qualia-framework 2.1.0

package/framework/skills/clarify/SKILL.md

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+---
+name: clarify
+description: Improve unclear UX copy, error messages, microcopy, labels, and instructions. Makes interfaces easier to understand and use.
+user-invokable: true
+args:
+  - name: target
+    description: The feature or component with unclear copy (optional)
+    required: false
+---
+
+Identify and improve unclear, confusing, or poorly written interface text to make the product easier to understand and use.
+
+## Assess Current Copy
+
+Identify what makes the text unclear or ineffective:
+
+1. **Find clarity problems**:
+   - **Jargon**: Technical terms users won't understand
+   - **Ambiguity**: Multiple interpretations possible
+   - **Passive voice**: "Your file has been uploaded" vs "We uploaded your file"
+   - **Length**: Too wordy or too terse
+   - **Assumptions**: Assuming user knowledge they don't have
+   - **Missing context**: Users don't know what to do or why
+   - **Tone mismatch**: Too formal, too casual, or inappropriate for situation
+
+2. **Understand the context**:
+   - Who's the audience? (Technical? General? First-time users?)
+   - What's the user's mental state? (Stressed during error? Confident during success?)
+   - What's the action? (What do we want users to do?)
+   - What's the constraint? (Character limits? Space limitations?)
+
+**CRITICAL**: Clear copy helps users succeed. Unclear copy creates frustration, errors, and support tickets.
+
+## Plan Copy Improvements
+
+Create a strategy for clearer communication:
+
+- **Primary message**: What's the ONE thing users need to know?
+- **Action needed**: What should users do next (if anything)?
+- **Tone**: How should this feel? (Helpful? Apologetic? Encouraging?)
+- **Constraints**: Length limits, brand voice, localization considerations
+
+**IMPORTANT**: Good UX writing is invisible. Users should understand immediately without noticing the words.
+
+## Improve Copy Systematically
+
+Refine text across these common areas:
+
+### Error Messages
+**Bad**: "Error 403: Forbidden"
+**Good**: "You don't have permission to view this page. Contact your admin for access."
+
+**Bad**: "Invalid input"
+**Good**: "Email addresses need an @ symbol. Try: name@example.com"
+
+**Principles**:
+- Explain what went wrong in plain language
+- Suggest how to fix it
+- Don't blame the user
+- Include examples when helpful
+- Link to help/support if applicable
+
+### Form Labels & Instructions
+**Bad**: "DOB (MM/DD/YYYY)"
+**Good**: "Date of birth" (with placeholder showing format)
+
+**Bad**: "Enter value here"
+**Good**: "Your email address" or "Company name"
+
+**Principles**:
+- Use clear, specific labels (not generic placeholders)
+- Show format expectations with examples
+- Explain why you're asking (when not obvious)
+- Put instructions before the field, not after
+- Keep required field indicators clear
+
+### Button & CTA Text
+**Bad**: "Click here" | "Submit" | "OK"
+**Good**: "Create account" | "Save changes" | "Got it, thanks"
+
+**Principles**:
+- Describe the action specifically
+- Use active voice (verb + noun)
+- Match user's mental model
+- Be specific ("Save" is better than "OK")
+
+### Help Text & Tooltips
+**Bad**: "This is the username field"
+**Good**: "Choose a username. You can change this later in Settings."
+
+**Principles**:
+- Add value (don't just repeat the label)
+- Answer the implicit question ("What is this?" or "Why do you need this?")
+- Keep it brief but complete
+- Link to detailed docs if needed
+
+### Empty States
+**Bad**: "No items"
+**Good**: "No projects yet. Create your first project to get started."
+
+**Principles**:
+- Explain why it's empty (if not obvious)
+- Show next action clearly
+- Make it welcoming, not dead-end
+
+### Success Messages
+**Bad**: "Success"
+**Good**: "Settings saved! Your changes will take effect immediately."
