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usability-heuristics

Audit UI implementations against Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design. Produces a structured issue log with severity ratings, heuristic mappings, and remediation guidance. Use when conducting heuristic evaluations, reviewing UI code for usability compliance, or auditing existing interfaces.

65

Quality

82%

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SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

63%Weight 40%Scale 1-5

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

The body is highly actionable — concrete code attributes, GOOD/BAD examples, and review flags throughout — with a coherent audit workflow and well-defined output format. Its weaknesses are length (re-teaching Nielsen's standard definitions Claude already knows) and the absence of any progressive disclosure: ~700 lines of per-heuristic detail are inlined in SKILL.md rather than split into reference files.

Suggestions

Split the 10 detailed heuristic sections into a one-level-deep reference file (e.g., references/heuristics.md) and keep SKILL.md to the Audit Checklist, Issue Log Format, severity definitions, and cross-cutting clusters.

Remove the verbatim heuristic definitions and "Key Takeaway" paraphrases — Claude already knows Nielsen's heuristics; keep only the code-level "what to look for" lists, review flags, and GOOD/BAD examples, which are the skill's real value.

Make the audit workflow explicit as ordered steps (scan checklist → inspect relevant sections → cluster cross-cutting findings → emit summary table and priority list), including a final deduplication pass so clustered findings (H1+H9+H3) are reported once as the guidance intends.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The ~800-line body re-explains concepts Claude already knows: each heuristic opens with its standard verbatim definition ("The design should always keep users informed about what is going on...") plus a "Key Takeaway" paraphrase ("Every user action should produce visible feedback"), restating well-known Nielsen material. There is genuine value in the Rails/Turbo/Stimulus-specific code checks, but the padded definitions, takeaways, and GOOD/BAD pairs for all 10 heuristics make this noticeably verbose — matching the level-2 anchor ("several unnecessary explanations or padded sections") rather than level 3, where only some material would be trimmable.

2 / 5

Actionability

Guidance is fully concrete and executable: exact attributes to grep for ("data-disable-with", "aria-live=\"polite\"", "data-turbo-confirm", "min\"13\" max\"120\""), complete GOOD/BAD HTML snippets per heuristic, and enumerated review flags ("Flag form submit buttons without loading/disabled states"). Code is copy-paste-ready and covers the common cases, matching the level-5 anchor.

5 / 5

Workflow Clarity

The workflow is stated ("start with the Audit Checklist... then refer to the detailed sections... Always produce findings in the Issue Log Format") with supporting scaffolds: a scanning checklist table, severity definitions, a finding template, and a "Recommendations Priority" completion block. This is a clear sequence with most checkpoints present (level 4) rather than level 5, because the audit workflow is never laid out as explicit ordered steps and there is no verification pass (e.g., re-checking severity assignments or deduplicating clustered findings) before emitting the report. The destructive-operation validation cap does not apply since auditing is read-only.

4 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

No bundle files exist (no references/, scripts/, or assets/), so all ~798 lines live in SKILL.md. There is real structure — the quick-scan Audit Checklist, per-heuristic sections, and output-format templates — but the 10 detailed heuristic sections (definitions, examples, flags) are exactly the content that belongs in one-level-deep reference files, and the companion-skill references ("laws-of-ux", "optics-context", "bem-structure") point to files not bundled here. This sits between the level-2 anchor (detail that belongs in separate files is inlined) and level-4 (appropriately split with clear references): structure exists but the split doesn't.

3 / 5

Total

14

/

20

Passed

Description

96%Weight 40%Scale 1-5

Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.

A strong description: third-person voice, concrete capabilities and outputs, and an explicit multi-scenario 'Use when' clause with good synonym coverage. The only weakness is mild overlap risk with the companion UX skills on broad usability-review phrasing.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

"Audit UI implementations against Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics" names the domain and method, and "Produces a structured issue log with severity ratings, heuristic mappings, and remediation guidance" lists multiple concrete actions and outputs. This matches the level-5 anchor (multiple specific concrete actions, comprehensive coverage); it is well above level 4's "minor gaps" since both the action, its outputs, and their components are enumerated.

5 / 5

Completeness

Both questions are explicitly answered: what ("Audit UI implementations... Produces a structured issue log with severity ratings, heuristic mappings, and remediation guidance") and when ("Use when conducting heuristic evaluations, reviewing UI code for usability compliance, or auditing existing interfaces"). The explicit 'Use when...' clause with three concrete trigger scenarios matches the level-5 anchor exactly.

5 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

The description contains natural user phrases and their synonyms: "heuristic evaluations", "usability compliance", "auditing existing interfaces", "reviewing UI code", and the named "Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics". Coverage is comprehensive with synonym variation (audit/review/evaluation), matching the level-5 anchor; no common variation (e.g., "usability review", "UX audit") is meaningfully missing.

5 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

The Nielsen-heuristic niche is clearly staked out with distinct triggers, but terms like "usability compliance" and "reviewing UI code" overlap with the companion `laws-of-ux` skill (and general UI-review skills), so the risk is minor rather than minimal. This fits the level-4 anchor ("mostly distinct; minor overlap risk with closely related skills") better than level 5, since a generic "usability review" request could plausibly trigger either skill.

4 / 5

Total

19

/

20

Passed

Validation

87%

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation — 14 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

skill_md_line_count

SKILL.md is long (798 lines); consider splitting into references/ and linking

Warning

metadata_version

'metadata.version' is missing

Warning

Total

14

/

16

Passed

Repository
RoleModel/rolemodel-skills
Reviewed

Table of Contents

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