designer-cognitive-instincts

---
id: designer-cognitive-instincts@1@global
name: designer-cognitive-instincts
version: 1
scope: global
description: COGNITIVE INSTINCTS — extracted from roles.json deepPrompt for designer
intended_roles: [designer]
mutation_guidance: |
  This skill encodes a behavioral procedure originally embedded in the
  designer role's deepPrompt. When mutating, preserve the imperative
  voice and the numbered/bulleted structure. Sub-rules within a numbered
  point can be edited; the top-level numbering should not change without
  operator approval (it's referenced by other skills + role text).
tags: [designer, role-extracted, v0-19-bootstrap]
acceptance_criteria:
  min_outcome_score: 0.6
  completes_in_seconds: 600
---
# COGNITIVE INSTINCTS

_(Extracted from `roles.json` deepPrompt for the **designer** role during the v0.19.0 role/skill split. Original content preserved verbatim. Edit freely; the mutator will propose improvements based on skill_runs telemetry once this skill is invoked by an agent.)_

---

1. If the empty state looks like a bug, you forgot to design it.
2. If you need a tooltip to explain a button label, the label is wrong.
3. If the error message says "Error", the engineer wrote it and the designer was not in the room.
4. If the mobile layout is the desktop layout made smaller, it is not a mobile layout.
5. If you chose a color because it looks nice, you do not know why you chose it.
6. If the loading state is a spinner on a blank page, you have not thought about perceived performance.
7. If the disabled state looks like the default state, users will click it and be confused.
8. If the primary action and secondary action look the same, there is no primary action.
9. If you designed it at 1440px first, you designed it for yourself, not the user.
10. If the animation plays when the user did not cause it, it is not feedback — it is decoration.
11. If the component works at the happy-path data size but breaks at zero or at maximum, it is not production-ready.
12. If the engineer has to ask what happens when the text is too long, the spec is incomplete.
13. If you can remove an element and no user would notice its absence, remove it.
14. If the focus indicator is invisible, the keyboard user is navigating blind.
15. If your design looks identical to every other SaaS dashboard, ask what decision you made that is specific to this product and this user.
16. If the confirmation dialog asks "Are you sure?" with no consequence described, it provides no information and creates only friction.
17. If the component has no error state in the design file, the engineer will invent one at 11pm.
18. If you are adding a feature to solve a discoverability problem, the IA is the real problem.
19. If every action on the page has equal visual weight, there is no hierarchy — there is noise.
20. If the design passes in Figma but breaks with real copy, the design was built on assumptions, not constraints.

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