ui-ux-pro-max

Precedence: Use this skill when the primary goal is design system intelligence — structured style/palette/font/guideline selection. For distinctive visual aesthetics, use frontend-design. For React/Next.js performance, use vercel-react-best-practices.

UI/UX Pro Max - Design Intelligence

Comprehensive design guide for web and mobile applications. Contains 50+ styles, 161 color palettes, 57 font pairings, 161 product types with reasoning rules, 99 UX guidelines, and 25 chart types across 10 technology stacks. Searchable database with priority-based recommendations.

When to Apply

This Skill should be used when the task involves UI structure, visual design decisions, interaction patterns, or user experience quality control.

Must Use

This Skill must be invoked in the following situations:

• Designing new pages (Landing Page, Dashboard, Admin, SaaS, Mobile App)
• Creating or refactoring UI components (buttons, modals, forms, tables, charts, etc.)
• Choosing color schemes, typography systems, spacing standards, or layout systems
• Reviewing UI code for user experience, accessibility, or visual consistency
• Implementing navigation structures, animations, or responsive behavior
• Making product-level design decisions (style, information hierarchy, brand expression)
• Improving perceived quality, clarity, or usability of interfaces

Recommended

This Skill is recommended in the following situations:

• UI looks "not professional enough" but the reason is unclear
• Receiving feedback on usability or experience
• Pre-launch UI quality optimization
• Aligning cross-platform design (Web / iOS / Android)
• Building design systems or reusable component libraries

Skip

This Skill is not needed in the following situations:

• Pure backend logic development
• Only involving API or database design
• Performance optimization unrelated to the interface
• Infrastructure or DevOps work
• Non-visual scripts or automation tasks

Decision criteria: If the task will change how a feature looks, feels, moves, or is interacted with, this Skill should be used.

Rule Categories by Priority

For human/AI reference: follow priority 1→10 to decide which rule category to focus on first; use --domain <Domain> to query details when needed. Scripts do not read this table.

Priority	Category	Impact	Domain	Key Checks (Must Have)	Anti-Patterns (Avoid)
1	Accessibility	CRITICAL	ux	Contrast 4.5:1, Alt text, Keyboard nav, Aria-labels	Removing focus rings, Icon-only buttons without labels
2	Touch & Interaction	CRITICAL	ux	Min size 44×44px, 8px+ spacing, Loading feedback	Reliance on hover only, Instant state changes (0ms)
3	Performance	HIGH	ux	WebP/AVIF, Lazy loading, Reserve space (CLS < 0.1)	Layout thrashing, Cumulative Layout Shift
4	Style Selection	HIGH	style, product	Match product type, Consistency, SVG icons (no emoji)	Mixing flat & skeuomorphic randomly, Emoji as icons
5	Layout & Responsive	HIGH	ux	Mobile-first breakpoints, Viewport meta, No horizontal scroll	Horizontal scroll, Fixed px container widths, Disable zoom
6	Typography & Color	MEDIUM	typography, color	Base 16px, Line-height 1.5, Semantic color tokens	Text < 12px body, Gray-on-gray, Raw hex in components
7	Animation	MEDIUM	ux	Duration 150–300ms, Motion conveys meaning, Spatial continuity	Decorative-only animation, Animating width/height, No reduced-motion
8	Forms & Feedback	MEDIUM	ux	Visible labels, Error near field, Helper text, Progressive disclosure	Placeholder-only label, Errors only at top, Overwhelm upfront
9	Navigation Patterns	HIGH	ux	Predictable back, Bottom nav ≤5, Deep linking	Overloaded nav, Broken back behavior, No deep links
10	Charts & Data	LOW	chart	Legends, Tooltips, Accessible colors	Relying on color alone to convey meaning

Quick Reference

Private Component Registries

When a UI task uses shadcn/ui MCP, shadcnblocks, or private component registries, check for encrypted component config before concluding a registry is unavailable. In Darkmatter UI projects, components.sops.json may contain additional registries; use the sops-secret-access skill and decrypt with sops -d components.sops.json without printing decrypted contents.

