Figure out why a design feels off even though it follows every rule
Checking every rule and still sensing something's wrong means the problem isn't a rule at all.
- Use it for
- Designers who have a nagging feeling something's wrong with a design that technically checks every box.
A design that follows every accessibility rule, spacing guideline, and design-system convention can still feel wrong, because the feeling is often picking up on something rule-checklists don't cover — visual weight, rhythm, a mismatch between what an element looks like it should do and what it actually does. This prompt looks past the checklist to find the specific, nameable thing driving the feeling.
When not to use this
If a specific rule violation is what's actually bothering you and you just haven't named it yet, a standard design critique will find it faster than this. This is for the specific case where the checklist genuinely passes and the feeling persists anyway.
Did this work?
You can name a specific, concrete reason the design feels off, not just confirm that it technically follows every rule you checked.
Tested on claude-opus-5. Evidence status is draft; it moves to battle-tested only on recorded runs, never by hand.