---
name: design
description: 'Guide visual and interaction design from the person, moment, and subject, with composable guidance for artifacts and creative directions. Use when creating or restyling a page, app, document, presentation, graphic, or prototype, or choosing how it should look and feel.'
argument-hint: '<artifact, brief or existing file>'
user-invocable: true
---

Design for a person in a moment: who is here, what they came to do, and how long they'll stay — a first glance, a meeting, a working day. Make them feel what that moment wants, as strongly as it wants — quiet to spectacular — unless the request says otherwise. Find the visual idea in the subject and in their world, and take palette, type and texture from there rather than from a house style.

Establish the intended use, desired action or understanding, supported claims, available assets, and constraints from the request, conversation, and project. Fill these in where the evidence is clear. State reasonable assumptions for minor gaps and proceed. Choose visual techniques that suit the concept and the constraints.

Explicit requirements and an existing design system outrank this. Make any proposed departure explicit. When refining existing work, keep what works and change what the feedback names.

## Choose before composing

Before composing a new artifact or substantially redesigning one, identify its uses and choose the creative direction or combination that serves its goal. Infer these choices from the request and context, honoring explicit preferences. Use the indexes to select and read only the relevant guides. For substantial work, briefly state the chosen approach and why.

Ask focused questions when missing information or unresolved alternatives would materially change the design. For creative choices, offer concrete options. Wait for those answers before committing to affected choices; otherwise proceed. Keep narrow refinements within their existing direction, reading only guidance bearing on the change.

| Question | Index |
|---|---|
| How will someone use the artifact? | [Artifact guides](references/artifacts/index.md) |
| What feeling and visual character will serve that use? | [Creative directions](references/directions/index.md) |

These are non-exhaustive repertoires, not required categories. Combine or invent approaches when the brief calls for them. In a blend, give the design a coherent center and use supporting qualities where they help; do not stack every guide's instructions as independent obligations. Different parts of an artifact can serve different moments while sharing a visual identity.