Frontend Design
Note: This skill is based on Anthropic's frontend-design skill, enhanced with progressive disclosure and extensive reference materials.
Create distinctive, production-grade frontend interfaces that avoid generic "AI slop" aesthetics. Implement real working code with exceptional attention to aesthetic details and creative choices.
Core Workflow
1. Understand Context
The user provides frontend requirements: a component, page, application, or interface to build. They may include context about the purpose, audience, or technical constraints.
2. Design Thinking
Before coding, understand context and commit to a BOLD aesthetic direction:
- Purpose: What problem does this interface solve? Who uses it?
- Tone: Pick an extreme aesthetic direction (see references/aesthetics.md for full list):
- Brutally minimal
- Maximalist chaos
- Retro-futuristic
- Organic/natural
- Luxury/refined
- Playful/toy-like
- Editorial/magazine
- Brutalist/raw
- Art deco/geometric
- Soft/pastel
- Industrial/utilitarian
- Constraints: Technical requirements (framework, performance, accessibility)
- Differentiation: What makes this UNFORGETTABLE? What's the one thing someone will remember?
CRITICAL: Choose a clear conceptual direction and execute it with precision. Bold maximalism and refined minimalism both work - the key is intentionality, not intensity.
3. Implement with Excellence
Create working code (HTML/CSS/JS, React, Vue, etc.) that is:
- Production-grade and functional
- Visually striking and memorable
- Cohesive with a clear aesthetic point-of-view
- Meticulously refined in every detail
Key Design Elements
Focus on these areas (details in references/aesthetics.md):
Typography
Choose fonts that are beautiful, unique, and interesting. Avoid generic fonts like Arial and Inter; opt instead for distinctive choices that elevate the frontend's aesthetics. Pair a distinctive display font with a refined body font.
Color & Theme
Commit to a cohesive aesthetic. Use CSS variables for consistency. Dominant colors with sharp accents outperform timid, evenly-distributed palettes.
Motion
Use animations for effects and micro-interactions. Focus on high-impact moments: one well-orchestrated page load with staggered reveals creates more delight than scattered micro-interactions. Use scroll-triggering and hover states that surprise.
Spatial Composition
Unexpected layouts. Asymmetry. Overlap. Diagonal flow. Grid-breaking elements. Generous negative space OR controlled density.
Backgrounds & Visual Details
Create atmosphere and depth rather than defaulting to solid colors. Add contextual effects and textures that match the overall aesthetic. Apply creative forms like gradient meshes, noise textures, geometric patterns, layered transparencies, dramatic shadows, decorative borders, custom cursors, and grain overlays.
What to Avoid
NEVER use generic AI-generated aesthetics:
- ❌ Overused font families (Inter, Roboto, Arial, system fonts)
- ❌ Cliched color schemes (particularly purple gradients on white backgrounds)
- ❌ Predictable layouts and component patterns
- ❌ Cookie-cutter design that lacks context-specific character
See references/anti-patterns.md for detailed examples of what not to do.
Implementation Complexity
Match implementation complexity to the aesthetic vision:
- Maximalist designs need elaborate code with extensive animations and effects
- Minimalist or refined designs need restraint, precision, and careful attention to spacing, typography, and subtle details
Elegance comes from executing the vision well, regardless of direction.
Design Variation
Interpret creatively and make unexpected choices that feel genuinely designed for the context:
- No design should be the same
- Vary between light and dark themes, different fonts, different aesthetics
- NEVER converge on common choices (Space Grotesk, for example) across generations
Reference Documentation
- references/aesthetics.md - Comprehensive aesthetic directions with color palettes, typography, layouts, and implementation details
- references/examples.md - Real-world examples across aesthetic directions with complete code
- references/anti-patterns.md - Generic patterns to avoid with transformation examples
Remember
The agent is capable of extraordinary creative work. Don't hold back, show what can truly be created when thinking outside the box and committing fully to a distinctive vision.