design-engineering

# Design Engineering Skill Based on Emil Kowalski's design engineering philosophy — UI polish, component craftsmanship, and the compound value of invisible details. ## Core Principles - **Taste is trainable.** Develops through studying exceptional work, reverse-engineering animations, and intentional practice. - **Invisible details create love.** Most UI refinements users never consciously register — but combined they produce something stunning. - **Beauty differentiates.** When functionality is table stakes, aesthetic excellence becomes genuine leverage. ## Anti-Slop Visual Checklist Defaults that signal machine-generated UI. Each is a falsifiable thing to avoid: - **Avoid** full-bleed saturated gradient backgrounds (purple-to-pink hero washes). A flat surface or a near-flat tonal shift reads as intentional; a loud gradient reads as a template. - **Avoid** emoji as load-bearing decoration — emoji standing in for icons, bullet markers, or section badges. Use a real icon set or typographic hierarchy instead. - **Avoid** the rounded-card-with-left-accent-border cliche repeated across every block. If three sections share that exact treatment, vary the layout or drop the accent. - **Avoid** hand-drawn fake imagery in SVG (synthetic "photos", invented logos, faux screenshots). Use a real asset or an honest labeled placeholder. - **Avoid** the overused default font stack (Inter/Roboto on system-ui for everything with no scale or weight intent). Pick type with a reason and lif...