Designer Skills Collection

Skill by ara.so — Design Skills collection.

The Designer Skills Collection is a comprehensive library of 91 skills and 28 commands across 9 plugins for AI coding agents like Claude Code. It provides domain expertise in design research, design systems, UX strategy, UI design, interaction design, prototyping, design ops, and visual critique.

What It Does

This collection teaches AI agents how to:

• Conduct user research (personas, journey maps, interviews, usability testing)
• Build and maintain design systems (tokens, components, accessibility)
• Define UX strategy (competitive analysis, IA, content strategy)
• Design polished UI (layout grids, color systems, typography)
• Create meaningful interactions (micro-animations, state machines, gestures)
• Validate designs (prototyping, testing, heuristic evaluation)
• Streamline design operations (handoff specs, sprint planning, workflows)
• Critique visual designs (hierarchy, brand consistency, composition)

Installation

Claude Code

Step 1: Add the Marketplace

/plugin marketplace add Owl-Listener/designer-skills

Step 2: Install Plugins

/plugin

Navigate to the Discover tab, then select and install the plugins you need from these 9 options:

• design-research (12 skills, 4 commands)
• design-systems (11 skills, 3 commands)
• ux-strategy (11 skills, 3 commands)
• ui-design (14 skills, 4 commands)
• interaction-design (15 skills, 3 commands)
• prototyping-testing (8 skills, 4 commands)
• design-ops (9 skills, 3 commands)
• designer-toolkit (7 skills, 3 commands)
• visual-critique (4 skills, 1 command)

Gemini CLI

Install individual plugins as workspace-scoped extensions:

# Install one plugin
mkdir -p .gemini/extensions
cp -r path/to/designer-skills/.gemini/extensions/design-research .gemini/extensions/

# Or install all extensions at once
git clone https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills /tmp/designer-skills
cp -r /tmp/designer-skills/.gemini/extensions/. .gemini/extensions/

For user-global installation (available in all projects):

cp -r path/to/designer-skills/.gemini/extensions/design-research ~/.gemini/extensions/

Each extension directory contains:

• gemini-extension.json (manifest)
• GEMINI.md (context file with all skills)

Key Commands

Design Research

# Run a full user research discovery cycle
/design-research:discover

# Prepare and conduct a user interview
/design-research:interview

# Create a usability test plan
/design-research:test-plan

# Synthesize research data into insights
/design-research:synthesize

Design Systems

# Audit a design system for consistency and accessibility
/design-systems:audit-system

# Scaffold a full component specification
/design-systems:create-component

# Extract and organize design tokens
/design-systems:tokenize

UX Strategy

# Develop a complete UX strategy
/ux-strategy:strategize

# Run a competitive benchmarking analysis
/ux-strategy:benchmark

# Structure an ambiguous challenge into a clear problem
/ux-strategy:frame-problem

UI Design

# Design a complete screen layout
/ui-design:design-screen

# Generate a full color palette with accessibility checks
/ui-design:color-palette

# Create a complete typography system
/ui-design:type-system

# Audit a design for responsive behavior
/ui-design:responsive-audit

Interaction Design

# Design a complete interaction flow
/interaction-design:design-interaction

# Model states and transitions for a component
/interaction-design:map-states

# Design error handling for a feature
/interaction-design:error-flow

Prototyping & Testing

# Create a prototyping and testing plan
/prototyping-testing:prototype-plan

# Run a heuristic evaluation
/prototyping-testing:evaluate

# Design a complete usability testing plan
/prototyping-testing:test-plan

# Design an A/B experiment
/prototyping-testing:experiment

Design Ops

# Plan a design sprint
/design-ops:plan-sprint

# Generate a developer handoff package
/design-ops:handoff

# Set up a design team workflow
/design-ops:setup-workflow

Designer Toolkit

# Write design rationale for decisions
/designer-toolkit:write-rationale

# Structure a design presentation
/designer-toolkit:build-presentation

# Create a portfolio case study
/designer-toolkit:write-case-study

Visual Critique

# Run all four visual critiques on a screen and output a prioritised fix list
/visual-critique:critique-screen

Usage Patterns

Example: Create a Design System Component

# Install the design-systems plugin first
/plugin

# Then use the command
/design-systems:create-component

The agent will guide you through:

