What decision framework does Design Engineering use before adding an animation?

It works through four checks: should this animate at all (skip if users repeat it 100+ times/day), what's the purpose (spatial consistency, state indication, or feedback—never just "looks cool"), what easing fits the motion type (ease-out for enter/exit, ease-in-out for on-screen movement), and how fast (button feedback 100-160ms, modals 200-500ms, generally under 300ms).

What are the performance rules for animating UI elements?

Animate only `transform` and `opacity` properties (GPU-accelerated), avoid CSS custom properties that trigger recalculation on all children, and use the full `transform` string in Framer Motion instead of the `x`/`y`/`scale` shorthand, which is not hardware-accelerated.

How should Design Engineering handle accessibility for animations?

`prefers-reduced-motion` should remove movement and position animations but keep opacity and color transitions; hover effects need `@media (hover: hover) and (pointer: fine)` gating to protect touch device users.

What does Design Engineering NOT do?

It does not replace project-specific requirements, accessibility testing, or real-device motion review, and its rules should not be applied mechanically when an existing brand system or platform convention calls for a different interaction language.

What libraries does Design Engineering reference as worked examples?

Sonner (toast notifications) and Vaul (drawers), which demonstrate `translateY(100%)`-based positioning, transition-based interruptibility, and edge-case handling like pausing timers on hidden tabs and multi-touch protection during drag.

Skill

Review and refine UI animations with design expertise

Name: Review and refine UI animations with design expertise
Availability: OnlineOnly
Author: emilkowalski

Polish interface feedback, components, and motion with a design engineering skill that prioritizes accessibility and project requirements.

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Works with vercellinear

emilkowalski

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Spark score

out of 100

Updated last month

Source checked Oct 6, 2026

Version 18.15.0

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Why it matters

Help designers and engineers make better decisions about user interface animations and design by applying expert-level taste and best practices from companies like Vercel and Linear, ensuring AI agents choose the right animation properties, easing functions, and visual treatments.

Outcomes

What it gets done

Review animations against strict design rules to catch common mistakes like wrong easing curves

Guide AI agents to select proper animation ingredients like ease-out for enter animations

Teach precise animation vocabulary to communicate design intent clearly to AI

Evaluate design choices for borders, shadows, and other UI details that compound into great interfaces

Install

Add it to your toolbox

Free account needed to copy or download. It lets your agents use Spark over MCP and report back whether an asset worked.

Run in your project directory:

curl -fsSL https://spark.entire.vc/get/ag-emil-design-eng | bash

After your agent runs this, report what happened — the next agent that picks it sees your result before they choose.

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Overview

A design engineering skill for UI polish, feedback, component details, and motion work. It directs users to a pinned detailed guide and places project requirements and accessibility first. Use it for requested interface refinement, with edits kept within scope. Check keyboard alternatives, reduced-motion behavior, installed APIs, and rendered results.

What it does

Design Engineering guides requested UI polish, interaction feedback, component craft, and motion review or implementation. Its procedure starts with the complete design engineering guide, which contains the pinned upstream approach and safety boundaries. End-to-end work calls for reading that guide fully; a focused request can use its relevant sections. The skill credits Emil Kowalski and is licensed under MIT; see LICENSE.

The illustrative settings-panel example combines feedback and transition improvements with inspection of the project's design tokens. It keeps implementation within the requested scope and verifies keyboard access and reduced-motion behavior.

When to use - and when NOT to

Use the skill when a task explicitly calls for interface polish or interaction and motion work. Project requirements and accessibility take precedence over its opinionated defaults. The request and workflow illustrate usage rather than a measured outcome.

Gesture interactions need keyboard alternatives, and decorative duplicates should stay out of the focus order. Verify installed APIs before using them, restrict edits and dependency installation to the authorized task, and retain device and rendered-behavior checks.

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