Critique a UI mockup like a design lead, not a fan
Get the feedback that finds the real problem, not a list of things you could tweak forever.
- Use it for
- Designers, PMs, and engineers who need a second pair of eyes before a screen ships.
Ask a model "what do you think of this design?" and you get a list of minor aesthetic notes — spacing, a color, a font weight — because that's the cheapest kind of feedback to generate and it always sounds plausible. It's also almost never the thing that's actually wrong with a screen. The real problems are usually structural: the hierarchy doesn't match what the user needs to decide first, or the primary action is competing with three other things for attention.
This prompt forces the critique to start from the user's task, not the pixels, because that's the only vantage point from which a genuine usability problem is visible instead of a taste difference.
When not to use this
Not useful without a real task attached to the screen — "critique this mockup" with no context just reproduces the generic-notes problem this prompt exists to avoid. And it's not a substitute for watching an actual person try to use it; it catches structural issues, not the specific moment someone gets confused that only observation reveals.
Did this work?
At least one finding changes the actual layout or flow, not just the copy or a color — and you can tell the difference between "this is wrong" and "this is a preference" in the response.
Tested on claude-opus-5. Evidence status is draft; it moves to battle-tested only on recorded runs, never by hand.