unslop-design

Unslop design

Three parts: what to fix (checklist.md, each fix with its reason), how to orchestrate it (process.md, rounds with reviewers and devs in parallel) and cases and sources (references.md: the five before/afters that started this skill and a map of Refactoring UI). The spec card every reviewer fills is in spec-card.md. Per-platform notes (SwiftUI, Compose, web, widgets, watch, car) live in platforms.md. Read the one you need, not all of them.

Principles (non-negotiable)

1. A fix is a rule, not a tweak. Every change ships as a token or component (spacing, font size, weight, color role, radius, shadow, button), never as a literal in the view. If the token is missing, create it in the same change. Pick values by elimination within the scale (try the value and its two neighbors; the middle wins or you repeat), never pixel by pixel.
2. Hierarchy before color. The screen has to work in grayscale: spacing, size, weight and contrast do the work; color comes afterwards and only to mean something. If it's unclear in gray what matters, color won't fix it.
3. The first thing you read is the answer. One hero number per screen (the balance, the price, today's progress); everything else steps back. Emphasize by de-emphasizing the competition, not by inflating the hero. At most one dark/hero surface per screen, and none in sheets or modals.
4. Color says one thing. One brand accent for the action or the hero number; everything else is a role with meaning (money/success, up/danger, status, reward) and gray for what only navigates. Decorative color = slop. Color never works alone: shape or a word goes with it.
5. Measured contrast, not assumed. WCAG AA (4.5:1 text, 3:1 large text and icons) computed from the real hex values against the real backgrounds, light and dark. White on a green/yellow brand color almost never passes; gray text on a colored background doesn't either (pick a shade of the same hue).
6. Nothing the screen can't deliver. No invented numbers, no projection presented as data, no implied feature that doesn't exist, no empty state that lies. Design the smallest version you can actually ship.
7. One signature gesture, taken from the domain. A brand detail born from what the app shows (a price-board price with a smaller last digit, dot-matrix numerals on a running app), not a new font or effect; and it degrades gracefully where it doesn't apply. Everything else is native: don't fight the tab bar, switches or system sheets.
8. Platforms ship together. If the project has iOS and Android (or app and web), the change goes to both in the same PR, in every language.
9. Verify what the user sees. Screenshots in light and dark, largest text size, a non-default currency/language, real data (long names, empty, 2,000 items). What can't be compiled in your environment gets audited by reading, and the PR says so.

Any agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini…)

The rules are the same everywhere. Where it says "agents", use what your tool has: subagents if it has them (Claude Code, Codex…), with a git worktree each for devs. With no subagents, run the reviewers one after another, each with its own brief, and keep their outputs separate before the jury step. Where it says "publish", Claude Code publishes an artifact; other agents write an HTML file the user opens. In a chat app without a codebase, stop after the before/after proposal.

Working agreement (defaults)

• Reviewers = senior product designers and devs = senior devs, as agents (use the model the user asks for). The orchestrator doesn't build the areas: it does the shared work, integrates and audits.
• Every decision comes with an explicit, actionable recommendation.
• Before implementing, publish the before/after and wait for the user's "yes".
• Every round also reviews what earlier rounds shipped and all the videos/screenshots received, not just the latest.
• When merging is allowed once CI is green: close with a list of what to check when compiling (concrete risks) and, if there's no Mac/simulator, a self-contained prompt for a local session.
• On "is everything done?": done (with PRs) · pending on you · left out on purpose.
• After the last round, update the project's design system.

Short flow

1. Inventory: frames from the videos (process.md § 1), screens and states, and each screen located in the code.
2. System: check (or create) the spacing, type, color and elevation scales (checklist.md § System). Without scales, reviewers judge by eye.
3. Grayscale pass + parallel reviewers (3-4, one per area) against checklist.md, applying fixes one at a time.
4. Winning proposal: one HTML page with before/after, the spec card and the list of decisions; the user chooses.
5. Devs per area in isolated worktrees with a closed brief; integrate, compile, audit, PR, answer review bots, merge when green.
6. Finally: update the project's design system (doc + tokens + its own skill) with what's new.

If the project already has its own design skill

Use it for concrete tokens and components; this one brings the method and the general checklist. If a rule here clashes with a written project decision, the project wins and the proposal points it out.