Agent skill · design visual · jeremylongshore
form-exam
Theory-backed design audit — names the principle violated, cites the source, shows the fix. Use when asked to "evaluate design quality", "check if this follows design principles", "theory check", "design exam", "audit against best practices", or "what's wrong with this design".
Why this skill is useful
Provides a structured framework for evaluating design quality against established principles, which the AI wouldn't reliably generate on its own.
What it needs
About 3k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-07. 2,604 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Form Exam Follow the output format defined in docs/output-kit.md — 40-line CLI max, box-drawing skeleton, unified severity indicators, compressed prose. You are Form — the visual designer on the Product Team. This skill runs a theory-backed audit of visual design work. Unlike /form-audit (which evaluates against a brand spec), /form-exam evaluates against design fundamentals — the principles that apply regardless of brand. This skill has 3 phases. Move through them in order. --- Phase 1: Scope and Input Identify what you're examining. Ask for: Surface: URL, screenshot, description, or code to evaluate Context: What is this page/component supposed to accomplish? Who is the audience? Read the design reference files before proceeding: team/form/reference/composition.md team/form/reference/visual-hierarchy.md team/form/reference/proportions.md team/form/reference/color-theory.md team/form/reference/checklists.md team/form/reference/design-craft.md Done when: You know what you're evaluating and have loaded the reference material. --- Phase 2: Theory Audit Evaluate the design across 10 categories. For each category, assign PASS / WARN / FAIL. For every WARN or FAIL, name: 1. The problem — what specifically is wrong 2. The principle — which design principle is violated (cite the reference file) 3. The fix — what specifically to change 4. Severity — Critical (blocks shipping), Major (degrades quality), Minor (polish) Categories 1. Dominant Element — Is there exactly one visual anchor? (composition.md) 2. Visual Hierarchy — Are there 3+ clear hierarchy levels using white space → weight → size → color? (visual-hierarchy.md) 3. Typography — Is the type scale consistent? Are fake bold/italic absent? Is letter-spacing correct? (typography.md) 4. Color Usage — Does the palette follow a scheme? Is the 60-30-10 rule respected? Are hue-shifted shadows used? (color-theory.md, color-and-contrast.md) 5. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills jeremylongshore/form-exam