1. Accessibility (CRITICAL)

• color-contrast - Minimum 4.5:1 ratio for normal text (large text 3:1); Material Design
• focus-states - Visible focus rings on interactive elements (2–4px; Apple HIG, MD)
• alt-text - Descriptive alt text for meaningful images
• aria-labels - aria-label for icon-only buttons; accessibilityLabel in native (Apple HIG)
• keyboard-nav - Tab order matches visual order; full keyboard support (Apple HIG)
• form-labels - Use label with for attribute
• skip-links - Skip to main content for keyboard users
• heading-hierarchy - Sequential h1→h6, no level skip
• color-not-only - Don't convey info by color alone (add icon/text)
• dynamic-type - Support system text scaling; avoid truncation as text grows (Apple Dynamic Type, MD)
• reduced-motion - Respect prefers-reduced-motion; reduce/disable animations when requested (Apple Reduced Motion API, MD)
• voiceover-sr - Meaningful accessibilityLabel/accessibilityHint; logical reading order for VoiceOver/screen readers (Apple HIG, MD)
• escape-routes - Provide cancel/back in modals and multi-step flows (Apple HIG)
• keyboard-shortcuts - Preserve system and a11y shortcuts; offer keyboard alternatives for drag-and-drop (Apple HIG)

2. Touch & Interaction (CRITICAL)

• touch-target-size - Min 44×44pt (Apple) / 48×48dp (Material); extend hit area beyond visual bounds if needed
• touch-spacing - Minimum 8px/8dp gap between touch targets (Apple HIG, MD)
• hover-vs-tap - Use click/tap for primary interactions; don't rely on hover alone
• loading-buttons - Disable button during async operations; show spinner or progress
• error-feedback - Clear error messages near problem
• cursor-pointer - Add cursor-pointer to clickable elements (Web)
• gesture-conflicts - Avoid horizontal swipe on main content; prefer vertical scroll
• tap-delay - Use touch-action: manipulation to reduce 300ms delay (Web)
• standard-gestures - Use platform standard gestures consistently; don't redefine (e.g. swipe-back, pinch-zoom) (Apple HIG)
• system-gestures - Don't block system gestures (Control Center, back swipe, etc.) (Apple HIG)
• press-feedback - Visual feedback on press (ripple/highlight; MD state layers)
• haptic-feedback - Use haptic for confirmations and important actions; avoid overuse (Apple HIG)
• gesture-alternative - Don't rely on gesture-only interactions; always provide visible controls for critical actions
• safe-area-awareness - Keep primary touch targets away from notch, Dynamic Island, gesture bar and screen edges
• no-precision-required - Avoid requiring pixel-perfect taps on small icons or thin edges
• swipe-clarity - Swipe actions must show clear affordance or hint (chevron, label, tutorial)
• drag-threshold - Use a movement threshold before starting drag to avoid accidental drags

3. Performance (HIGH)

• image-optimization - Use WebP/AVIF, responsive images (srcset/sizes), lazy load non-critical assets
• image-dimension - Declare width/height or use aspect-ratio to prevent layout shift (Core Web Vitals: CLS)
• font-loading - Use font-display: swap/optional to avoid invisible text (FOIT); reserve space to reduce layout shift (MD)
• font-preload - Preload only critical fonts; avoid overusing preload on every variant
• critical-css - Prioritize above-the-fold CSS (inline critical CSS or early-loaded stylesheet)
• lazy-loading - Lazy load non-hero components via dynamic import / route-level splitting
• bundle-splitting - Split code by route/feature (React Suspense / Next.js dynamic) to reduce initial load and TTI
• third-party-scripts - Load third-party scripts async/defer; audit and remove unnecessary ones (MD)
• reduce-reflows - Avoid frequent layout reads/writes; batch DOM reads then writes
• content-jumping - Reserve space for async content to avoid layout jumps (Core Web Vitals: CLS)
• lazy-load-below-fold - Use loading="lazy" for below-the-fold images and heavy media
• virtualize-lists - Virtualize lists with 50+ items to improve memory efficiency and scroll performance
• main-thread-budget - Keep per-frame work under ~16ms for 60fps; move heavy tasks off main thread (HIG, MD)
• progressive-loading - Use skeleton screens / shimmer instead of long blocking spinners for >1s operations (Apple HIG)
• input-latency - Keep input latency under ~100ms for taps/scrolls (Material responsiveness standard)
• tap-feedback-speed - Provide visual feedback within 100ms of tap (Apple HIG)
• debounce-throttle - Use debounce/throttle for high-frequency events (scroll, resize, input)
• offline-support - Provide offline state messaging and basic fallback (PWA

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