+
+**Principles**:
+- Confirm what happened
+- Explain what happens next (if relevant)
+- Be brief but complete
+- Match the user's emotional moment (celebrate big wins)
+
+### Loading States
+**Bad**: "Loading..." (for 30+ seconds)
+**Good**: "Analyzing your data... this usually takes 30-60 seconds"
+
+**Principles**:
+- Set expectations (how long?)
+- Explain what's happening (when it's not obvious)
+- Show progress when possible
+- Offer escape hatch if appropriate ("Cancel")
+
+### Confirmation Dialogs
+**Bad**: "Are you sure?"
+**Good**: "Delete 'Project Alpha'? This can't be undone."
+
+**Principles**:
+- State the specific action
+- Explain consequences (especially for destructive actions)
+- Use clear button labels ("Delete project" not "Yes")
+- Don't overuse confirmations (only for risky actions)
+
+### Navigation & Wayfinding
+**Bad**: Generic labels like "Items" | "Things" | "Stuff"
+**Good**: Specific labels like "Your projects" | "Team members" | "Settings"
+
+**Principles**:
+- Be specific and descriptive
+- Use language users understand (not internal jargon)
+- Make hierarchy clear
+- Consider information scent (breadcrumbs, current location)
+
+## Apply Clarity Principles
+
+Every piece of copy should follow these rules:
+
+1. **Be specific**: "Enter email" not "Enter value"
+2. **Be concise**: Cut unnecessary words (but don't sacrifice clarity)
+3. **Be active**: "Save changes" not "Changes will be saved"
+4. **Be human**: "Oops, something went wrong" not "System error encountered"
+5. **Be helpful**: Tell users what to do, not just what happened
+6. **Be consistent**: Use same terms throughout (don't vary for variety)
+
+**NEVER**:
+- Use jargon without explanation
+- Blame users ("You made an error" → "This field is required")
+- Be vague ("Something went wrong" without explanation)
+- Use passive voice unnecessarily
+- Write overly long explanations (be concise)
+- Use humor for errors (be empathetic instead)
+- Assume technical knowledge
+- Vary terminology (pick one term and stick with it)
+- Repeat information (headers restating intros, redundant explanations)
+- Use placeholders as the only labels (they disappear when users type)
+
+## Verify Improvements
+
+Test that copy improvements work:
+
+- **Comprehension**: Can users understand without context?
+- **Actionability**: Do users know what to do next?
+- **Brevity**: Is it as short as possible while remaining clear?
+- **Consistency**: Does it match terminology elsewhere?
+- **Tone**: Is it appropriate for the situation?
+
+Remember: You're a clarity expert with excellent communication skills. Write like you're explaining to a smart friend who's unfamiliar with the product. Be clear, be helpful, be human.

package/framework/skills/colorize/SKILL.md

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+---
+name: colorize
+description: Add strategic color to features that are too monochromatic or lack visual interest. Makes interfaces more engaging and expressive.
+user-invokable: true
+args:
+  - name: target
+    description: The feature or component to colorize (optional)
+    required: false
+---
+
+Strategically introduce color to designs that are too monochromatic, gray, or lacking in visual warmth and personality.
+
+## MANDATORY PREPARATION
+
+### Read DESIGN.md (Authoritative Source)
+
+Before any context gathering, check for the project's design decisions file:
+
+```bash
+cat .planning/DESIGN.md 2>/dev/null
+```
+
+**If DESIGN.md exists:** This is the authoritative source for all design decisions in this project. Use its palette, typography, spacing, component, and motion decisions as your foundation. Do NOT override these decisions unless the user explicitly asks. Reference specific DESIGN.md decisions in your output (e.g., "Per DESIGN.md, the primary color is...").
+
+**If DESIGN.md does not exist:** Proceed with normal context gathering below. Consider suggesting the user run `/qualia:discuss-phase` to establish design decisions.
+
+### Context Gathering (Do This First)
+
+You cannot do a great job without having necessary context, such as target audience (critical), desired use-cases (critical), brand personality/tone, and especially existing brand colors.
+
+Attempt to gather these from the current thread or codebase.
