132 lines
7.3 KiB
Markdown
132 lines
7.3 KiB
Markdown
---
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name: bolder
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description: Amplify safe or boring designs to make them more visually interesting and stimulating. Increases impact while maintaining usability.
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user-invokable: true
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args:
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- name: target
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description: The feature or component to make bolder (optional)
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required: false
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---
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Increase visual impact and personality in designs that are too safe, generic, or visually underwhelming, creating more engaging and memorable experiences.
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## MANDATORY PREPARATION
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### Context Gathering (Do This First)
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You cannot do a great job without having necessary context, such as target audience (critical), desired use-cases (critical), brand personality/tone, and everything else that a great human designer would need as well.
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Attempt to gather these from the current thread or codebase.
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1. If you don't find *exact* information and have to infer from existing design and functionality, you MUST STOP and STOP and call the AskUserQuestionTool to clarify. whether you got it right.
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2. Otherwise, if you can't fully infer or your level of confidence is medium or lower, you MUST STOP and call the AskUserQuestionTool to clarify. clarifying questions first to complete your context.
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Do NOT proceed until you have answers. Guessing leads to generic AI slop.
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### Use frontend-design skill
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Use the frontend-design skill for design principles and anti-patterns. Do NOT proceed until it has executed and you know all DO's and DON'Ts.
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---
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## Assess Current State
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Analyze what makes the design feel too safe or boring:
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1. **Identify weakness sources**:
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- **Generic choices**: System fonts, basic colors, standard layouts
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- **Timid scale**: Everything is medium-sized with no drama
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- **Low contrast**: Everything has similar visual weight
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- **Static**: No motion, no energy, no life
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- **Predictable**: Standard patterns with no surprises
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- **Flat hierarchy**: Nothing stands out or commands attention
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2. **Understand the context**:
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- What's the brand personality? (How far can we push?)
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- What's the purpose? (Marketing can be bolder than financial dashboards)
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- Who's the audience? (What will resonate?)
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- What are the constraints? (Brand guidelines, accessibility, performance)
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If any of these are unclear from the codebase, STOP and call the AskUserQuestionTool to clarify.
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**CRITICAL**: "Bolder" doesn't mean chaotic or garish. It means distinctive, memorable, and confident. Think intentional drama, not random chaos.
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**WARNING - AI SLOP TRAP**: When making things "bolder," AI defaults to the same tired tricks: cyan/purple gradients, glassmorphism, neon accents on dark backgrounds, gradient text on metrics. These are the OPPOSITE of bold—they're generic. Review ALL the DON'T guidelines in the frontend-design skill before proceeding. Bold means distinctive, not "more effects."
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## Plan Amplification
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Create a strategy to increase impact while maintaining coherence:
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- **Focal point**: What should be the hero moment? (Pick ONE, make it amazing)
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- **Personality direction**: Maximalist chaos? Elegant drama? Playful energy? Dark moody? Choose a lane.
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- **Risk budget**: How experimental can we be? Push boundaries within constraints.
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- **Hierarchy amplification**: Make big things BIGGER, small things smaller (increase contrast)
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**IMPORTANT**: Bold design must still be usable. Impact without function is just decoration.
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## Amplify the Design
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Systematically increase impact across these dimensions:
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### Typography Amplification
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- **Replace generic fonts**: Swap system fonts for distinctive choices (see frontend-design skill for inspiration)
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- **Extreme scale**: Create dramatic size jumps (3x-5x differences, not 1.5x)
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- **Weight contrast**: Pair 900 weights with 200 weights, not 600 with 400
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- **Unexpected choices**: Variable fonts, display fonts for headlines, condensed/extended widths, monospace as intentional accent (not as lazy "dev tool" default)
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### Color Intensification
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- **Increase saturation**: Shift to more vibrant, energetic colors (but not neon)
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- **Bold palette**: Introduce unexpected color combinations—avoid the purple-blue gradient AI slop
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- **Dominant color strategy**: Let one bold color own 60% of the design
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- **Sharp accents**: High-contrast accent colors that pop
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- **Tinted neutrals**: Replace pure grays with tinted grays that harmonize with your palette
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- **Rich gradients**: Intentional multi-stop gradients (not generic purple-to-blue)
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### Spatial Drama
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- **Extreme scale jumps**: Make important elements 3-5x larger than surroundings
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- **Break the grid**: Let hero elements escape containers and cross boundaries
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- **Asymmetric layouts**: Replace centered, balanced layouts with tension-filled asymmetry
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- **Generous space**: Use white space dramatically (100-200px gaps, not 20-40px)
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- **Overlap**: Layer elements intentionally for depth
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### Visual Effects
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- **Dramatic shadows**: Large, soft shadows for elevation (but not generic drop shadows on rounded rectangles)
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- **Background treatments**: Mesh patterns, noise textures, geometric patterns, intentional gradients (not purple-to-blue)
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- **Texture & depth**: Grain, halftone, duotone, layered elements—NOT glassmorphism (it's overused AI slop)
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- **Borders & frames**: Thick borders, decorative frames, custom shapes (not rounded rectangles with colored border on one side)
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- **Custom elements**: Illustrative elements, custom icons, decorative details that reinforce brand
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### Motion & Animation
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- **Entrance choreography**: Staggered, dramatic page load animations with 50-100ms delays
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- **Scroll effects**: Parallax, reveal animations, scroll-triggered sequences
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- **Micro-interactions**: Satisfying hover effects, click feedback, state changes
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- **Transitions**: Smooth, noticeable transitions using ease-out-quart/quint/expo (not bounce or elastic—they cheapen the effect)
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### Composition Boldness
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- **Hero moments**: Create clear focal points with dramatic treatment
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- **Diagonal flows**: Escape horizontal/vertical rigidity with diagonal arrangements
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- **Full-bleed elements**: Use full viewport width/height for impact
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- **Unexpected proportions**: Golden ratio? Throw it out. Try 70/30, 80/20 splits
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**NEVER**:
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- Add effects randomly without purpose (chaos ≠ bold)
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- Sacrifice readability for aesthetics (body text must be readable)
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- Make everything bold (then nothing is bold - need contrast)
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- Ignore accessibility (bold design must still meet WCAG standards)
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- Overwhelm with motion (animation fatigue is real)
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- Copy trendy aesthetics blindly (bold means distinctive, not derivative)
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## Verify Quality
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Ensure amplification maintains usability and coherence:
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- **NOT AI slop**: Does this look like every other AI-generated "bold" design? If yes, start over.
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- **Still functional**: Can users accomplish tasks without distraction?
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- **Coherent**: Does everything feel intentional and unified?
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- **Memorable**: Will users remember this experience?
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- **Performant**: Do all these effects run smoothly?
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- **Accessible**: Does it still meet accessibility standards?
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**The test**: If you showed this to someone and said "AI made this bolder," would they believe you immediately? If yes, you've failed. Bold means distinctive, not "more AI effects."
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Remember: Bold design is confident design. It takes risks, makes statements, and creates memorable experiences. But bold without strategy is just loud. Be intentional, be dramatic, be unforgettable. |