UI/UX Pro Max - Design Intelligence

Searchable database of UI/UX design rules with priority-based recommendations: 84 styles, 192 color palettes, 74 font pairings, 192 product types with reasoning rules, 98 UX guidelines, 104 icon entries, 16 GSAP motion presets, and 25 chart types across 22 technology stacks.

When to Apply

Use this Skill when the task involves UI structure, visual design decisions, interaction patterns, or user experience quality control: designing new pages, creating/refactoring UI components, choosing color/typography/spacing/layout systems, reviewing UI for UX/accessibility/consistency, implementing navigation/animation/responsive behavior, or improving perceived quality and usability.

Skip it for pure backend logic, API/database design, non-visual performance work, infrastructure/DevOps, or non-visual scripts — unless the task changes how something looks, feels, moves, or is interacted with.

Rule Categories by Priority

Follow priority 1→10 to decide which category to focus on first; use --domain <Domain> to query full details. The full rule text for every category lives in references/quick-reference.md — read it on demand rather than loading it every time.

Priority	Category	Impact	Domain	Key Checks (Must Have)	Anti-Patterns (Avoid)
1	Accessibility	CRITICAL	ux	Contrast 4.5:1, Alt text, Keyboard nav, Aria-labels	Removing focus rings, Icon-only buttons without labels
2	Touch & Interaction	CRITICAL	ux	Min size 44×44px, 8px+ spacing, Loading feedback	Reliance on hover only, Instant state changes (0ms)
3	Performance	HIGH	ux	WebP/AVIF, Lazy loading, Reserve space (CLS < 0.1)	Layout thrashing, Cumulative Layout Shift
4	Style Selection	HIGH	style, product	Match product type, Consistency, SVG icons (no emoji)	Mixing flat & skeuomorphic randomly, Emoji as icons
5	Layout & Responsive	HIGH	ux	Mobile-first breakpoints, Viewport meta, No horizontal scroll	Horizontal scroll, Fixed px container widths, Disable zoom
6	Typography & Color	MEDIUM	typography, color	Base 16px, Line-height 1.5, Semantic color tokens	Text < 12px body, Gray-on-gray, Raw hex in components
7	Animation	MEDIUM	ux, gsap	Duration 150–300ms, Motion conveys meaning, Spatial continuity	Decorative-only animation, Animating width/height, No reduced-motion
8	Forms & Feedback	MEDIUM	ux	Visible labels, Error near field, Helper text, Progressive disclosure	Placeholder-only label, Errors only at top, Overwhelm upfront
9	Navigation Patterns	HIGH	ux	Predictable back, Bottom nav ≤5, Deep linking	Overloaded nav, Broken back behavior, No deep links
10	Charts & Data	LOW	chart	Legends, Tooltips, Accessible colors	Relying on color alone to convey meaning

For the full rule list per category (all ~98 UX guidelines with rationale), read references/quick-reference.md. For app-specific polish rules (icons, touch feedback, dark mode contrast, safe areas) and the canonical pre-delivery checklist, read references/pro-rules.md.

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Running the search tool

The search script lives inside this skill's own directory, not the project directory. Always invoke it by its full path — do not assume a particular working directory:

python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/.claude/skills/ui-ux-pro-max/scripts/search.py" "<query>" --domain <domain>

If python is not found, try python3, then py -3. Requires Python 3.x, no external dependencies (see README for install instructions if Python is missing).

Workflow

Step 1: Analyze User Requirements

Extract from the user request:

• Product type: SaaS, e-commerce, portfolio, dashboard, entertainment, tool, productivity, or hybrid
• Target audience & context: age group, usage context (commute, leisure, work)
• Style keywords: playful, vibrant, minimal, dark mode, content-first, immersive, etc.
• Stack: detect from the project — check package.json deps (react/next/vue/svelte/nuxt/@angular), pubspec.yaml (Flutter), *.xcodeproj/Package.swift (SwiftUI), composer.json (Laravel), or React Native markers (app.json + react-native dep). If nothing is detectable, ask the user or default to html-tailwind. Never assume a stack — a hardcoded default silently misroutes every recommendation.

Step 2: Generate Design System (REQUIRED for new pages/projects)

Always start with --design-system to get comprehensive recommendations with reasoning:

python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/.claude/skills/ui-ux-pro-max/scripts/search.py" "<product_type> <industry> <keywords>" --design-system [-p "Project Name"]

This searches product/style/color/landing/typography domains in parallel, applies reasoning rules from ui-reasoning.csv, and returns pattern, style, colors, typography, effects, and anti-patterns to avoid.

Example:

python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/.claude/skills/ui-ux-pro-max/scripts/search.py" "beauty spa wellness service" --design-system -p "Serenity Spa"

Step 2b: Persist Design System (Master + Overrides Pattern)

To save the design system for retrieval across sessions, add --persist and always pass --output-dir pointed at the project root — without it, files are written relative to whatever directory the tool happens to run from:

python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/.claude/skills/ui-ux-pro-max/scripts/search.py" "<query>" --design-system --persist -p "Project Name" --output-dir "<project-root>"

This creates:

• design-system/<project-slug>/MASTER.md — Global Source of Truth
• design-system/<project-slug>/pages/ — Folder for page-specific overrides

With a page-specific override, add --page "dashboard" to also create design-system/<project-slug>/pages/dashboard.md.

If design-system/<project-slug>/MASTER.md already exists, --persist skips writing and leaves it untouched unless you also pass --force — check whether it exists first (and read it) before regenerating, so you don't silently discard prior decisions the user or a teammate made.

