emil-design-eng

---
name: emil-design-eng
description: "Use when polishing a UI to feel intentional rather than generic — animations, component details, micro-interactions, and the invisible craft choices that separate a 'good enough' interface from one that feels right."
source: https://github.com/emilkowalski/skill
generated: 2026-05-25T04:08:22.466Z
category: concept
audience: design
---

## When to use

- Pushing a UI past the AI-default plateau into something that has a clear point of view
- Designing animations and transitions where defaults look stiff and you need physics that feel natural
- Tightening component details — focus rings, hover states, disabled treatments — so they read as deliberate
- Reviewing an interface for craft issues that show up only after build and need a trained eye

## Key concepts

### Taste is trained, not innate

Good taste comes from studying great work, reverse-engineering interactions, and practicing relentlessly. The skill teaches how to develop the instinct, not just apply rules.

### Every detail compounds

Small choices — corner radius, easing curve, focus state, motion duration — compound. Sloppy in one place reads as sloppy overall.

### Animation as communication

Animation is not decoration; it carries information about state, hierarchy, and intent. Bad easing makes a fast UI feel slow; good easing makes a slow UI feel responsive.

### Defaults are the enemy

Browser, framework, and library defaults look the same everywhere. The skill systematically replaces them with choices that match the product's voice.

### Reverse-engineer reference UIs

Pick interfaces you admire, inspect them, and identify exactly which choices make them feel that way. Imitation without understanding produces shallow knockoffs.

## API reference

```
npx skills add emilkowalski/skill
```

Install Emil Kowalski's design-engineering skill.

```
npx skills add emilkowalski/skill
```

```
animations.dev
```

Deeper reference course by Emil on web animation craft.

```
https://animations.dev/
```

## Gotchas

- If you copy a feel without understanding the underlying choices, the result reads as cargo-cult design
- Adding more motion is not more craft; the right answer is sometimes less motion with better easing
- Library defaults (Radix, shadcn, MUI) are great structural starts but kill character if shipped untouched
- Performance and craft are linked; a polished interface that drops frames feels worse than a plainer one that doesn't
- Don't outsource taste to the design system; the system should encode taste, not replace the act of choosing

---
Generated by SkillMake from https://github.com/emilkowalski/skill on 2026-05-25T04:08:22.466Z.
Verify against source before relying on details.

File: ~/.claude/skills/emil-design-eng/SKILL.md