frontend design deslop

AI-generated UI looks generic for two reasons. First, with no constraints the model samples the statistical median of 2019-2024 web code, which is Tailwind UI's bg-indigo-500, Inter, rounded cards, and soft shadows. You cannot out-prompt a vacuum. Second, and deeper: designing before you know what you are designing. A corporate landing page, a creative portfolio, a developer-tool landing page, an analytics dashboard, and an ecommerce product page share almost no design DNA. A beautiful aesthetic that fights the artifact's job is its own slop.

The fix is a discipline borrowed from brand design: strategy drives design. Commit to words first (what this is, who it serves, the adjectives it must feel like), then translate those words into a typography and color system, then build from tokens, then apply the craft layer (layout, components, motion, iconography, imagery, dark mode, accessibility), then audit. Never pick aesthetics first. Target the convergence mechanism, not a frozen blocklist; the slop fingerprint shifts over time (purple gradients in 2022, cream backgrounds and italic-serif heroes in 2026).

This skill does two jobs at once: it de-slops the default AI look, and it designs applications well. A distinctive theme on top of careless components, weak layout, or thoughtless motion still reads as amateur. The mechanisms behind every choice live in references/design-theory.md (hierarchy, Gestalt, CRAP, signal-vs-noise, affordances, the interaction laws); read it once so the rest is reasoning rather than rule-following.

Asking questions (CRITICAL)

ALWAYS use the AskUserQuestion tool for ANY question to the user. Never ask questions as plain text output. The tool gives a guided, interactive experience with structured options that the user can answer in one tap. Every single user question must go through this tool. (On claude.ai the equivalent tool is ask_user_input_v0; use whichever structured question tool the environment provides.)

Discipline on top of that rule: batch related questions, offer 2 to 4 concrete options each, and ask only the high-signal subset that changes the design system. Infer from context first and confirm inferences rather than re-asking. The bank is generous; the asking is selective. Do not interrogate.

Phase 0: Discover and commit to words (do this FIRST, before any code)

First, check for an existing DESIGN.md at the project root (and common locations like docs/). If one exists, read it, honor its tokens, skip the questions it already answers, and extend it rather than starting over. If none exists, resolve three things before any pixel. Read references/discovery.md for the full protocol, question bank, and the personality-to-token translation table, and references/artifact-types.md for per-type priorities.