Retrieval when building a specific page:

1. Read design-system/<project-slug>/MASTER.md
2. Check if design-system/<project-slug>/pages/<page-name>.md exists — if so, its rules override Master
3. Otherwise use Master rules exclusively

Step 2c: Design Dials (optional)

Three optional 1-10 sliders that tune --design-system output without changing your query. Add any combination of them to the same command:

python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/.claude/skills/ui-ux-pro-max/scripts/search.py" "<query>" --design-system --variance <1-10> --motion <1-10> --density <1-10>

Dial	Low (1-3)	Mid (4-7)	High (8-10)
--variance	Centered / minimal (biases toward Minimalism-style categories)	Balanced / modern	Bold / asymmetric (biases toward Brutalism, Bento Grids)
--motion	Subtle micro-interactions	Standard scroll/stagger motion	Complex choreography (pin, Flip, SplitText)
--density	Spacious (24-96px spacing scale)	Standard (16-64px, current default)	Dense/dashboard (8-32px spacing scale)

• --motion attaches a ready-to-use GSAP snippet (with framework notes, Do/Don't, and performance notes) pulled from --domain gsap, matched to the resolved tier (Subtle/Standard/Complex).
• --density overrides the --space-* CSS variable table in the ASCII/markdown/MASTER.md output — use it for dashboards (high) vs. marketing pages (low) without hand-editing tokens.
• Leaving a dial unset keeps that part of the output exactly as it was before (no behavior change).

Example:

python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/.claude/skills/ui-ux-pro-max/scripts/search.py" "internal analytics dashboard" --design-system --variance 8 --motion 7 --density 8 -p "Ops Console"

Step 3: Supplement with Detailed Searches (as needed)

python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/.claude/skills/ui-ux-pro-max/scripts/search.py" "<keyword>" --domain <domain> [-n <max_results>]

Need	Domain	Example
Product type patterns	product	--domain product "entertainment social"
More style options	style	--domain style "glassmorphism dark"
Color palettes	color	--domain color "entertainment vibrant"
Font pairings	typography	--domain typography "playful modern"
Individual Google Fonts	google-fonts	--domain google-fonts "sans serif popular variable"
Chart recommendations	chart	--domain chart "real-time dashboard"
UX best practices	ux	--domain ux "animation accessibility"
Landing page structure	landing	--domain landing "hero social-proof"
Icon recommendations	icons	--domain icons "navigation outline"
GSAP animation presets	gsap	--domain gsap "scroll reveal stagger"
React/Next.js performance	react	--domain react "rerender memo list"
App/native interface guidelines	web	--domain web "accessibilityLabel touch safe-areas"

Domain is auto-detected from the query if --domain is omitted — but auto-detection can misroute overlapping terms (e.g. "font" matches both typography and google-fonts). If results look off-topic, pass --domain explicitly.

Step 4: Stack Guidelines

python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/.claude/skills/ui-ux-pro-max/scripts/search.py" "<keyword>" --stack <stack>

Available stacks: react, nextjs, vue, svelte, astro, nuxtjs, nuxt-ui, angular, laravel, swiftui, react-native, flutter, jetpack-compose, html-tailwind, shadcn, threejs, javafx, wpf, winui, avalonia, uno, uwp. Use the stack detected in Step 1.

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If a search returns 0 results

Do not fabricate output. Instead:

1. Retry once with broader or differently-worded keywords (try product + style separately rather than combined).
2. If still empty, fall back to the priority table above and say explicitly to the user that this recommendation came from the built-in defaults, not a database match (e.g. "no palette match for X, using general SaaS defaults").
3. Never present a 0-result search as if it returned data.

Example Workflow

User request: "Make an AI search homepage." (stack detected as Next.js from package.json)

# Step 2: design system
python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/.claude/skills/ui-ux-pro-max/scripts/search.py" "AI search tool modern minimal" --design-system -p "AI Search"

# Step 3: supplement
python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/.claude/skills/ui-ux-pro-max/scripts/search.py" "search loading animation" --domain ux

# Step 4: stack guidelines
python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/.claude/skills/ui-ux-pro-max/scripts/search.py" "suspense streaming bundle" --stack nextjs

Then synthesize the design system + detailed searches and implement.

Output Formats

--design-system supports -f ascii (default, terminal display), -f markdown (documentation), and --json (machine-readable, includes the raw design system dict plus persistence status).

Tips for Better Results

• Use multi-dimensional keywords — combine product + industry + tone + density: "entertainment social vibrant content-dense", not just "app"
• Try different phrasings for the same need: "playful neon" → "vibrant dark" → "content-first minimal"
• Use --design-system first for full recommendations, then --domain to deep-dive any dimension you're unsure about
• Pass the detected stack explicitly for implementation-specific guidance

Problem	What to Do
Can't decide on style/color	Re-run --design-system with different keywords
Dark mode contrast issues	references/quick-reference.md §6: color-dark-mode + color-accessible-pairs
Animations feel unnatural	references/quick-reference.md §7: spring-physics + easing + exit-faster-than-enter
Form UX is poor	references/quick-reference.md §8: inline-validation + error-clarity + focus-management
Navigation feels confusing	references/quick-reference.md §9: nav-hierarchy + bottom-nav-limit + back-behavior
Layout breaks on small screens	references/quick-reference.md §5: mobile-first + breakpoint-consistency
Performance / jank	references/quick-reference.md §3: virtualize-lists + main-thread-budget + debounce-throttle

Before Delivering App UI

Read references/pro-rules.md and run through its canonical Pre-Delivery Checklist. It covers icon/visual-element discipline, interaction feedback, light/dark contrast, safe-area layout, and accessibility — scoped to native/mobile app UI (iOS/Android/React Native/Flutter).