design-auditor

Imported from borghei/claude-skills (engineering/design-auditor/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add borghei/claude-skills --skill design-auditor. Copyright stays with the author (MIT + Commons Clause).

Design Auditor

Performs systematic 12-category UI/UX audits, detects AI-generated slop patterns, validates WCAG color contrast, and checks design system token compliance. Produces three independent grades: Design (A-F), AI Slop (A-F), and Accessibility (A-F).

Core Capabilities

• Full design audit — score 12 weighted categories in five passes into a Design grade with prioritized recommendations and baseline comparison.
• AI slop detection — flag visual, copy, and structural slop in HTML/CSS with confidence scores and per-finding remediation.
• Accessibility audit — WCAG color-contrast checking (AA/AAA) with closest-compliant-color suggestions.
• Design-system compliance — detect hardcoded colors, spacing, fonts, radii, shadows, z-indices, and transitions that deviate from tokens; report compliance percentage.
• Three independent grades — Design (weighted aggregate), AI Slop (inverted), Accessibility (WCAG), each A–F.
• Operating system — 10 design principles, fix-session rules with a risk accumulator, and CI/CD gating.

When to Use

• Reviewing a UI/UX design for quality, originality, and accessibility.
• Detecting AI-generated slop patterns in HTML/CSS.
• Validating WCAG color contrast or design-token adherence.
• Gating deployments or PRs on minimum compliance scores.

Clarify First

Before running the audit, settle the inputs below. When one is missing or vague and would change the result, ask about it; when it wouldn't, use a sensible default and say which one you used.

• Audit type: full design score, AI-slop detection, contrast check, or token compliance (selects design_scorer.py vs ai_slop_detector.py vs color_contrast_checker.py vs design_system_validator.py).
• Input artifacts: the findings JSON, HTML/CSS, color pairs, or design-token file (the input each tool requires).
• Conformance level / threshold: WCAG AA vs AAA, slop confidence threshold, and the minimum passing grade (sets --level, --threshold, and the gate).

Ask about the two or three inputs that matter most for this request, not the whole list. If the user wants a result straight away, produce it and state your assumptions at the top.

Tools

All tools support --format json|text and --output for file writing.

References

Load the reference that matches the task — keep this file lean and pull detail on demand:

• references/audit-workflows-and-operations.md — quick-start commands, tools-overview table, the three workflows (full audit, slop detection, accessibility/token compliance), grade tables, the 10 design principles, fix-session rules, CI/CD integration, anti-patterns, and troubleshooting. Read when running an audit end to end.
• references/design_audit_methodology.md — systematic audit approach, heuristic evaluation, Gestalt principles, critique frameworks, and anti-patterns. Read when designing the evaluation pass.
• references/ai_slop_patterns.md — comprehensive catalog of AI-generated UI patterns and remediation guidance. Read when judging originality.
• references/accessibility_checklist.md — full WCAG 2.1 Level A/AA/AAA checklist organized by POUR with testing methodology and fixes. Read when auditing accessibility.

Scope & Limitations

Covers static design quality, AI-slop, WCAG contrast, and design-token compliance auditing for web UI (HTML/CSS). Does not run live browsers, render-test layouts, or replace manual usability research. Accessibility findings are never "Low" priority; WCAG AA is the floor.

Integration Points

Last Updated: June 2026 Version: 2.2.0