1. Component naming and purpose
2. Variant definitions
3. Accessibility requirements
4. Token usage
5. Documentation structure
6. Code examples

Example: Run User Research Discovery

# Install the design-research plugin
/plugin

# Start the discovery cycle
/design-research:discover

The agent will help you:

1. Define research goals
2. Choose appropriate methods
3. Create screeners and scripts
4. Plan recruitment
5. Synthesize findings
6. Generate artifacts (personas, journey maps)

Example: Audit Responsive Design

# Install the ui-design plugin
/plugin

# Run the audit
/ui-design:responsive-audit

The agent will check:

1. Breakpoint strategy
2. Layout flexibility
3. Touch target sizes
4. Content prioritization
5. Performance considerations

Configuration

Each plugin is self-contained with no external configuration required. Skills and commands are immediately available after installation.

Plugin Structure

designer-skills/
├── design-research/
│   ├── skills/
│   │   ├── user-personas.md
│   │   ├── journey-mapping.md
│   │   └── ...
│   └── commands/
│       ├── discover.md
│       └── ...
├── design-systems/
├── ux-strategy/
└── ...

Gemini Extension Structure

.gemini/extensions/
└── design-research/
    ├── gemini-extension.json
    └── GEMINI.md

Common Workflows

Setting Up a New Design Project

# Install strategic and research plugins
/plugin

# Frame the problem
/ux-strategy:frame-problem

# Run discovery research
/design-research:discover

# Define UX strategy
/ux-strategy:strategize

Building a Component Library

# Install design-systems plugin
/plugin

# Extract design tokens
/design-systems:tokenize

# Create component specs
/design-systems:create-component

# Audit for consistency
/design-systems:audit-system

Preparing for Developer Handoff

# Install design-ops and designer-toolkit plugins
/plugin

# Write design rationale
/designer-toolkit:write-rationale

# Generate handoff package
/design-ops:handoff

Troubleshooting

Plugin Not Found

Issue: /plugin command doesn't show the marketplace or plugins.

Solution: Ensure you've added the marketplace first:

/plugin marketplace add Owl-Listener/designer-skills

Commands Not Working

Issue: Commands like /design-research:discover return an error.

Solution: Verify the plugin is installed:

/plugin

Check the Installed tab. If missing, go to Discover and install the required plugin.

Gemini Extensions Not Loading

Issue: Gemini CLI doesn't recognize the extensions.

Solution: Ensure the directory structure is correct:

ls -la .gemini/extensions/design-research/
# Should show: gemini-extension.json and GEMINI.md

Restart your Gemini session after copying extensions.

Partial Installation

Issue: Only some plugins are available.

Solution: Install plugins individually as needed. You don't need all 9 plugins — install only what your project requires to keep the context manageable.

Best Practices

1. Install Incrementally: Start with 2-3 plugins relevant to your current work, not all 9 at once.

2. Use Commands as Workflows: Commands chain multiple skills together — use them for complex tasks rather than invoking skills individually.

3. Combine Plugins: Many workflows benefit from multiple plugins (e.g., ux-strategy + design-research + ui-design).

4. Reference Documentation: Each skill includes detailed context. Ask the agent to explain a skill if you're unsure how to use it.

5. Workspace vs Global: For Gemini, use workspace-scoped extensions for project-specific design work, global extensions for personal design methodology.

Repository Structure

The source repository contains:

• Plugin directories (each with skills and commands)
• .gemini/extensions/ compiled for Gemini CLI
• CONTRIBUTING.md for adding new skills
• Individual SKILL.md and COMMAND.md files

License

MIT License — free to use, modify, and distribute.