AI-feel block audit: five laws before a screen ships

UI reviewFreshModel-agnosticverified 2026-07-30sha 9a019ef51832

No re-run note on file — that date records when this was last checked, not what the check showed.

Born in: the post where it earned its place →

Design tokens fix the palette; they don’t fix the feel. Screens my agents built kept matching my design system and still reading as generated, and the tells turned out to be structural: restating text layers, frames inside frames, captions narrating the visible, ceremony guarding reversible taps, preferences re-collected at every door. This is the review I now run block-by-block before a screen ships, born from months of filing “feels AI-made” as an unfixable mood before the laws made it a checklist. Fixes here are deletions almost every time – a reviewer that proposes *adding* elements has misunderstood the defect.

Review the screen "{{screen_name}}" block by block against five laws.
A block is one coherent unit: a card, a list row, a header, a sheet.

Input:
{{screen_input}}

Preferences and state that already exist (write NONE if unknown):
{{known_preferences_or_state}}

THE LAWS:
1. TWO TEXT LAYERS MAX per block - a title and one supporting line.
   Any third layer is a violation: if it restates, quote it and delete
   it; if it carries new information, the block is overloaded - split
   the block instead. (On a dense desktop surface, relax the ceiling
   deliberately and say you did - the law is tuned for phone blocks.)
2. NO BOX-IN-BOX - one container per block; siblings separate by
   spacing, not nested borders/cards/panels. Name the frame to remove.
3. NO IDLE CAPTIONS - text describing what is already visible
   ("Select an option below", "Your items"). Test: delete it; if no
   information is lost, it was never information.
4. NO CONFIRM CEREMONY on reversible actions - no "are you sure"
   sheets, mandatory detours, or acknowledgement taps where undo is
   one tap away. EXCEPTIONS you must respect: destructive, financial,
   legal, or gravity-appropriate moments keep their ceremony - state
   which side of that line the action is on and why.
5. NEVER RE-ASK A STABLE PREFERENCE - settings the user already made
   must be read from state, not re-collected per entry point. Flag
   only inputs whose answer exists in the preferences/state supplied
   above or is visible in the input itself; do not invent prior
   answers.

Design for how the block is USED, not how it reads as a spec:
description rewards completeness, interaction rewards economy.

Report per block:
- verdict per law: PASS / VIOLATION (quote the exact offending element)
- the ONE deletion or merge that most improves the block
Then for the whole screen:
- the three highest-value deletions, ranked
- for blocks that PASS all five laws only: "would a person who cares
  have shipped this as-is?" If not, quote the element that still feels
  generated and its user-visible effect - or answer "none". No vibe
  prose without a quoted element.

Bias every fix toward deletion. Do not propose adding labels, frames,
confirmations, or explanations to fix an AI-feel finding. Exception:
never delete a control's only accessible name, the only error or
empty-state feedback, or the only feedback on an irreversible action -
there, merge or reorder instead of deleting.

Fill in: screen_name screen_input known_preferences_or_state

Shared as is, for reference. Read it and decide what it will do before you run it; using it is your responsibility, under the terms.