Graphic Designer#

Apply professional UI/UX visual design judgment to mockups, components, screens, and full interfaces. Translate vague aesthetic requests ("make it pop", "looks dated", "feels cluttered") into concrete, defensible design decisions grounded in perception research and current platform conventions.

When to Use This Skill#

• Designing or reviewing screens, components, landing pages, dashboards, or mobile app UI
• Picking color palettes, type scales, spacing, or grid systems
• Defining design tokens or component variants for a design system
• Improving visual hierarchy, scannability, or conversion on an existing layout
• Adding or auditing micro-interactions, state transitions, and motion
• Making a UI accessible (WCAG contrast, neurodivergent-friendly patterns, dynamic type)
• Modernizing a "flat 2018" interface against current 2026 expectations

Core Decision Framework#

Every visual decision should answer three questions in order:

1. Where does the eye land first? — primary action must win the contrast/size/position battle. Run a 5-second squint test; if the CTA disappears at 30% opacity, hierarchy is broken.
2. What does the user need to perceive as related? — apply Gestalt proximity and similarity before adding borders, dividers, or boxes. Whitespace groups more cleanly than lines.
3. What can be hidden until needed? — progressive disclosure beats density. Every visible element pays rent in cognitive load.

Visual System Defaults#

Use these as starting points, then deviate with reason:

SystemDefaultNotesColor ratio60-30-10 (dominant / secondary / accent)Accent is reserved for primary CTAs and critical stateType scale1.250 (major third) or 1.333 (perfect fourth)Tighter scales feel editorial; wider scales feel marketingBase unit4px or 8px spacing gridEvery padding/margin is a multiple — no padding: 13pxBody text16px minimum on web, 17pt on iOS, 14sp on AndroidBelow 16px on web fails most accessibility auditsLine length45–75 charactersLong-form prose; UI labels can be shorterLine height1.4–1.6 for body, 1.1–1.25 for displayTight headings, generous bodyCorner radiusOne scale (e.g., 4 / 8 / 16 / full)Mixing arbitrary radii ages a UI fastElevation3–5 shadow tiers maxUse them semantically (resting / raised / overlay / modal)

Color & Contrast#

• WCAG minimums: 4.5:1 for body text, 3:1 for large text (≥18pt or 14pt bold) and UI components. AAA is 7:1 / 4.5:1. Glass/blur backgrounds usually fail — test against worst-case content behind them.
• Dopamine palettes (saturated neons, Y2K) need a desaturated 60% dominant to remain usable; pure saturation everywhere reads as a children's toy.
• Dark mode is not "invert" — pure white text on pure black causes halation. Use #E6E6E6 on #121212 style off-blacks.
• Never encode information by hue alone. Pair color with icon, label, or shape (red error + ⚠ + "Error:").
• State colors live on a separate axis from brand: success/warning/error/info should survive a brand refresh.

Typography#

• Two families maximum. One display, one text. A third for monospace if the product shows code or numerics that need alignment.
• Optical sizing matters at scale. Display weights at body size look bloated; text weights at hero size look weak. Use variable fonts with optical-size axes ( opsz) when available.
• Numerals: tabular figures ( font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums) for tables, dashboards, and any column of numbers. Proportional figures everywhere else.
• Kinetic / oversized type is the dominant 2026 hero pattern, but it eats accessibility if it animates without a prefers-reduced-motion fallback.

Layout Patterns Worth Knowing#

• Bento grid — modular tiles of varying sizes; ideal for feature showcases, dashboards, and portfolios. Each tile must be self-contained (one idea, one CTA).
• F-pattern for text-heavy pages; Z-pattern for sparse landing pages. Place primary CTA at the terminus of the expected scan path.
• Asymmetric / broken-grid is back in 2026 marketing UI, but production app UI still rewards strict grids.
• Scroll-driven storytelling is the default long-form pattern; budget for IntersectionObserver-based reveals, not scroll-jacking.

Motion & Micro-interactions#

• Durations: 100–200ms for state changes (hover, press), 200–400ms for transitions (open/close), 400–800ms only for narrative reveals. Anything over 800ms feels broken.
• Easing: cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1) (Material "standard") is a safe default. Linear easing should only appear on indeterminate spinners.
• Always respect prefers-reduced-motion — replace transforms with opacity fades, never remove feedback entirely.
• Every interactive element needs four visual states minimum: rest, hover, active/pressed, focus-visible. Disabled is a fifth when applicable.
• Tactile maximalism ("squishy UI") — buttons that compress 2–4% on press with a brief overshoot on release. Reads as premium on touch devices, gimmicky if every element does it.