+
+1. If you don't find *exact* information and have to infer from existing design and functionality, you MUST STOP and STOP and call the AskUserQuestionTool to clarify. whether you got it right.
+2. Otherwise, if you can't fully infer or your level of confidence is medium or lower, you MUST STOP and call the AskUserQuestionTool to clarify. clarifying questions first to complete your context.
+
+Do NOT proceed until you have answers. Guessing leads to generic AI slop colors.
+
+### Use frontend-master skill
+
+Use the frontend-master skill for design principles and anti-patterns. Do NOT proceed until it has executed and you know all DO's and DON'Ts.
+
+---
+
+## Assess Color Opportunity
+
+Analyze the current state and identify opportunities:
+
+1. **Understand current state**:
+   - **Color absence**: Pure grayscale? Limited neutrals? One timid accent?
+   - **Missed opportunities**: Where could color add meaning, hierarchy, or delight?
+   - **Context**: What's appropriate for this domain and audience?
+   - **Brand**: Are there existing brand colors we should use?
+
+2. **Identify where color adds value**:
+   - **Semantic meaning**: Success (green), error (red), warning (yellow/orange), info (blue)
+   - **Hierarchy**: Drawing attention to important elements
+   - **Categorization**: Different sections, types, or states
+   - **Emotional tone**: Warmth, energy, trust, creativity
+   - **Wayfinding**: Helping users navigate and understand structure
+   - **Delight**: Moments of visual interest and personality
+
+If any of these are unclear from the codebase, STOP and call the AskUserQuestionTool to clarify.
+
+**CRITICAL**: More color ≠ better. Strategic color beats rainbow vomit every time. Every color should have a purpose.
+
+## Plan Color Strategy
+
+Create a purposeful color introduction plan:
+
+- **Color palette**: What colors match the brand/context? (Choose 2-4 colors max beyond neutrals)
+- **Dominant color**: Which color owns 60% of colored elements?
+- **Accent colors**: Which colors provide contrast and highlights? (30% and 10%)
+- **Application strategy**: Where does each color appear and why?
+
+**IMPORTANT**: Color should enhance hierarchy and meaning, not create chaos. Less is more when it matters more.
+
+## Introduce Color Strategically
+
+Add color systematically across these dimensions:
+
+### Semantic Color
+- **State indicators**:
+  - Success: Green tones (emerald, forest, mint)
+  - Error: Red/pink tones (rose, crimson, coral)
+  - Warning: Orange/amber tones
+  - Info: Blue tones (sky, ocean, indigo)
+  - Neutral: Gray/slate for inactive states
+
+- **Status badges**: Colored backgrounds or borders for states (active, pending, completed, etc.)
+- **Progress indicators**: Colored bars, rings, or charts showing completion or health
+
+### Accent Color Application
+- **Primary actions**: Color the most important buttons/CTAs
+- **Links**: Add color to clickable text (maintain accessibility)
+- **Icons**: Colorize key icons for recognition and personality
+- **Headers/titles**: Add color to section headers or key labels
+- **Hover states**: Introduce color on interaction
+
+### Background & Surfaces
+- **Tinted backgrounds**: Replace pure gray (`#f5f5f5`) with warm neutrals (`oklch(97% 0.01 60)`) or cool tints (`oklch(97% 0.01 250)`)
+- **Colored sections**: Use subtle background colors to separate areas
+- **Gradient backgrounds**: Add depth with subtle, intentional gradients (not generic purple-blue)
+- **Cards & surfaces**: Tint cards or surfaces slightly for warmth
+
+**Use OKLCH for color**: It's perceptually uniform, meaning equal steps in lightness *look* equal. Great for generating harmonious scales.
