PluginBench
Skill
Pass
Audit score 90

skeumorphism

bergside/awesome-design-skills

Design system guidance for skeumorphic UI—real-world textures and 3D effects for intuitive interfaces.

What is skeumorphism?

A design-system skill for creating skeumorphic interfaces that mimic real-world materials, textures, and 3D functionality. Use it when you need to author or implement playful, tactile digital experiences with strong visual hierarchy and accessibility built in.

  • Define skeumorphic design tokens (typography, color, spacing) aligned to WCAG 2.2 AA standards
  • Generate component-level rules covering anatomy, states, variants, and interaction behavior
  • Provide accessibility acceptance criteria and testable keyboard/focus requirements
  • Establish content-writing tone and anti-pattern guidance for consistency
  • Create QA checklists for design-system implementation and code review

How to install skeumorphism

npx skills add https://github.com/bergside/awesome-design-skills --skill skeumorphism
Claude Code
Cursor
Windsurf
Cline

How to use skeumorphism

  1. 1.State the design intent and goals for your skeumorphic component or system
  2. 2.Define or reference the design tokens (typography scale, color palette, spacing rhythm)
  3. 3.Specify component anatomy, required states (default, hover, focus, active, disabled, loading, error), and interaction behavior
  4. 4.Write accessibility acceptance criteria and testable keyboard-navigation requirements
  5. 5.Document content-writing tone and examples aligned to the brand voice
  6. 6.List anti-patterns and migration guidance for inconsistent or legacy UI
  7. 7.Generate a QA checklist for code review and implementation validation

Use cases

Good for
  • Author a complete skeumorphism design system for a playful consumer app or game interface
  • Define button, card, and form-component rules with explicit hover, focus, active, and disabled states
  • Migrate an existing flat UI to skeumorphic styling while maintaining accessibility compliance
  • Document responsive behavior and edge cases (long labels, overflow, empty states) for engineering handoff
  • Review and validate skeumorphic component implementations against accessibility and spacing rules
Who it's for
  • Design system authors and maintainers
  • UI/UX designers building playful, tactile interfaces
  • Frontend engineers implementing skeumorphic components
  • Product teams prioritizing intuitive, familiar digital experiences

skeumorphism FAQ

What is skeumorphism and when should I use it?

Skeumorphism mimics real-world textures, materials, and 3D effects to make digital interfaces intuitive and relatable. Use it for playful, consumer-facing products where familiarity and tactile feedback enhance usability; avoid it for minimalist or data-heavy enterprise interfaces.

How do I ensure skeumorphic designs meet accessibility standards?

Follow WCAG 2.2 AA guidelines: maintain sufficient color contrast, provide visible focus states, support keyboard-first navigation, use semantic tokens, and test with screen readers. Prioritize accessibility over novelty when conflicts arise.

What design tokens should I define first?

Start with typography scale (12/14/16/20/24/32), font families, color palette (primary, secondary, neutral, semantic colors), spacing scale (4/8/12/16/24/32), and weight hierarchy. Use semantic tokens (e.g., 'primary', 'success') rather than raw values.

How do I document component states and interactions?

Define required states (default, hover, focus-visible, active, disabled, loading, error), specify behavior for keyboard/pointer/touch input, and anchor spacing and color to tokens. Include responsive behavior and edge cases like long labels or overflow.

What should I avoid in skeumorphic design?

Avoid low-contrast text, inconsistent spacing rhythm, ambiguous labels, and one-off local optimizations that break system consistency. Prioritize clarity and accessibility over visual novelty.

Full instructions (SKILL.md)

Source of truth, from bergside/awesome-design-skills.


name: skeumorphism description: Real-world mimicry with textured surfaces, 3D effects, and familiar physical metaphors for intuitive digital interfaces. license: MIT metadata: author: typeui.sh

<!-- TYPEUI_SH_MANAGED_START -->

Skeumorphism Design System Skill (Antigravity)

Mission

You are an expert design-system guideline author for Skeumorphism. Create practical, implementation-ready guidance that can be directly used by engineers and designers.

Brand

a UI/UX design approach that mimics real-world textures, materials, and 3D functionality to make digital interfaces intuitive, familiar, and relatable

Style Foundations

  • Visual style: playful
  • Typography scale: 12/14/16/20/24/32 | Fonts: primary=Roboto, display=Germania One, mono=JetBrains Mono | weights=100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900
  • Color palette: primary, secondary, neutral, success, warning, danger | Tokens: primary=#FA3C00, secondary=#F08321, success=#16A34A, warning=#D97706, danger=#DC2626, surface=#FFFFFF, text=#111827
  • Spacing scale: 4/8/12/16/24/32

Accessibility

WCAG 2.2 AA, keyboard-first interactions, visible focus states

Writing Tone

concise, confident, helpful

Rules: Do

  • prefer semantic tokens over raw values
  • preserve visual hierarchy
  • keep interaction states explicit

Rules: Don't

  • avoid low contrast text
  • avoid inconsistent spacing rhythm
  • avoid ambiguous labels

Expected Behavior

  • Follow the foundations first, then component consistency.
  • When uncertain, prioritize accessibility and clarity over novelty.
  • Provide concrete defaults and explain trade-offs when alternatives are possible.
  • Keep guidance opinionated, concise, and implementation-focused.

Guideline Authoring Workflow

  1. Restate the design intent in one sentence before proposing rules.
  2. Define tokens and foundational constraints before component-level guidance.
  3. Specify component anatomy, states, variants, and interaction behavior.
  4. Include accessibility acceptance criteria and content-writing expectations.
  5. Add anti-patterns and migration notes for existing inconsistent UI.
  6. End with a QA checklist that can be executed in code review.

Required Output Structure

When generating design-system guidance, use this structure:

  • Context and goals
  • Design tokens and foundations
  • Component-level rules (anatomy, variants, states, responsive behavior)
  • Accessibility requirements and testable acceptance criteria
  • Content and tone standards with examples
  • Anti-patterns and prohibited implementations
  • QA checklist

Component Rule Expectations

  • Define required states: default, hover, focus-visible, active, disabled, loading, error (as relevant).
  • Describe interaction behavior for keyboard, pointer, and touch.
  • State spacing, typography, and color-token usage explicitly.
  • Include responsive behavior and edge cases (long labels, empty states, overflow).

Quality Gates

  • No rule should depend on ambiguous adjectives alone; anchor each rule to a token, threshold, or example.
  • Every accessibility statement must be testable in implementation.
  • Prefer system consistency over one-off local optimizations.
  • Flag conflicts between aesthetics and accessibility, then prioritize accessibility.

Example Constraint Language

  • Use "must" for non-negotiable rules and "should" for recommendations.
  • Pair every do-rule with at least one concrete don't-example.
  • If introducing a new pattern, include migration guidance for existing components.
<!-- TYPEUI_SH_MANAGED_END -->