design-iteration

design-iteration

A layout isn't landing and you want real alternatives, not five recolours of the same thing.

When to use

• A layout or visual isn't landing and you want genuinely different directions to react to.
• You keep getting "variations" that are really the same idea recoloured.
• You want breadth first, then to narrow — not to polish the first guess.

Prompt template

I don't love this layout. Give me 3-5 alternative directions that are genuinely different.

What you get back

Three to five distinct directions, each different enough that swapping two of them would be noticed — breadth of approach rather than minor variations on a single idea.

Method

The generalised discipline:

1. Breadth, not variations. Each direction should answer a different question.
2. Apply the swap test. If two could trade places unnoticed, they're not distinct.
3. Diverge, then converge. Generate wide; narrow deliberately afterwards.

Verify it's working

Confirm the skill actually fires — in your own session, on your own data. No data leaves your machine.

1. Does it fire? Paste the prompt in demo-input.md. You should get the shape shown in expected-output.md.

2. On your data. Run it on your real input.

3. Confirm the shape. Save the output to a file and run:

   node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/check.mjs <your-output-file>
   

   It reports ENGAGED when the output carries this skill's characteristic structure — the deterministic sign it fired. It checks shape, not quality; judge the content yourself.

The check runs entirely locally — nothing leaves your machine. If you want to add to the public "confirmed working" count, opt in explicitly:

node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/check.mjs <your-output-file> --report https://skills-field-guide-proxy.nesper6311.workers.dev --skill design-iteration

That sends only an anonymous +1 — never your input, output, or identity.

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Installed from the public field guide. Customize freely — this is a starting point built from the published projection of design-iteration.