Desktop UI Design

What this skill is for

Desktop GUI design is the discipline of designing persistent, windowed applications that run as first-class OS processes. Desktop apps have distinct obligations that do not exist on the web: they persist across interactions without reloading, integrate with the operating system's window manager and services, participate in a platform ecosystem governed by published Human Interface Guidelines, and carry deep user muscle-memory from years of OS use.

Load this skill when:

• Designing a native macOS, Windows, or Linux desktop application
• Designing an Electron, Tauri, or Flutter desktop hybrid application
• Designing the menu bar structure, keyboard shortcut vocabulary, or window management model for a desktop app
• Making a design decision that involves OS integration: notifications, clipboard, file system, system tray/Dock
• Specifying application state persistence — what the app remembers between sessions
• Reviewing a desktop app's design for platform convention violations

Do NOT load this skill when:

• The interface is a web application in a browser, even a complex one (→ web-ui-design)
• The interface is a terminal-based TUI (→ tui-design)
• The interface is a command-line tool (→ cli-design)
• Load alongside web-ui-design only if designing a web app that also wraps in a desktop shell, to address the shell-specific design obligations (menu bar, keyboard shortcuts, window state)