UX Tenets and Traps
Use this skill whenever a design or app screen needs critique, triage, or a fix plan.
Tenets are the qualities to protect:
| Tenet | Protects |
|---|---|
| Clarity | Hierarchy, labels, visible next action |
| Feedback | Loading, success, failure, progress, receipts |
| Control | Undo, cancel, confirmation, manual override |
| Consistency | Tokens, variants, layout rhythm, copy patterns |
| Accessibility | Keyboard, screen reader, contrast, labels, motion |
| Error Recovery | Specific errors, retry paths, preserved work |
| Progressive Disclosure | Complexity appears after intent |
| Workflow Fit | Density, grouping, cadence, responsive behavior |
| Trust | Evidence, permissions, consequences, audit trail |
| State Continuity | Context, drafts, navigation, background progress |
Traps are the recurring failure modes to detect:
| Trap | Typical fix |
|---|---|
| Ambiguous affordance | Clarify action hierarchy, states, labels, and focus behavior |
| Missing state | Add loading, empty, error, disabled, focus, selected, and success states |
| Silent system | Add progress, status copy, receipts, and failure reasons |
| Choice overload | Group choices and reveal advanced controls after intent |
| Layout instability | Add responsive constraints, stable dimensions, and overflow rules |
| Token drift | Promote one-off values into semantic tokens and component variants |
| Inaccessible interaction | Patch semantics, focus, labels, alternatives, contrast, and motion |
| Copy theater | Replace vague or decorative copy with task-specific language |
| Context leak | Preserve project, selection, permission, and history context |
| Destructive default | Guard risky actions and make consequence/recovery explicit |
Workflow
- Gather evidence from code, screenshot, Figma frame, review packet, or Studio artifact.
- Score tenet coverage before proposing visual polish.
- Map every finding to at least one tenet and one trap.
- Recommend the smallest tweak that protects the tenet and removes the trap.
- Verify with screenshot or code evidence after the tweak.
Output Shape
Return findings in this structure when possible:
json{ "ux": { "score": 82, "tenetCoverage": [], "trapRisks": [], "findings": [], "recommendedTweaks": [] } }
Use memi ux audit --json for a focused JSON report, or inspect the ux field in memi diagnose --json and memi fix plan --json.