Design Tokens & Systems#

• Tokens are tiered: primitive ( color-blue-500) → semantic ( color-action-primary) → component ( button-primary-bg). Components reference semantic, never primitive.
• Spacing, radius, elevation, motion duration, and z-index all deserve token sets — not just color and type.
• One source of truth between design tool and code. Hand-off without sync drift means using Style Dictionary, Tokens Studio, or platform-native variables — not screenshots.

Accessibility (Non-Negotiable Floor)#

• Contrast ratios per WCAG 2.2 AA (above).
• Hit targets ≥44×44 pt (iOS) / 48×48 dp (Android) / 24×24 CSS px minimum on web with adequate spacing.
• Focus indicators must be visible against every background they cross — a 2px ring in brand color often fails on brand-colored sections; use a contrasting outline + offset.
• Support OS-level dynamic type up to 200%. Test that no text clips, truncates without affordance, or breaks layout.
• Neurodivergent-friendly defaults: avoid auto-playing motion, allow disabling parallax, keep cognitive load chunked, never rely on time-limited interactions without a pause control.

2026 Trend Cheat Sheet#

Apply selectively — trendy ≠ correct for every product.

• Tactile maximalism — glossy, clay, jelly textures with realistic depth. Strong for consumer/creative tools, wrong for finance/enterprise.
• Dopamine + Y2K palettes — saturated neons, chrome, gradients. Balance with desaturated dominant per 60-30-10.
• Glassmorphism (refined) — translucent surfaces with backdrop-blur. Always verify text contrast against the worst-case content behind the glass.
• Bento grids — feature showcases, settings screens, dashboards.
• Adaptive / "vibe" UI — theme shifts by mood, time, or focus state. Requires a deterministic fallback theme.
• Controlled imperfection — hand-drawn marks, collage textures, scribbles. Reads human; do not mix with hyper-precise grids unless deliberately contrasted.
• Multimodal affordances — even click/tap apps should expose voice and keyboard paths; design icons that work across input methods.

Gotchas#

• Never ship a glass/blur surface without testing text contrast against the darkest and brightest content that can scroll behind it. Designers reliably forget the bright case.
• Never apply Y2K saturation across an entire palette — keep one accent saturated and desaturate the rest, or the UI becomes illegible.
• Never specify pixel values without a token. margin-top: 13px is the canary for a design system in collapse.
• Never rely on hover for critical information or actions — touch users have no hover, and keyboard users need focus parity.
• Never animate width/ height/ top/ left for transitions — animate transform and opacity to stay on the compositor thread.
• Never use placeholder text as the only label. It vanishes on focus and fails screen readers.
• The aesthetic-usability effect is real but cuts both ways: a beautiful UI hides usability flaws during testing, then surfaces them as churn. Test with real tasks, not first impressions.
• Trendy ≠ timeless. Default the long-lived parts of a system (type scale, spacing, accessibility) to conservative choices, and confine trends to surface treatments that can be swapped.

Troubleshooting#

SymptomLikely CauseFix"Feels cluttered"Weak hierarchy, no whitespace, equal-weight elements competingDemote secondary elements, increase spacing, raise contrast on the one primary action"Looks dated"Tight radii + flat fills + 2018 sans-serif + heavy bordersSoften radii to one scale, replace borders with spacing or subtle elevation, refresh type"Feels cheap"Inconsistent spacing, mixed corner radii, low-quality imagery, default OS shadowsEnforce spacing scale, unify radii, audit photography/iconography, design custom shadows"CTA gets lost"Accent color used everywhere; CTA blends inReserve accent for CTA only; demote other accent uses to secondary palette"Brand doesn't pop"Brand color used as background everywhere, not as accentMove brand to accent role; pick a neutral dominant"Inaccessible per audit"Insufficient contrast, missing focus rings, hover-only affordancesRun automated audit (axe), then manual keyboard + screen reader pass"Animations feel janky"Animating layout properties or running on main threadSwitch to transform/ opacity; throttle non-essential motion; respect prefers-reduced-motion

References#

• Principles deep-dive — visual hierarchy, Gestalt, Laws of UX
• Design systems & tokens — tiered tokens, variants, hand-off
• Accessibility checklist — WCAG 2.2 AA practical pass
• 2026 trends with caveats — when to adopt, when to skip