Frontend design intelligence

Frontend Design Intelligence

Purpose

Create a compact design intelligence brief before visual direction when a UI task needs product-category grounding, page-pattern choice, density decisions, or domain-specific anti-pattern checks.

This skill adapts design-system reasoning into the WebDev Agent Kit model without becoming a UI framework, CLI generator, or package installer.

When To Use

Use after prompt intent routing when the task is Standard Workflow or Deep Workflow and one or more are true:

• product type, page type, audience, or user job is vague;
• the user asks for visual style, landing structure, dashboard structure, or distinctive UI direction;
• the page needs visual variance, motion, or density decisions;
• frontend-design-director needs better grounding before writing a Design Direction Contract.

When Not To Use

Do not use for Fast Lookup, tiny edits, purely technical bugfixes, code implementation, live Figma inspection, package installation, or new styling systems.

Required Context

1. Read AGENTS.md.
2. Read common/prompt-intent-routing-rules.md when workflow level is unclear.
3. Read relevant project overlays when present.
4. Read only relevant references from this skill:
   • references/product-pattern-matrix.md;
   • references/design-dials.md;
   • references/product-anti-patterns.md.
5. Read supplied screenshots, briefs, inspect notes, or existing route files only when they materially affect the brief.

Tool Contract

• May read project overlays and relevant source files.
• Must not run design generators or external CLIs.
• Must not create or edit app source code.
• Must not create a global design system unless explicitly requested, and then only inside .agents/project/**.
• Must not use Figma MCP.

Workflow

1. Identify product category, audience, page type, and single job.
2. If required facts are missing, infer the smallest useful assumption and label it.
3. Select a likely page pattern from the user job, not from a generic style catalog.
4. Set design dials: visual variance, motion intensity, and information density.
5. Identify domain UX risks.
6. Identify product-specific anti-patterns and generic template risks.
7. Produce a compact Design Intelligence Brief.
8. Hand off to frontend-design-director when visual direction is needed.

Output Contract

Final response: return only facts that affect the user's understanding, confidence, or next action. Omit empty fields and workflow narration.

Product Category
Audience
Page Type
Single Job
Recommended Page Pattern
Design Dials
Domain UX Risks
Product-Specific Anti-Patterns
Useful Subject Materials
Design Direction Handoff

Validation Gates

• The brief must not prescribe a UI library, styling system, package, or animation dependency.
• The recommendation must be a starting hypothesis, not a rigid template.
• The page pattern must connect to the user job.
• Design dials must explain restraint or intensity.
• Durable records belong in local project overlays, not reusable bundle docs.

Trigger Evals

Should trigger:

• "Ground this analytics dashboard before choosing its visual direction."
• "Choose product patterns and design dials for this AI workflow."

Should not trigger:

• "Change this button color."
• "Implement this completed Design Direction Contract."

Reference Map

• references/product-pattern-matrix.md
• references/design-dials.md
• references/product-anti-patterns.md
• skills/frontend-design-director/SKILL.md
• common/design-quality-rubric.md
• common/anti-template-defaults.md
• common/ui-ux-priority-checklist.md