design-critiquelisted

# Design critique A checklist run against your OWN output before you show it, not a linter run after the fact. This is the one home for several related ideas (hallmark's pre-emit self-critique, a slop-gate list, astryx-style token discipline) folded into a single skill rather than several overlapping ones or a whole new source module — the value here is procedural judgment, which is what a skill is for; building deterministic tooling around subjective taste would be false precision. ## Slop gates — catch these before emitting - **Generic AI-visual-cliché markers**: purple/blue gradient backgrounds with no reason, emoji used as section icons, everything centered regardless of content type, decorative rounded corners/shadows applied uniformly instead of purposefully, stock-phrase headers ("Unlock the power of..."). - **Padding/spacing that wasn't decided, just defaulted.** If every gap is the same "safe" value, that's the tell of not having actually looked at the layout. - **Copy that describes instead of communicates.** "This section shows your recent activity" above a list literally showing recent activity is filler, not information. ## Pre-emit self-critique (do this last, right before showing the work) Look at what you are about to output and ask, plainly: would someone who does this for a living ship it, or does it read as generated? If the honest answer is "generated," name the specific reason (not "needs polish") and fix that one thing before emitting — va