design-expert

design-expert

A paragraph-first, evidence-grounded skill for interface design and others. Build, review, plan, and write UI with the discipline of NNg heuristics, the Universal Design seven principles, anti-AI-slop patterns, a 32-pattern layout catalog, register-aware style files (editorial / expressive), voice taxonomies (UX copy / long-form / marketing), self-review, and a curated 17-designer pantheon.

Design is felt, not enforced. The principles in this skill exist not to constrain but to liberate — when the floor is solid, the ceiling lifts.

khevin.com/design-expert.html

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Install

design-expert ships as a Claude Code plugin under the khev-tools marketplace. Requires a current Claude Code build (run claude --version; update via Homebrew, npm, or the native installer if /plugin isn't recognized).

$ /plugin marketplace add https://github.com/Khevin/khev-tools
# clones over HTTPS · no SSH key required

$ /plugin install design-expert@khev-tools
# SKILL.md loaded · 14 markdown files · 17 design-gods

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Commands — Four verbs. A shared vocabulary.

/design-expert:plan — Plan the design first.

Discovery before pixels. Audience, register, brand voice, anti-references — captured as a brief the rest of the work reads. Stops the model from one-shotting a generic mock.

$ /design-expert:plan checkout flow for a calm clinical SaaS

/design-expert:build — Build it on the bar.

From brief to real screens, real components, real type. Reads your tokens, respects your system, ships code — not a Figma mock the model can't render.

$ /design-expert:build pricing page from PRODUCT.md + DESIGN.md

/design-expert:write — Write copy that holds.

Display lines, microcopy, error states, empty states — written in the voice the brief committed to, not in default-AI breeziness.

$ /design-expert:write hero for a calm clinical SaaS

/design-expert:review — Review with a real reviewer.

The work gets walked, scored against the foundations, and graded. The reviewer cites the principle behind every note — no vibes-based feedback, no "looks great, ship it."

$ /design-expert:review src/pages/pricing.tsx

Plus the skill itself, invoked freely as design-expert.

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Updates

v1.2.0 — May 3, 2026

• Library + Pantheon popovers. Tap any row in 02 — The Library or any Pantheon card; a paper-card dialog lifts off the page. Four designers added; total seventeen.
• Foundations expanded. New grids.md (Swiss + asymmetric); new layouts.md (32 patterns by register); craft.md gains the iteration-sizing framework.
• Register, layout, intent gates wired in. plan opens with a register hard-ask; build's gates 2, 3, 7, 10 enforce register, layout-catalog walk, aspect-ratio inventory, and asset-fit re-check. Per-surface PRODUCT.md + DESIGN.md naming is now standard.
• New taxonomies + self-review + slop catalog. styles/ ships editorial and expressive; voices/ ships ux-copy, long-form (Work&Co tone), and four marketing files by ad-lord (Lois, Bernbach, Gossage, Ogilvy). New self-review.md for end-of-work discipline. Impeccable's catalog folded into anti-slop.md.

v1.0.0 — April 30, 2026

• Initial plugin release. Four commands — plan, build, write, review — backed by a 12-file markdown library and 13 designer-specific reference files in design-gods/.
• Reviewer scores against ten lenses. Foundations, hierarchy, type, color, composition, motion, copy, accessibility, anti-slop, brand fit. Each note cites the principle behind it.
• PROJECT.md awareness. Per-project overrides — audience, brand voice, anti-references — read on every command. Drop one in your repo root.

v0.9 · beta — April 22, 2026

• anti-slop.md graduates. 30+ named patterns the reviewer now flags on sight, each with a recommended replacement.
• Brand vs product registers. The skill picks before it generates — landing pages stop being critiqued for breaking dashboard conventions and vice versa.

v0.5 · alpha — April 8, 2026

• First public alpha. SKILL.md + foundations + craft + a single review command. The reviewer was the seed; everything else grew around it.

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Sources

design-expert is a standalone evolution of three predecessor skills:

• nng-agent — Nielsen Norman Group heuristics, Universal Design 7, anti-defaultism, IBM Carbon, font pairings, decision checklist, review template, confidence framework, data-viz tree
• interface-design by Damola Akinleye — manifesto voice, Intent-First, swap/squint/signature/token tests, subtle layering
• impeccable by Patrick Bakaus — brand vs product register, 0–4 heuristic scoring, shape/teach/document workflow, ux-writing patterns