A Claude Code skill that grounds design decisions in human needs — not abstractions, not feature lists, not aesthetic preferences.
Most design decisions start (and stop) at the surface:
- "We need a bold hero section" — Why? What should it make someone feel?
- "Our product is the fastest way to ___" — So what? Why does that matter to a human being?
- "We chose this visual language because it references Bauhaus" — Cool, but your users don't know Bauhaus. What are they supposed to feel?
These decisions aren't wrong — they're incomplete. They describe what without connecting to why it matters. When you can't trace a design choice back to a real human need, you can't evaluate whether it's working.
Intent Engineering helps you find that connection using two techniques:
Keep asking "why does that matter?" until you hit bedrock — the fundamental human need underneath the features.
Example (Raycast):
- "You don't have to switch apps" → why does that matter?
- "You're not getting distracted" → why does that matter?
- "You can stay in flow" → Bedrock: "The shortcut to everything."
Example (Snapchat):
- "It's the fastest way to communicate" → so that you can...?
- "Share moments from your day" → why does that matter?
- "Your friends feel like they're there with you" → Bedrock: "Deepen your relationships with the people that matter most."
For any page, flow, or key moment in a product, answer three questions:
- What should users accomplish? — The functional outcome
- What should they explicitly notice? — What draws conscious attention
- What should they implicitly feel? — The emotional undercurrent
Then apply the Why Loop to each answer. The connection check is where it gets interesting: does what they notice lead to what they should feel? Does what they feel motivate what they should accomplish? When those connections break, you've found a design gap.
Walk through the three questions page by page for a new project. Drill each answer with the Why Loop. Produce an intent brief that grounds every design decision in human need.
/intent-engineering start
Take screenshots of an existing site, reflect back what the design communicates, and ask: "Is that what you intended?"
The audit is Socratic, not critical. It doesn't tell you your design is bad — it mirrors what your design is saying and lets you discover whether that matches what you meant.
/intent-engineering audit https://your-site.com
You can focus the audit on what you're most uncertain about — your copy, visual language, product positioning, a specific design decision — and the skill will weight its observations toward that while still looking at the full picture.
- Landing page copy audit — "Does my headline communicate an idea or just list what I do?"
- Portfolio review — "Does my site communicate who I am and what I care about, or just show work?"
- Product positioning — "Can a first-time visitor understand why this matters in 5 seconds?"
- Visual language check — "Does the visual tone match the feeling I want to create?"
- New project kickoff — "Before I design anything, what should each page make someone accomplish, notice, and feel?"
- Design decision validation — "I chose this direction — can I trace it back to a human need?"
This isn't a UI audit tool. It doesn't evaluate visual quality, accessibility, or usability. It's about intent alignment — whether what your design communicates matches what it should communicate. The output is clarity about where intent and execution diverge, not a list of design fixes.
Copy the intent-engineering directory to your Claude Code skills folder:
~/.claude/skills/intent-engineering/
Then invoke with /intent-engineering in any Claude Code session.
Cross-agent compatibility: The core workflow (three questions, Why Loop, Socratic reflection) works on any AI coding agent. Claude Code users get enhanced features like tappable options and automated screenshots via dev-browser.
Synthesized from Ellis Hamburger's Dive Club episode on startup storytelling and extended into product design. Built with skill-distillery.