Measure rendered UI layout with reproducible spatial metrics and a separately assessed usability review; distinguish measurements from subjective judgments and user tests.
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Use deterministic-design to measure and review [rendered page or screenshot], producing an annotated layout-balance audit and a concise usability improvement plan.
Required inputs
[rendered page or screenshot]
User-approved starter prompt based on a pinned source version; check current skill requirements before running. Task evidence ↗
SKILL.md
name: deterministic-designdescription: "Measure rendered UI layout with reproducible spatial metrics and a separately assessed usability review; distinguish measurements from subjective judgments and user tests."risk: safesource: communitysource_type: communitysource_repo: connerkward/deterministic-design-skilldate_added: "2026-06-16"author: Conner K Wardlicense: MITtags: - design - layout - usability - audit - verification - visiontools: - claude-code - antigravity - cursor - gemini-cli - codex-cli
When to Use
Use to catch AI-generated UI that "looks off", is misaligned or centered-mush, or fails usability — when you need reproducible spatial measurements and an evidence-based usability review. Metrics do not prove user success, accessibility or overall design quality. Compose it with any taste/token design skill before reporting design "done".
8-pt spacing, and layout-audit.js computes centroid / optical-center / pixel-oracle
balance and draws an annotated screenshot. Numbers, not vibes. Plus a render-then-
critique vision loop.
design-ux — usability audit: scores the rendered UI against
Nielsen's 10 + interaction heuristics via an authorized separate judge or clearly disclosed self-review → prioritized fix list.
This improves existing design skills (including the default Anthropic one) by adding the
layer they lack — it doesn't just advise on taste, it renders, measures, and judges the
output. Composable with any design skill.
In central this lives as a subdir of ckw-design; it publishes separately as
deterministic-design-skill (its own distribution) via publish-skill. One of the two
flagship narratives — the determinism one; its sibling is human-in-the-loop (lookdev).
Example
User request:
Review this interface with @deterministic-design, identify the highest-impact design problems, and propose an implementation-ready improvement.
Limitations
Layout metrics and vision-judged audits catch many spatial and usability failures, but they are not a substitute for product judgment or user testing.
The workflow requires a rendered UI or screenshot; record viewport, scale, fonts, capture state and measurement definitions. Separate layout measurements, subjective vision judgments and actual user/accessibility tests.
The linked sub-skills and layout-audit.js are external, not bundled. Read and pin them before use; the link is not executable availability. Delegation requires existing explicit authorization, and screenshots may contain private data.
Automated scoring can miss brand nuance, copy tone, accessibility needs, and domain-specific user expectations.