Individual skill
make-interfaces-feel-better
Design engineering principles for making interfaces feel polished. Use when building UI components, reviewing frontend code, implementing animations, hover states, shadows, borders, typography, icons, micro-interactions, enter/exit animations, or any visual detail work. Supports quick and full review modes. Triggers on UI polish, design details, "make it feel better", "feels off", stagger animations, border radius, optical alignment, font smoothing, tabular numbers, image outlines, box shadows, icons, icon stroke weight, icon states, motion restraint.
skills/make-interfaces-feel-better/SKILL.md
Source commit 35545ea1512ad59fa463e6b1f95ca9c052981fe6
What was checked
- Matches the observed repository HEAD
- Yes
- Scanner rules are current
- Yes
- Repository scan complete
- No
- Skill scan complete
- No
- Observed behavior
- Instructions only
- Last checked
- Nov 9, 2026
These are observations at the recorded commit, not a guarantee of safety. Review the source before running it.
Install this skill
Choose an agent in your Stack or copy a command below. Commands fetch the pinned commit and copy only this skill directory. Existing destinations are refused. Copying a command does not install anything.
An install command is unavailable: current rules, complete repository and skill scans, an eligible behavior level and a permitted license are required.
Repository context
- Repository stars (not skill ratings)
- 3,969
- Repository last updated
- Aug 29, 2026
- License
- MIT
Observed agent integration: No specific integration evidence. Standard SKILL.md installation does not imply verified compatibility.
- design Derived category
- engineering Derived category
- design-interface Derived category
Files and excerpt
File metadata and permitted, redacted excerpts come from the recorded scan. Source links are pinned to that commit.
Browse files
SKILL.mdcore · 11,818 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 11,818 bytesagents/openai.yamlasset · 130 bytesanimations.mddoc · 12,711 bytesicons.mddoc · 2,277 bytesperformance.mddoc · 3,046 bytessurfaces.mddoc · 7,239 bytestypography.mddoc · 4,690 bytes
Read excerpt
# Details that make interfaces feel better
Great interfaces rarely come from a single thing. It's usually a collection of small details that compound into a great experience. Apply these principles when building or reviewing UI code. Before suggesting or writing a fix, identify the project's existing styling system and express the change in that system: Tailwind in a Tailwind project, plain CSS in a CSS project, or the established CSS-in-JS approach. Never introduce a second styling system just to apply a polish fix.
When reviewing, slow the interface down: replay motion at 10% speed in the browser's Animations panel and walk every state: hover, focus, active, loading, empty. What feels off at 10% speed is what's subtly wrong at full speed.
## Quick Reference
| Category | When to Use |
| --- | --- |
| [Typography](typography.md) | Text wrapping, font smoothing, tabular numbers |
| [Surfaces](surfaces.md) | Border radius, optical alignment, shadows, image outlines, hit areas |
| [Animations](animations.md) | Interruptible animations, enter/exit transitions, icon animations, scale on press, motion restraint |
| [Icons](icons.md) | Icon stroke weight, states via `currentColor`, outline vs fill, sizing, RTL flipping |