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Design Is — Dieter Rams Ten-Principle Design Audit

Audits a UI against Dieter Rams' ten principles with cited evidence, then issues a NEW/REFINE/REDESIGN verdict and a ready-to-run /make-plan handoff prompt.

Design & UIAdvanced★ 94,624⑂ 8,365AI score 9/10Last updated: Sep 24, 2026

What it does

  • Locks scope first (Phase 0): audited surface, primary user, primary task, constraints, references.
  • Fans out five evidence subagents in parallel — structural, visual, copy & honesty, weight & friction, accessibility — each required to return counts, measurements and file:line citations, never opinions or scores.
  • Scores all ten Rams principles 0–3 (max 30) using verbatim per-principle anchors, with a tie-break-down rule and a "score the worst instance, not the mean" rule.
  • Produces exactly one verdict — NEW, REFINE (≥20 and no zeros) or REDESIGN (<20 or a zero on a load-bearing principle).
  • Writes 00-scope.md through 04-handoff-prompt.md, ending in a self-contained /make-plan prompt with the verdict and top 3–5 moves inlined.

Who it's for

  • Frontend engineers and product designers who want evidence-based UI critique instead of taste arguments.
  • Leads and PMs who must justify "iterate" vs "start over" to a team.
  • Teams hunting dark patterns, overclaiming copy, and missing states (empty/loading/error/focus/disabled).

Example uses

  1. "Audit this dashboard" → scorecard citing interactive-element counts, spacing/type scales, lowest contrast ratio; total 22/30 → REFINE with a keep-list and regression checks.
  2. "Is our landing page good by Rams' standards?" → flags fake scarcity and unbacked superlatives with file:line; #6 honest scores 0 → REDESIGN.
  3. "Nothing exists yet, I need a new checkout flow" → skips evidence phases, verdict = NEW, emits a from-scratch /make-plan prompt with non-goals and token decisions.

· · · Install guide · · ·

Try it now, no install

Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.

Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thedotmack/claude-mem/HEAD/plugin/skills/design-is/SKILL.md

What I want: (describe your task here)

If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.

↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.

Install in the Claude app (no terminal)
  1. Download the ZIP with the button below.
  2. In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
  3. Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.
↓ Download ZIP
Install in Claude Code

Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code

Install the skill I found on AI Skill Mart.
Copy the plugin/skills/design-is folder from the GitHub repo thedotmack/claude-mem into my ~/.claude/skills/design-is/.
When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.

Install with a command instead

git clone https://github.com/thedotmack/claude-mem.git && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r claude-mem/plugin/skills/design-is ~/.claude/skills/

⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.

  1. Open a terminal.
  2. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/thedotmack/claude-mem.git
  3. Create the skills directory: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
  4. Copy the skill: cp -r claude-mem/plugin/skills/design-is ~/.claude/skills/
  5. Verify that ~/.claude/skills/design-is/SKILL.md exists.
  6. Restart Claude Code and trigger it with a phrase like "design audit this screen" or "check this UI against Rams".
  7. For full functionality, also install the companion /make-plan command and the agent-browser skill from the same repo (used for the handoff and for screenshot/computed-style evidence).
View source on GitHub ↗License: Apache-2.0