Atelier redesign

Atelier — Redesign & Audit

Upgrading existing work is different from greenfield: you must add system without breaking what works. The failure mode is "piling on more effects." The fix is the opposite — diagnose what system is missing, add it, and remove the tricks. Audit before you touch anything.

Project memory: if ATELIER.md exists, read it first; if not, this skill's audit (step 1) is the natural place to write one — capture the existing register, brand, and tokens so the upgrade stays on-brief. The atelier router (/atelier init) owns that file.

Uses the whole suite: atelier-direction (anti-slop lens) + atelier-ux (IA/flows audit), atelier-foundations (tokens), atelier-typography, atelier-layout, atelier-motion, atelier-components, atelier-copy (UX writing), atelier-dataviz (if data-heavy), atelier-scroll/atelier-webgl (only if earned), made production-grade by atelier-harden, gated by atelier-perf-a11y and — for a substantial redesign — red-teamed by atelier-review (a redesign is the canonical "substantial build" case). Tonal nudges (bolder / quieter / distill) live here too — references/tonal-dials.md. Deep reference: references/fundamentals-deepdive.md (§15).

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The flow

1. Audit (don't touch yet) → 2. Name slop tells + missing levers → 3. Score by impact vs risk → 4. Re-direct → 5. Upgrade in safe order → 6. Verify (perf/a11y + regression) → 7. Adversarial review (substantial redesigns).

1. Audit first

Inventory before judging. Full method in references/audit.md: read the existing brand (logo, color, type, photography — starting material, not noise), IA / content / flows, stack (so you upgrade in-place, not rewrite), and the current design system (or absence of one): grid, type scale, color logic, spacing rhythm, motion, perf, a11y. WebFetch the live site or read the codebase; ask for a screenshot if it's JS-rendered/blocked.

2. Name the slop tells + the missing levers

Use the anti-slop lens from atelier-direction. Name the specific cheap tells present (e.g. #000 + grey text, default Inter, glass-on-everything, purple-gradient+frosted-card, uniform bento, no focal point, cramped spacing) and the specific expensive levers missing (real grid, OKLCH tokens, generous whitespace, a typeface with a point of view, grain, one accent). Be concrete — "this section, this value."

3. Score by impact vs risk

Not everything is worth changing. Rank fixes by impact (how much it lifts the look/UX) vs risk (how likely it breaks functionality/IA/SEO/a11y). The high-ROI / low-risk set is almost always: whitespace, type, color tokens (OKLCH), one accent, grain, killing the slop combos. Surface the plan before mass edits.

4. Re-direct

Produce a (scaled) Direction Doc via atelier-direction for the target state — but anchored to the existing brand (preserve logo/equity/recognizable color where it works). Identity preservation wins: if the project has committed brand tokens/colors, build around them — don't regenerate a palette over a real brand (same rule atelier-foundations follows). Decide the world and the one or two signature improvements. Don't impose an unrelated aesthetic on an established brand. If the design is technically fine but tonally off — too safe, too loud, or too complex — reach for the matching dial in references/tonal-dials.md (bolder / quieter / distill) instead of a full re-direct. When the brief is "make it feel human, not AI-made," the 2026 counter-movements are the upgrade direction: warm/neo- minimalism (keep the restraint, add earthy low-chroma OKLCH + texture + a character serif) or collage/ scrapbook (hand-assembled tactile fragments) — not more of the same flat-minimal AI look.

5. Upgrade in safe order (system first, tricks last)

Playbook in references/upgrade-playbook.md. The order that adds the most with the least breakage:

1. Tokens (atelier-foundations) — introduce OKLCH color, type scale, 8pt spacing as variables; replace scattered hardcoded values. Biggest coherence win, low visual risk.
2. Typography — escape default fonts, fix scale/leading/measure.
3. Layout & whitespace — add macro whitespace, fix hierarchy/focal point, real grid; don't reflow IA.
4. Components — align to the system (shadcn + token mapping) where you're already touching them. Modernizing is also the moment to retire hand-rolled JS for native primitives (most now Baseline): Popover API + Invoker Commands (command/commandfor) + anchor positioning for tooltips/menus/popovers, native <dialog> for modals, <details name> for exclusive accordions, field-sizing: content for auto-grow inputs — less code, free a11y. <details name>, <dialog>, Popover API + anchor positioning are Baseline; Invoker Commands reached Baseline only Dec 2025–Jan 2026 and field-sizing: content is in all three engines but NOT yet Baseline (~79%, Firefox 152 / Jun 2026) — keep the JS fallback for those two where pre-152 Firefox / older Safari matter.
5. Motion — add restrained feedback/reveals; respect reduced motion.
6. Scroll/WebGL — only if the new direction earns a signature moment; never as decoration.
7. Imagery — replace dated / stock / placeholder / low-res images with assets generated on the new direction via /codex-imagegen (codex-image.ps1 -Prompt "…" -OutDir ".\public\img" -Size 1536x1024; -Transparent for logos/icons). Preserve alt/SEO/dimensions, optimize to WebP/AVIF — and keep brand-equity photography you're meant to retain (it's starting material, not noise). Remove the slop tricks as you go. Keep changes reviewable (per-section, not one giant diff).

6. Verify

• Don't break functionality, IA, SEO, or accessibility — preserve URLs, headings/structure, alt text, ARIA, keyboard flows, form behavior. A prettier site that regresses these is a failure.
• Harden the changed surfaces (atelier-harden) — re-check real/empty/long data, text overflow, i18n/RTL, and error states on anything you restyled; a redesign often breaks these even when it looks better.
• Run the atelier-perf-a11y gate (its scripts/detect.py is a fast first pass on the changed files). Compare before/after on Core Web Vitals (a redesign that tanks LCP/INP is a loss). Spot-check keyboard + screen reader on changed flows.

7. Adversarial review (substantial redesigns)

The perf/a11y gate is the self-check. For a substantial redesign — a real "before → after" with new direction, tokens, and motion — escalate to atelier-review: it red-teams the upgraded build with independent reviewers (a11y, perf, motion, design-fidelity), refutes each finding, and verifies live in a browser, then applies fixes. A redesign is exactly the "substantial build" atelier-review exists for, so don't stop at the self-checklist. (Skip it for a small touch-up — match the rigor to the change.)

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Operating principles

• Audit before you touch. Inventory brand/IA/stack/system first; the existing brand is starting material, not noise.
• Add system, remove tricks — the upgrade is more discipline (tokens, whitespace, real type/grid), not more effects.
• Highest ROI is usually the cheapest: whitespace, type, OKLCH color, one accent, grain.
• Preserve what works — functionality, IA, SEO, accessibility, brand equity. Reversible, per-section changes.
• Gate it, then red-team it — verify perf/a11y didn't regress (atelier-perf-a11y), and for a substantial redesign run the adversarial atelier-review. A redesign isn't done until it's measurably not worse on the fundamentals and clearly better on the craft.