique-educlopez

Activation

This is the description your AI agent reads to decide when to run this skill — the better it matches your request, the more reliably it fires.

Design lens critique covering visual hierarchy, clarity, and anti-slop patterns — produces a findings table, no code edits unless asked. Use when the user wants a design review, says "what's wrong with this UI", or needs a second opinion before a handoff or presentation. Invoke when the user asks for critique on their UI, or mentions 'critique' alongside design / UI / frontend work.
385 chars✓ has a “when” triggerlonger than Claude Code's old 250-char listing cap (fine on current versions)
Intermediate

Key capabilities

  • Capture full-page screenshots at desktop, tablet, and mobile viewports.
  • Critique UI based on Anti-Slop Test, Craft Test, Hierarchy, and Clarity lenses.
  • Identify UX concerns and missing signature details.
  • Provide a findings table with Before, After, and Why columns.
  • Summarize the top 3 changes to improve the design.
  • Assess design against observed patterns from `references/inspiration.md`.

How it works

The skill captures visual states of a UI across different viewports, then applies a series of design lenses to identify issues related to visual hierarchy, clarity, and anti-slop patterns, presenting the findings in a structured table.

Inputs & outputs

You give it
Target UI description or URL
You get back
Findings table with design critique and top 3 suggested changes

When to use critique

  • Reviewing UI visual hierarchy
  • Detecting anti-slop patterns in frontend design
  • Getting a second opinion before design handoff

About this skill

<!-- HARNESS MIRROR — do not edit here. Canonical source: skills/ or commands/. After editing source, copy into cli/assets/<harness>/ and repo-root harness mirrors. -->

Context: this sub-skill is one lens of the broader ui-craft skill. If the ui-craft skill is also installed, read its SKILL.md first for Discovery + Anti-Slop + Craft Test, then apply the specific lens below.

Critique the UI at $ARGUMENTS through a design lens. Load the ui-craft skill.

Step 0: Visual capture (mandatory)

Code-only review is insufficient. Every audit/critique starts with the surface as the user sees it. Try the following in order; use the first one available:

  1. Playwright MCP — if playwright MCP server is available, use it. Capture full-page screenshots at three viewports: desktop (1280×800), tablet (768×1024), mobile (375×812). Capture dark mode if the app supports it.
  2. Browser DevTools / Chrome MCP — second choice; same viewport set.
  3. Other browser automation (agent-browser, cursor-ide-browser) — third choice.
  4. Ask the user — last resort. If no automation is available, request screenshots from the user before proceeding. Be specific:
    • "Visual review needs screenshots. Please provide:
      • Full-page at 1280px (desktop)
      • Full-page at 768px (tablet)
      • Full-page at 375px (mobile)
      • Dark mode of each, if supported."

Do not begin the review until visuals are captured or provided. State this explicitly to the user when no automation succeeds — don't silently fall back to code-only review.

If the user declines to provide screenshots, run a code-only pass and clearly mark the report [CODE-ONLY REVIEW — visual issues not assessed] at the top so the limitation is explicit.

Knob awareness (CRAFT_LEVEL sets the bar for what counts as "needs work"):

  • CRAFT_LEVEL 3 → flag only anti-slop Critical items. Skip Minor polish.
  • CRAFT_LEVEL 5-7 → flag Critical + Major. Mention Minor polish as optional.
  • CRAFT_LEVEL 9+ → flag everything, including Minor polish and missing signature detail.

Run these lenses in order:

  1. Anti-Slop Test (from SKILL.md): flag every item present. Critical first (ALL CAPS, purple gradients, identical card grids, bounce easing, emoji icons, glassmorphism + neon). Then major (colored pills on trends, thick colored borders, uniform radii, gradient text, walls of text). Then minor (straight quotes, missing tabular-nums, generic CTAs).
  2. Craft Test (from SKILL.md): where does the design fall short of "one accent, 3-5 placements; plain secondary text for comparisons; functional color only; every section earns its space"?
  3. Hierarchy: can the user tell what's primary, secondary, tertiary at a glance? Or does everything shout equally?
  4. Clarity: is the value prop legible in 5 seconds? Are CTAs specific (not "Learn more")?
  5. Signature detail: is there one memorable element that makes this feel designed, not assembled? If not, suggest one (motif, layout break, custom marker, distinctive hover).
  6. Inspiration gap — read references/inspiration.md: which observed pattern from the archetypes / signature details applies here, and how does the current state diverge from it?

Output format — the Review Format table:

BeforeAfterWhy

Prioritize by impact, not by file order. End with a one-paragraph summary of the top 3 changes that would raise this from "AI-generated" to "designed".

Do NOT edit code. This is a critique.

Close with a Craft Report (references/review.md → Craft Report) as the final wrapper around the findings table and top-3 summary — Checked names the lenses actually run (Anti-Slop, Craft Test, Hierarchy, Clarity, Signature, Inspiration gap) and at what CRAFT_LEVEL bar, Passed carries whatever held up under those lenses, Changed stays empty (critique doesn't edit), Left alone covers anything flagged but out of scope, Verdict is the one-sentence state. Produce it even when the surface passes clean — that's the validation the user is asking for.

Next step: /polish — apply the fixes this critique named (rung 1).

When not to use it

  • When the user explicitly declines to provide screenshots and a code-only review is not desired.
  • When the task involves editing code directly.
  • When the user does not want a design review or critique.

Limitations

  • The skill cannot edit code directly.
  • If no automation is available, it relies on the user to provide screenshots.
  • The critique is limited by the `CRAFT_LEVEL` setting, which filters the severity of flagged items.

How it compares

This skill provides a structured, multi-faceted design critique based on visual evidence and specific design principles, offering a more systematic evaluation than a general or subjective design review.

Compared to similar skills

critique side by side with the closest alternatives in the catalog.

SkillInstallsUpdatedSafetyDifficulty
critique (this skill)023dNo flagsIntermediate
designer04moNo flagsIntermediate
critique01moNo flagsAdvanced
jobs-review04moNo flagsBeginner

Try saying

Example prompts that trigger this skill in your AI assistant.

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