Frontend Design (UI/UX)

Comprehensive skill for creating beautiful, accessible, and performant user interfaces. This curated skill merges expertise from 11 specialized frontend/UI skills covering design systems, component libraries, CSS frameworks, accessibility patterns, and visual design principles.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Building UI components with React, Vue, or Next.js
• Implementing design systems (shadcn/ui, Radix UI, fpkit)
• Styling with Tailwind CSS, CSS Modules, or CSS-in-JS
• Creating responsive, mobile-first layouts
• Implementing dark mode and theme customization
• Building accessible components (WCAG 2.2 compliance)
• Generating design tokens from Figma
• Creating component libraries with TypeScript
• Rapid prototyping with immediate visual feedback
• Evaluating and improving UI quality with Playwright
• A/B testing UI variations

Quick Start Decision Tree

User Request -> What is the goal?
    |
    +-- Creating new UI component?
    |   +-- Simple component -> Quick Start: Component Creation
    |   +-- Full page/app -> Workflow 1: Full UI Creation
    |   +-- shadcn/ui component -> Use shadcn_add.py script
    |   +-- fpkit component -> Use scaffold_component.py script
    |
    +-- Styling existing UI?
    |   +-- Tailwind CSS -> Load references/tailwind-utilities.md
    |   +-- CSS Variables -> Load references/css-variables.md
    |   +-- Theme customization -> Load references/shadcn-theming.md
    |
    +-- Design system work?
    |   +-- Design tokens from Figma -> Use extract_tokens.py, transform_tokens.py
    |   +-- Token validation -> Use validate_tokens.py
    |   +-- Component library setup -> Load references/component-patterns.md
    |
    +-- Accessibility concerns?
    |   +-- WCAG compliance -> Load references/accessibility-guidelines.md
    |   +-- Audit existing UI -> Use audit_accessibility.sh
    |   +-- Accessible patterns -> Load references/accessibility-patterns.md
    |
    +-- Evaluating/Testing UI?
    |   +-- Quality evaluation -> Use evaluate-ui.ts
    |   +-- A/B comparison -> Use compare-variations.ts
    |   +-- CSS validation -> Use validate_css_vars.py
    |
    +-- Performance optimization?
        +-- Load references/PERFORMANCE_OPTIMIZATION.md
        +-- Core Web Vitals guidance

Core Stack Architecture

The Three Pillars

Layer 1: TailwindCSS (Styling Foundation)

• Utility-first CSS framework with build-time generation
• Zero runtime overhead, minimal production bundles
• Design tokens: colors, spacing, typography, breakpoints
• Responsive utilities and dark mode support

Layer 2: Radix UI (Behavior & Accessibility)

• Unstyled, accessible component primitives
• WAI-ARIA compliant with keyboard navigation
• Focus management and screen reader support
• Unopinionated - full styling control

Layer 3: shadcn/ui (Beautiful Components)

• Pre-built components = Radix primitives + Tailwind styling
• Copy-paste distribution (you own the code)
• Built-in React Hook Form + Zod validation
• Customizable variants with type safety

Key Principle: Each layer enhances the one below. Start with Tailwind for styling, add Radix for accessible behavior, use shadcn/ui for complete components.

Quick Start: Component Setup

shadcn/ui + Tailwind Setup

# Initialize shadcn/ui (includes Tailwind)
npx shadcn@latest init

# Add components
npx shadcn@latest add button card dialog form

# Or use the automation script
python scripts/shadcn_add.py button card dialog

Basic Component Example

import { Button } from "@/components/ui/button"
import { Card, CardHeader, CardTitle, CardContent } from "@/components/ui/card"

export function Dashboard() {
  return (
    <div className="container mx-auto p-6 grid gap-6 md:grid-cols-2 lg:grid-cols-3">
      <Card className="hover:shadow-lg transition-shadow">
        <CardHeader>
          <CardTitle className="text-2xl font-bold">Analytics</CardTitle>
        </CardHeader>
        <CardContent className="space-y-4">
          <p className="text-muted-foreground">View your metrics</p>
          <Button variant="default" className="w-full">
            View Details
          </Button>
        </CardContent>
      </Card>
    </div>
  )
}

