ux_ui

UX/UI Cell

Team: `ux_ui`

Focus Areas

• **Design Systems** - Component libraries, tokens
• **Prototyping** - Interactive mockups
• **User Research** - Usability patterns
• **Accessibility** - WCAG compliance
• **Visual Design** - Icons, illustrations, typography

Your Teammates

• `ux-pm` - UX/UI PM (your PM)
• `ux-dev-1` - UX/UI Developer 1
• `ux-dev-2` - UX/UI Developer 2
• `ux-qa` - UX/UI QA
• `ux-doc` - UX/UI Documenter
• `main-pm` - Main PM (escalation path)

Tools & Artifacts

• Figma designs
• Design tokens
• Component specifications
• Accessibility audits
• User flow diagrams

Common Patterns

• Design system consistency
• Mobile-first approach
• Accessibility-first design
• User-centered iterations
• Cross-browser compatibility

Design bar

Distilled from `Leonxlnx/taste-skill` (MIT) — an anti-slop frontend framework: fixes generic layout, default fonts, and motion-for-its-own-sake. A taste layer on top of your stack, not a replacement for it.

The three dials

State your read in your `decision` note before you build — don't silently default.

• You often move between a design artifact (Figma, a spec) and code — state the dial read and rules in the spec, then hold the implementation to the same bar.
• **DESIGN_VARIANCE (1-10):** 1-3 predictable (symmetric grid, equal paddings) · 4-7 offset (overlaps, mixed aspect ratios) · 8-10 asymmetric (masonry, fractional grids, bold negative space). Always collapses to single-column below `md:`.
• **MOTION_INTENSITY (1-10):** 1-3 static (hover/active only) · 4-7 fluid `transform`/`opacity` transitions · 8-10 scroll-driven choreography. Above 3, `prefers-reduced-motion` support is mandatory.
• **VISUAL_DENSITY (1-10):** 1-3 airy/gallery-like · 4-7 standard app spacing · 8-10 packed/tabular (tight paddings, no card boxes, monospace/tabular numerals).
• **Defaults:** dense product UI (admin panels, dashboards, data tables) → `2-3 / 2-3 / 7-8`. Landing/marketing/portfolio surface → `7 / 6 / 4` (SaaS baseline; push variance/motion higher for agency/creative briefs).
• **Video-authoring tasks (source=video, `motion/` compositions) are FILMS, not UI:** these dials do not apply — a video *about* a dense panel is still a marketing film. Use `motion/README.md`'s "Cinematography & rhythm" bar and the vendored renderer doctrine in `motion/skills/` instead: the camera moves, the cursor behaves like a hand, beats have rhythm. Reading "dashboard → motion 2-3" as a reason to ship a static slideshow is the failure mode this line exists to kill.

Typography & hierarchy

• Hierarchy comes from weight + size + color + whitespace, not just "make it bigger."
• Body copy: cap line length around 65-75ch.
• One accent color per project; WCAG AA contrast minimum (4.5:1 body, 3:1 large text) — audit every button, form label, and ghost-button-over-photo before shipping.
• Numeric/data-heavy UI (tables, metrics, IDs): tabular figures, not proportional digits that jiggle column widths.
• A project's existing font/color/radius choice is a decision, not a default to silently swap because this bar suggests otherwise — a real change gets its own task.

Spacing & layout

• Consistent vertical rhythm across siblings: aligned card/column baselines, CTAs bottom-aligned across a row regardless of copy length above them.
• Grid over flexbox-percentage-math for multi-column layout.
• `min-h-[100dvh]`, never `h-screen`, for full-bleed sections (mobile viewport jump).
• Cards only when elevation communicates real hierarchy — otherwise a divider or spacing does the job. One corner-radius scale, one shadow tint, per project.
• Avoid the reflexive three-equal-cards-in-a-row layout; vary composition instead.

Motion

• Every animation needs a one-sentence justification: hierarchy, storytelling, feedback, or state change. "It looked cool" is not one.
• Animate `transform`/`opacity` only — never `top`/`left`/`width`/`height`, never a raw `scroll` event listener (`useScroll`/`IntersectionObserver`/ `ScrollTrigger`/CSS scroll-driven animation instead).
• Loading/empty/error states are part of the design, not an afterthought — skeletons matching the final layout, not generic spinners.

AI tells to avoid

In anything you write for an end user — copy, demo data, layout — not your own commits/journal/PR text:

• No em-dash in product copy you author: headlines, labels, button text, placeholders.
• No "Jane Doe" / "Acme Corp" / suspiciously-round numbers in placeholder content — specific-sounding names, organic numbers.
• No filler verbs ("Elevate", "Seamless", "Unleash", "Next-Gen").
• No default AI-purple glow, no pure `#000`/`#fff`. One icon family per project.

Where this applies

Building or touching the RoboCo control panel or any dense admin/dashboard surface: work within the project's existing design system for structural chrome (nav, tables, forms, theme tokens); apply the rules above on top of it. taste-skill's landing-page-specific hard caps (hero word/line limits, eyebrow-per-3-sections, bento cell-count, marquee-max-one) are for marketing/landing/portfolio surfaces, not dashboards. Check the task brief if you're unsure which mode you're in.

Niche aesthetic vocabularies

Also distilled from `Leonxlnx/taste-skill` (MIT) — three named visual systems, opt-in when a task brief explicitly calls for one, not a default to reach for on ordinary work. Each still reads onto the three dials above; a vocabulary changes *what* the dials produce, not whether they apply.

Industrial brutalist

Rigid `display: grid; gap: 1px` with contrasting parent/child backgrounds standing in for dividers — zero `border-radius`, 90-degree corners only. Heavy uppercase sans at extreme scale (tight/negative tracking) for macro type; monospace at generous tracking for micro/metadata (IDs, timestamps, coordinates). One hazard-red accent, nothing else — no gradients, no soft shadows. ASCII bracket framing for labels (`[ DELIVERY SYSTEMS ]`, `>>>`). Pick ONE substrate — light Sw