+
+### Data Visualization
+- **Charts & graphs**: Use color to encode categories or values
+- **Heatmaps**: Color intensity shows density or importance
+- **Comparison**: Color coding for different datasets or timeframes
+
+### Borders & Accents
+- **Accent borders**: Add colored left/top borders to cards or sections
+- **Underlines**: Color underlines for emphasis or active states
+- **Dividers**: Subtle colored dividers instead of gray lines
+- **Focus rings**: Colored focus indicators matching brand
+
+### Typography Color
+- **Colored headings**: Use brand colors for section headings (maintain contrast)
+- **Highlight text**: Color for emphasis or categories
+- **Labels & tags**: Small colored labels for metadata or categories
+
+### Decorative Elements
+- **Illustrations**: Add colored illustrations or icons
+- **Shapes**: Geometric shapes in brand colors as background elements
+- **Gradients**: Colorful gradient overlays or mesh backgrounds
+- **Blobs/organic shapes**: Soft colored shapes for visual interest
+
+## Balance & Refinement
+
+Ensure color addition improves rather than overwhelms:
+
+### Maintain Hierarchy
+- **Dominant color** (60%): Primary brand color or most used accent
+- **Secondary color** (30%): Supporting color for variety
+- **Accent color** (10%): High contrast for key moments
+- **Neutrals** (remaining): Gray/black/white for structure
+
+### Accessibility
+- **Contrast ratios**: Ensure WCAG compliance (4.5:1 for text, 3:1 for UI components)
+- **Don't rely on color alone**: Use icons, labels, or patterns alongside color
+- **Test for color blindness**: Verify red/green combinations work for all users
+
+### Cohesion
+- **Consistent palette**: Use colors from defined palette, not arbitrary choices
+- **Systematic application**: Same color meanings throughout (green always = success)
+- **Temperature consistency**: Warm palette stays warm, cool stays cool
+
+**NEVER**:
+- Use every color in the rainbow (choose 2-4 colors beyond neutrals)
+- Apply color randomly without semantic meaning
+- Put gray text on colored backgrounds—it looks washed out; use a darker shade of the background color or transparency instead
+- Use pure gray for neutrals—add subtle color tint (warm or cool) for sophistication
+- Use pure black (`#000`) or pure white (`#fff`) for large areas
+- Violate WCAG contrast requirements
+- Use color as the only indicator (accessibility issue)
+- Make everything colorful (defeats the purpose)
+- Default to purple-blue gradients (AI slop aesthetic)
+
+## Verify Color Addition
+
+Test that colorization improves the experience:
+
+- **Better hierarchy**: Does color guide attention appropriately?
+- **Clearer meaning**: Does color help users understand states/categories?
+- **More engaging**: Does the interface feel warmer and more inviting?
+- **Still accessible**: Do all color combinations meet WCAG standards?
+- **Not overwhelming**: Is color balanced and purposeful?
+
+Remember: Color is emotional and powerful. Use it to create warmth, guide attention, communicate meaning, and express personality. But restraint and strategy matter more than saturation and variety. Be colorful, but be intentional.

package/framework/skills/critique/SKILL.md

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+---
+name: critique
+description: Evaluate design effectiveness from a UX perspective. Assesses visual hierarchy, information architecture, emotional resonance, and overall design quality with actionable feedback.
+user-invokable: true
+args:
+  - name: area
+    description: The feature or area to critique (optional)
+    required: false
+---
+
+Conduct a holistic design critique, evaluating whether the interface actually works—not just technically, but as a designed experience. Think like a design director giving feedback.
+
+**First**: Use the frontend-master skill for design principles and anti-patterns.
+
+**Then**: Read the project's design decisions:
+
+```bash
+cat .planning/DESIGN.md 2>/dev/null
+```
+
+If DESIGN.md exists, use it as the authoritative source for this project's design direction. Reference its decisions when evaluating the interface (e.g., "DESIGN.md specifies warm palette — this blue accent is inconsistent"). If DESIGN.md does not exist, proceed with general design principles from frontend-master.
+
+## Design Critique
+
+Evaluate the interface across these dimensions:
+
+### 1. AI Slop Detection (CRITICAL)
+
+**This is the most important check.** Does this look like every other AI-generated interface from 2024-2025?
