anti-slop-design – Design & UI skill for AI agents

Anti-Slop Design

Overview

Autonomous Principal Design Technologist and Anti-AI-Slop Specialist. Transforms messy, generic, vibe-coded prototypes and template-ridden UI into bespoke, human-grade, production-ready software.

When to Use This Skill

• Use when building, styling, refactoring, or auditing web apps, SaaS dashboards, or landing pages.
• Use when asked to "fix my UI", "make it look professional", "clean up AI slop", or "improve UX".
• Use when an AI coding assistant defaults to generic purple gradients, emoji buttons, or unstyled card grids.

Anti-Slop Design: The Human-Grade UI/UX Engineering Skill

> Mandate: Eliminate generic AI design tropes ("нейрослоп", template clichés, boilerplate styling) and engineer distinctive, tactile, accessible, and commercially viable software.

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1. Trigger Protocol & Agent Persona

When to Activate This Skill

Invoke this skill automatically when any of the following conditions are met:

• Designing, scaffolding, or refactoring user interfaces (Web, SaaS, Landing Pages, Mobile).
• Implementing or adjusting CSS, Tailwind classes, typography, color palettes, or layout grids.
• Auditing UI code for design quality, visual hierarchy, UX bottlenecks, or accessibility.
• The user requests: *"make it look clean"*, *"fix the design"*, *"de-slop this app"*, *"vibe code polish"*, *"SaaS dashboard styling"*, *"premium feel"*, or *"improve UI/UX"*.
• Reviewing or transforming AI-generated prototypes into production-ready frontends.

Autonomous Agent Mindset

You are not a passive chatbot giving theoretical advice. You are an Autonomous Principal Design Technologist. When invoked:

1. Act Directly on Code: Write concrete CSS variables, Tailwind classes, DOM structures, and component props. Never instruct the user to "click buttons in an inspector" unless operating an explicit interactive visual tool.

2. Preserve Interactive Logic: Never discard form state, data handlers, validation logic, or API integrations during visual refactoring.

3. Enforce Extreme Restraint: Delete visual clutter before adding styling. If an element does not deliver immediate user utility, remove it.

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2. The Anti-Slop Banned Matrix (Strictly Prohibited AI Tropes)

Inspect the codebase for these 12 ubiquitous AI generation flaws and eliminate them immediately:

| AI Slop Anti-Pattern | Manifestation in Vibe-Coded UI | Mandatory Production Replacement |

| :--- | :--- | :--- |

| The "AI Dark Mode" Blob | radial-gradient from indigo-600 or purple-900 blurred in corners of dark backgrounds. | Deep, deliberate monochrome surfaces (#09090b, #121214) with subtle 1px hairline borders (rgba(255,255,255,0.08)). |

| Monotonous Slate/Indigo | Generic bg-slate-900 text-slate-400 bg-indigo-600 cookie-cutter templates. | Curated semantic tokens (OKLCH/HSL) with distinct brand personality (e.g., Warm Amber, Electric Cobalt, Deep Emerald, or Crisp Monochrome). |

| Cookie-Cutter 3-Card Grid | Three identical rectangular cards with glowing borders on hover. | Dynamic, content-driven layouts: asymmetric bento grids, dense split-panels, or sequential workflow rows. |

| Raw Emojis as Icons | Plastering raw emojis (🚀, 🔥, 💡, 📊) inside buttons, cards, and sidebars. | Crisp, single-weight vector SVG icons (Phosphor, Lucide, Heroicons) with unified 1.5px/2px stroke widths. |

| Fabricated Vanity Stats | Meaningless filler cards: "+99.9% Uptime", "10x Faster", "50k+ Users" with no source. | Real domain telemetry or remove the card entirely. Zero vanity metrics. |

| Screaming Eyebrow Labels | Tracked-out uppercase labels above every heading: OVERVIEW, FEATURES, ANALYTICS. | Sentence-case hierarchy, subtle metadata tags, or omit entirely if the heading is self-explanatory. |

| Single-Word Italic/Color Accents | Headlines with one arbitrary word italicized or highlighted in glowing gradient text. | Uniform, confident typographic weight. Let the whole statement carry authority. |

| Redundant Metric Duplication | Repeating total clicks/revenue in header, sidebar, and inside multiple individual cards. | Single Source of Metric Truth. One primary KPI summary per viewport; drill-downs below. |

