/redesign-existing-projects

name: redesign-existing-projects
description: "Use when the user asks to make an existing website or app look premium, remove generic AI-looking design, or polish a UI without changing functionality. Audits the stack, lists the generic AI patterns, and upgrades in place."
domain: design

<!-- Vendored from Leonxlnx/taste-skill (https://github.com/Leonxlnx/taste-skill) — MIT License, (c) 2026 Leonxlnx. -->

Redesign Skill

How This Works

When applied to an existing project, follow this sequence:

1. **Scan** — Read the codebase. Identify the framework, styling method (Tailwind, vanilla CSS, styled-components, etc.), and current design patterns. 2. **Diagnose** — Run through the audit below. List every generic pattern, weak point, and missing state you find. 3. **Fix** — Apply targeted upgrades working with the existing stack. Do not rewrite from scratch. Improve what's there.

Design Audit

Typography

Check for these problems and fix them:

• **Browser default fonts or Inter everywhere.** Replace with a font that has character. Good options: `Geist`, `Outfit`, `Cabinet Grotesk`, `Satoshi`. For editorial/creative projects, pair a serif header with a sans-serif body.
• **Headlines lack presence.** Increase size for display text, tighten letter-spacing, reduce line-height. Headlines should feel heavy and intentional.
• **Body text too wide.** Limit paragraph width to roughly 65 characters. Increase line-height for readability.
• **Only Regular (400) and Bold (700) weights used.** Introduce Medium (500) and SemiBold (600) for more subtle hierarchy.
• **Numbers in proportional font.** Use a monospace font or enable tabular figures (`font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums`) for data-heavy interfaces.
• **Missing letter-spacing adjustments.** Use negative tracking for large headers, positive tracking for small caps or labels.
• **All-caps subheaders everywhere.** Try lowercase italics, sentence case, or small-caps instead.
• **Orphaned words.** Single words sitting alone on the last line. Fix with `text-wrap: balance` or `text-wrap: pretty`.

Color and Surfaces

• **Pure `#000000` background.** Replace with off-black, dark charcoal, or tinted dark (`#0a0a0a`, `#121212`, or a dark navy).
• **Oversaturated accent colors.** Keep saturation below 80%. Desaturate accents so they blend with neutrals instead of screaming.
• **More than one accent color.** Pick one. Remove the rest. Consistency beats variety.
• **Mixing warm and cool grays.** Stick to one gray family. Tint all grays with a consistent hue (warm or cool, not both).
• **Purple/blue "AI gradient" aesthetic.** This is the most common AI design fingerprint. Replace with neutral bases and a single, considered accent.
• **Generic `box-shadow`.** Tint shadows to match the background hue. Use colored shadows (e.g., dark blue shadow on a blue background) instead of pure black at low opacity.
• **Flat design with zero texture.** Add subtle noise, grain, or micro-patterns to backgrounds. Pure flat vectors feel sterile.
• **Perfectly even gradients.** Break the uniformity with radial gradients, noise overlays, or mesh gradients instead of standard linear 45-degree fades.
• **Inconsistent lighting direction.** Audit all shadows to ensure they suggest a single, consistent light source.
• **Random dark sections in a light mode page (or vice versa).** A single dark-background section breaking an otherwise light page looks like a copy-paste accident. Either commit to a full dark mode or keep a consistent background tone throughout. If contrast is needed, use a slightly darker shade of the same palette — not a sudden jump to `#111` in the middle of a cream page.
• **Empty, flat sections with no visual depth.** Sections that are just text on a plain background feel unfinished. Add high-quality background imagery (blurred, overlaid, or masked), subtle patterns, or ambient gradients. Use reliable placeholder sources like `https://picsum.photos/seed/{name}/1920/1080` when real assets are not available. Experiment with background images behind hero sections, feature blocks, or CTAs — even a subtle full-width photo at low opacity adds presence.

Layout

• **Everything centered and symmetrical.** Break symmetry with offset margins, mixed aspect ratios, or left-aligned headers over centered content.
• **Three equal card columns as feature row.** This is the most generic AI layout. Replace with a 2-column zig-zag, asymmetric grid, horizontal scroll, or masonry layout.
• **Using `height: 100vh` for full-screen sections.** Replace with `min-height: 100dvh` to prevent layout jumping on mobile browsers (iOS Safari viewport bug).
• **Complex flexbox percentage math.** Replace with CSS Grid for reliable multi-column structures.
• **No max-width container.** Add a container constraint (around 1200-1440px) with auto margins so content doesn't stretch edge-to-edge on wide screens.
• **Cards of equal height forced by flexbox.** Allow variable heights or use masonry when content varies in length.
• **Uniform border-radius on everything.** Vary the radius: tighter on inner elements, softer on containers.
• **No overlap or depth.** Elements sit flat next to each other. Use negative margins to create layering and visual depth.
• **Symmetrical vertical padding.** Top and bottom padding are always identical. Adjust optically — bottom padding often needs to be slightly larger.
• **Dashboard always has a left sidebar.** Try top navigation, a floating command menu, or a collapsible panel instead.
• **Missing whitespace.** Double the spacing. Let the design breathe. Dense layouts work for data dashboards, not for marketing pages.
• **Buttons not bottom-aligned in card groups.** When cards have different content lengths, CTAs end up at random heights. Pin buttons to the bottom of each card so they form a clean horizontal line regardless of content above.
• **Feature lists starting at different vertical positions.** In pricing tables or comparison cards, the li