Design Token System

Three-Tier Token Architecture

:root {
  /* Tier 1: Primitives (immutable) */
  --gray-50: 250 250 250;
  --gray-900: 24 24 27;
  --blue-500: oklch(0.55 0.22 264);

  /* Tier 2: Semantics (theme-aware) */
  --background: var(--gray-50);
  --foreground: var(--gray-900);
  --primary: var(--blue-500);

  /* Tier 3: Components */
  --button-height: 2.5rem;
  --card-padding: 1.5rem;
}

.dark {
  /* Only semantic tokens change */
  --background: var(--gray-900);
  --foreground: var(--gray-50);
}

Figma to Code Workflow

python scripts/extract_tokens.py --file-key YOUR_FIGMA_KEY
python scripts/transform_tokens.py tokens.json --format css
python scripts/validate_tokens.py tokens.json

Load references: references/DESIGN_TOKENS.md, references/token-naming-conventions.md

Accessibility Standards

WCAG 2.2 Contrast Requirements

Accessibility Checklist

• [ ] Semantic HTML (<button>, <nav>, <main>, <article>)
• [ ] All interactive elements keyboard accessible
• [ ] Proper ARIA attributes (aria-label, aria-describedby)
• [ ] Visible focus indicators
• [ ] Color contrast meets WCAG AA (4.5:1 for text)
• [ ] Screen reader friendly labels
• [ ] No keyboard traps
• [ ] Skip links for navigation

Radix UI Built-In Guarantees

• ARIA attributes applied correctly
• Keyboard navigation functional
• Focus management and trapping automatic
• Screen reader compatible

Load references: references/accessibility-guidelines.md, references/accessibility-patterns.md

Best Practices Summary

Do

• Use semantic HTML elements
• Follow mobile-first responsive design
• Maintain WCAG AA compliance (4.5:1 contrast)
• Use design tokens consistently
• Compose components from primitives
• Test with keyboard navigation
• Validate CSS variables before commit
• Use TypeScript for type safety

Don't

• Use px units (use rem)
• Skip accessibility testing
• Override Radix UI ARIA attributes
• Use dynamic Tailwind class names
• Nest interactive elements (<button> in <a>)
• Over-compose (keep depth <= 3 levels)
• Ignore Core Web Vitals
• Use hardcoded colors/spacing

Anti-Patterns

• Copy-pasting entire component libraries without understanding — shadcn/ui is copy-paste by design, but you must understand what you copy; blindly adding 30 components bloats your bundle
• Overriding Radix ARIA attributes — Radix provides correct accessibility out of the box; overriding role or aria-* attributes usually makes things worse, not better
• Dynamic Tailwind class construction — className={\text-${color}-${shade}\} does not work because Tailwind purges unreferenced classes; use className={variants[color]} with safelist instead
• Using px instead of rem — px does not scale with user font-size preferences; rem respects browser zoom and accessibility settings
• Skipping focus indicators for aesthetics — visible focus is a WCAG requirement; style it with focus-visible: instead of removing it
• Nested interactive elements — <button> inside <a> or vice versa creates ambiguous activation targets and violates HTML spec
• Theme tokens that only change colors — a proper dark mode also adjusts shadows, borders, and opacity; only swapping colors creates jarring, inconsistent dark mode

See Extended Patterns for detailed component examples, styling patterns, file organization, scripts reference, and reference quick guide.

External Resources

• TailwindCSS: https://tailwindcss.com/docs
• Radix UI: https://www.radix-ui.com/primitives
• shadcn/ui: https://ui.shadcn.com | https://ui.shadcn.com/llms.txt
• WCAG Guidelines: https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/quickref/
• OKLCH Color Space: https://evilmartians.com/chronicles/oklch-in-css-why-quit-rgb-hsl
• WebAIM Contrast Checker: https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/

Skill Version: 1.0.0 Last Updated: 2025-01-18 Source Skills: 11 merged Total Resources: 107 files