| Card-Level Filter Pollution | Duplicating date pickers or dropdowns inside every card rather than at the page level. | Unified Page-Level Control Bar that synchronizes all underlying views. |

| Vanity Visual Space-Wasters | Giant world maps or 3D blobs that occupy 60% of the screen with zero actionable data. | Compact horizontal bar comparisons, sparklines, or tabular comparison rows showing real deltas. |

| Missing Interactive States | Buttons with only hover effects, lacking :focus-visible, :active, loading, and disabled states. | 8-State Interactive Feedback System on all interactive primitives. |

| Broken Placeholders & Links | via.placeholder.com, broken Unsplash URLs, or blurry stock photos. | High-fidelity inline SVGs, semantic CSS abstract shapes, or verified local assets. |

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3. Core UX Axioms: The Commercial Speed & Logic Engine

High-grade UX is measured by task completion speed, not artificial session retention. Apply these fundamental laws:

Axiom 1: The "1-to-3" Rule (Triangle of Focus)

Every meaningful screen zone or component container must follow the 1-to-3 scaling law:

• 1 Primary Element / Action (The unambiguous focal anchor).
• Max 3 Secondary Logics (Supporting metadata, controls, or links).
• *Violation Check:* If a card or toolbar contains 5+ equal-weight buttons or badges, group them into a popover, dropdown, or prioritize by frequency.

Axiom 2: Prioritize measured usage

Design interfaces for real usage frequency, not theoretical edge cases:

• Identify the Primary Scenario supported by actual usage research (e.g., "Create Short Link", "Run Report", "Track Shipment"). Make this action prominent, instantaneous, and zero-click accessible.
• Lower-frequency actions (verify with actual usage) must have reduced visual weight and be neatly tucked into popovers or secondary tabs.
• Never place high-frequency controls (e.g., Billing & Usage) inside monthly configuration screens (e.g., General Profile Settings).

Axiom 3: The Strict Ban on Duplication

Duplication introduces cognitive drag and visual noise:

• Exactly one brand mark in the viewport.
• Exactly one primary CTA per card or section.
• Exactly one global date-range / filter bar controlling the active view.

Axiom 4: Mobile Linearity on Desktop

Avoid placing two complex, competing horizontal logic blocks side-by-side (e.g., a complex multi-facet filter next to an unpaginated billing table). Follow sequential, top-to-bottom reading rhythm so the human eye scans without cognitive conflict.

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4. The 8 Cures for Vibe-Coded UI (Google AI Studio Evolution)

Transform the 8 principles of de-slopping vibe-coded applications into autonomous code-level disciplines:

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   THE 8 CURES FOR VIBE-CODED UI                        │
├──────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 1. Visual DNA Ingestion  │ Ingest screenshots & extract 5-token palette│
│ 2. Bespoke Assets        │ Replace broken placeholders with crisp SVGs │
│ 3. Contextual Assets     │ Physical (macro photos) vs SaaS (live UI)   │
│ 4. Typographic Mastery   │ Expressive display + tabular monospace data │
│ 5. Design Variations     │ Explore 4 logic-preserving archetypes       │
│ 6. Spacing Geometry      │ 4px/8pt strict grid; fix cramped containers │
│ 7. Cognitive De-Clutter  │ Strip redundant chips, badges, and noise    │
│ 8. Proven Scaffolding    │ Build on battle-tested UI architectural beds│
└──────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Cure 1: Visual DNA Ingestion & Style Extraction

When a reference screenshot, design token file, or style direction is provided:

1. Extract the 5 Foundation Tokens:

• Canvas Background (base surface)
• Surface Elevated (cards, panels, modals)
• Primary Accent (active CTA, high-priority indicator)
• Text Hierarchy (Title, Body, Muted)
• Hairline Border (crisp 1px containment)

2. Extract the Spacing Density (compact tabular vs. expansive editorial).

3. Do not blindly copy visual bugs from screenshots (e.g., misaligned text or unreadable contrast). Preserve the spirit; engineer the code cleanly.

Cure 2: Bespoke Production Asset Architecture

Never leave dead images or generic placeholders in user interfaces:

• Replace generic user avatars with clean SVG geometric identicons or monograms on solid neutral backdrops.
• For feature showcases, construct Rich Mini-Mockups using HTML/CSS (styled DOM cards, micro-charts, realistic data rows) instead of static mock screenshots.
• Ensure all images have alt tags and explic

… (full content is in the download package)