design-critique

Run a structured critique pass covering user job clarity, visual hierarchy, affordances, states, forms, accessibility, consistency, copy, and edge cases. Output findings grouped by severity, each with one issue and one concrete suggested fix.

A pre-ship critique should check that the primary action matches the user's job, empty and error states are designed, forms validate correctly, contrast meets WCAG AA, and copy uses outcome-naming verbs. Findings should be ranked must-fix, should-fix, and nice-to-fix.

You need the specific user role, the job they are doing on that screen in one sentence, what success looks like, and where the screen sits in the larger flow. Without these, critique devolves into personal taste rather than useful feedback.

Skip a critique when the user wants a full redesign, when no concrete artifact exists yet, or when user context is missing. Critique recommends changes to existing work; it does not replace a design project or early sketching.

The review checks WCAG AA color contrast, logical keyboard focus order, mouse-free reachability of interactive elements, non-color-only signaling of critical information, and touch targets of at least 44 by 44 pixels on mobile.