[IMPORTANT] Use TaskCreate to break ALL work into small tasks BEFORE starting — including tasks for each file read. This prevents context loss from long files. For simple tasks, AI MUST ask user whether to skip.

Quick Summary

Goal: Create structured UI/UX design specification documents from requirements or PBIs for developer handoff.

Workflow:

• Read Source — Extract UI requirements from PBI, story, or Figma URL

• Determine Complexity — Quick Spec (sections 1-4) vs Full Spec (all 7 sections)

• Build Component Inventory — List new vs existing components

• Define States & Tokens — Interactions, design tokens, responsive breakpoints

• Save Artifact — Output to team-artifacts/design-specs/

Key Rules:

• If Figma URL provided → auto-routes to /figma-design for context extraction

• If wireframe image provided → auto-routes to /wireframe-to-spec for structured analysis

• If screenshot provided → uses ai-multimodal for design extraction

• Reference existing design system tokens from docs/project-reference/design-system/

• Component patterns: docs/project-reference/frontend-patterns-reference.md

• Include accessibility requirements (keyboard nav, ARIA labels, contrast)

Be skeptical. Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence percentages (Idea should be more than 80%).

Design Specification

Create structured UI/UX design specification documents from requirements or PBIs for developer handoff.

When to Use

• A PBI or user story needs a design spec before implementation

• Translating requirements into concrete UI layout, states, and tokens

• Documenting component inventory and interaction patterns

• Creating responsive breakpoint specifications

When NOT to Use

• This skill auto-routes Figma URLs to /figma-design and wireframes to /wireframe-to-spec — no need to call those skills separately

• Building the actual UI -- use frontend-design

• Full UX research and design process -- use ux-designer

• Reviewing existing UI code -- use web-design-guidelines

Prerequisites

Read before executing:

• The source PBI, user story, or requirements document

• docs/project-reference/design-system/ -- project design tokens (if applicable)

• Existing design specs in team-artifacts/design-specs/ for format consistency

Frontend/UI Context

When this task involves frontend or UI changes, MUST READ .claude/skills/shared/ui-system-context.md and the following docs:

• Frontend patterns: docs/project-reference/frontend-patterns-reference.md

• Styling/BEM guide: docs/project-reference/scss-styling-guide.md

• Design system tokens: docs/project-reference/design-system/README.md

Workflow

Read source input & route by type

Input Detected Detection Action

Figma URL figma.com/design or figma.com/file in text Activate /figma-design to extract context, then continue

Image/screenshot Image file attached to prompt Use ai-multimodal to extract design guidelines, then continue

Hand-drawn wireframe Image + "wireframe"/"sketch" keyword Activate /wireframe-to-spec to generate structured spec, then continue

PBI/story text Acceptance criteria present Extract UI requirements from text, continue

Verbal/text requirements No image, no URL, no PBI Clarify with user, then continue

For ANY visual input: extract design context FIRST, then proceed to spec generation.

Determine spec complexity

IF single form or simple component → Quick Spec (sections 1-4 only) IF full page or multi-component view → Full Spec (all 7 sections) IF multi-page flow → Full Spec + Flow Diagram

Build component inventory

• List all UI components needed

• Identify reusable vs feature-specific components

• Note existing components from shared component library or design system

Define states and interactions

• Default, hover, active, disabled, error, loading, empty states

• User interactions (click, drag, keyboard shortcuts)

• Transitions and animations

Extract design tokens

• Colors, typography, spacing, shadows, border-radius

• Reference existing design system tokens where possible

Document responsive behavior

• Mobile (320-767px), Tablet (768-1023px), Desktop (1024px+)

• What changes at each breakpoint (layout, visibility, sizing)

Save artifact

• Path: team-artifacts/design-specs/{YYMMDD}-designspec-{feature-slug}.md

Output Format

Design Spec: {Feature Name}

Source: {PBI/story reference} Date: {YYMMDD} Status: Draft | Review | Approved

1. Overview

{1-2 sentence summary of what this UI does}

2. Component Inventory

3. Layout

{Description or ASCII wireframe of layout structure}

• Desktop: {layout description}
• Tablet: {layout changes}
• Mobile: {layout changes}

4. Design Tokens

5. States & Interactions

6. Accessibility

• Keyboard navigation order
• ARIA labels for interactive elements
• Color contrast compliance notes

7. Open Questions

• {Any unresolved design decisions}

Examples

Example 1: Simple form spec

Input: "Design spec for employee onboarding form"

Output: Quick Spec with sections 1-4 covering form fields (name, email, department dropdown, start date picker), validation rules, submit/cancel actions, and mobile stacking behavior.

Example 2: Complex dashboard spec

Input: "Design spec for recruitment pipeline dashboard with drag-and-drop columns"

Output: Full Spec covering Kanban board layout, candidate cards (component inventory), drag-and-drop interactions, column states (empty, populated, over-limit), filter bar, responsive collapse to list view on mobile, and accessibility for keyboard drag operations.

Related Skills

Skill When to use instead

ux-designer

Full UX design process with research

figma-design

Extract specs from Figma designs

frontend-design

Build the actual UI implementation

interface-design

Product UI design (dashboards, apps)

web-design-guidelines

Review existing UI for compliance

IMPORTANT Task Planning Notes (MUST FOLLOW)

• Always plan and break work into many small todo tasks

• Always add a final review todo task to verify work quality and identify fixes/enhancements

Workflow Recommendation

IMPORTANT MUST: If you are NOT already in a workflow, use AskUserQuestion to ask the user:

• Activate design-workflow workflow (Recommended) — design-spec → code-review

• Execute /design-spec directly — run this skill standalone