+
+Review the design against ALL the **DON'T** guidelines in the frontend-master skill—they are the fingerprints of AI-generated work. Check for the AI color palette, gradient text, dark mode with glowing accents, glassmorphism, hero metric layouts, identical card grids, generic fonts, and all other tells.
+
+**The test**: If you showed this to someone and said "AI made this," would they believe you immediately? If yes, that's the problem.
+
+### 2. Visual Hierarchy
+- Does the eye flow to the most important element first?
+- Is there a clear primary action? Can you spot it in 2 seconds?
+- Do size, color, and position communicate importance correctly?
+- Is there visual competition between elements that should have different weights?
+
+### 3. Information Architecture
+- Is the structure intuitive? Would a new user understand the organization?
+- Is related content grouped logically?
+- Are there too many choices at once? (cognitive overload)
+- Is the navigation clear and predictable?
+
+### 4. Emotional Resonance
+- What emotion does this interface evoke? Is that intentional?
+- Does it match the brand personality?
+- Does it feel trustworthy, approachable, premium, playful—whatever it should feel?
+- Would the target user feel "this is for me"?
+
+### 5. Discoverability & Affordance
+- Are interactive elements obviously interactive?
+- Would a user know what to do without instructions?
+- Are hover/focus states providing useful feedback?
+- Are there hidden features that should be more visible?
+
+### 6. Composition & Balance
+- Does the layout feel balanced or uncomfortably weighted?
+- Is whitespace used intentionally or just leftover?
+- Is there visual rhythm in spacing and repetition?
+- Does asymmetry feel designed or accidental?
+
+### 7. Typography as Communication
+- Does the type hierarchy clearly signal what to read first, second, third?
+- Is body text comfortable to read? (line length, spacing, size)
+- Do font choices reinforce the brand/tone?
+- Is there enough contrast between heading levels?
+
+### 8. Color with Purpose
+- Is color used to communicate, not just decorate?
+- Does the palette feel cohesive?
+- Are accent colors drawing attention to the right things?
+- Does it work for colorblind users? (not just technically—does meaning still come through?)
+
+### 9. States & Edge Cases
+- Empty states: Do they guide users toward action, or just say "nothing here"?
+- Loading states: Do they reduce perceived wait time?
+- Error states: Are they helpful and non-blaming?
+- Success states: Do they confirm and guide next steps?
+
+### 10. Microcopy & Voice
+- Is the writing clear and concise?
+- Does it sound like a human (the right human for this brand)?
+- Are labels and buttons unambiguous?
+- Does error copy help users fix the problem?
+
+## Generate Critique Report
+
+Structure your feedback as a design director would:
+
+### Anti-Patterns Verdict
+**Start here.** Pass/fail: Does this look AI-generated? List specific tells from the skill's Anti-Patterns section. Be brutally honest.
+
+### Overall Impression
+A brief gut reaction—what works, what doesn't, and the single biggest opportunity.
+
+### What's Working
+Highlight 2-3 things done well. Be specific about why they work.
+
+### Priority Issues
+The 3-5 most impactful design problems, ordered by importance:
+
+For each issue:
+- **What**: Name the problem clearly
+- **Why it matters**: How this hurts users or undermines goals
+- **Fix**: What to do about it (be concrete)
+- **Command**: Which command to use (prefer: /animate, /design-quieter, /clarify, /distill, /delight, /onboard, /normalize, /responsive, /harden, /polish, /bolder, /colorize)
+
+### Minor Observations
+Quick notes on smaller issues worth addressing.
+
+### Questions to Consider
+Provocative questions that might unlock better solutions:
+- "What if the primary action were more prominent?"
+- "Does this need to feel this complex?"
+- "What would a confident version of this look like?"
+
+**Remember**:
+- Be direct—vague feedback wastes everyone's time
+- Be specific—"the submit button" not "some elements"
+- Say what's wrong AND why it matters to users
+- Give concrete suggestions, not just "consider exploring..."
+- Prioritize ruthlessly—if everything is important, nothing is
+- Don't soften criticism—developers need honest feedback to ship great design