Product & Design Skills

Map how a product or feature works across the full spectrum of human ability — not just 'can use' and 'can't use'. Use when planning accessibility coverage, identifying gaps, or communicating accessibility scope to stakeholders. Triggers on: ability spectrum, range of users, who can use this, who can't use this, accessibility coverage, accessibility scope, ability range, spectrum of needs.

Track and manage accessibility debt — known accessibility issues that have been deferred. Use when managing a backlog of accessibility issues, planning remediation, or when accessibility problems are accumulating faster than they're being fixed. Triggers on: accessibility debt, tech debt, known issues, backlog, deferred, we'll fix it later, remediation, accessibility backlog, accumulating issues, regression.

Plan what to test, how to test, and who should test for accessibility. Use when defining a testing approach, planning QA, setting up automated and manual testing, or deciding what level of accessibility testing a project needs. Triggers on: accessibility testing, how to test, test plan, automated testing, manual testing, screen reader testing, user testing, accessibility QA, what to test, testing strategy.

Write meaningful alternative text for images, charts, diagrams, and visual content. Use when creating or reviewing alt text, image descriptions, chart summaries, or any visual content that needs a text equivalent. Triggers on: alt text, image description, alternative text, screen reader, decorative image, chart description, infographic, data visualisation, complex image, meaningful alt.

Assess cognitive load across a complete multi-step process and produce a load map. Chains: cognitive-load-assessment, memory-load-reduction, wayfinding-navigation. Use when evaluating a checkout flow, onboarding sequence, application process, or any multi-step journey.

Write usage scenarios that include assistive technology and diverse interaction methods. Use when writing scenarios, use cases, user journeys, or storyboards. Triggers on: assistive technology, AT, screen reader, switch, voice control, magnifier, braille display, head pointer, eye tracking, how people use our product, usage scenario, use case.

Audit user stories for disability inclusion. Chains: inclusive-user-stories, edge-case-identification. Use when reviewing an existing backlog, sprint, or set of user stories to check whether they account for diverse abilities.

Design interfaces where colour is never the only way information is communicated. Use when designing status indicators, data visualisations, form validation, alerts, maps, or any content that uses colour to convey meaning. Triggers on: colour blind, color blind, colour alone, color alone, colour vision, color vision, red green, deuteranopia, protanopia, tritanopia, colour coding, status colour, chart colours, accessible colours.

Design help systems and support patterns that work for people with cognitive disabilities.

Design help systems and support patterns that work for people with cognitive disabilities.

Create Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) documenting significant technical choices with context, options, consequences, and sequential numbering.

Create user personas that include disability as a natural dimension of human diversity — not as a separate 'accessibility persona'. Use when creating personas, user profiles, proto-personas, or any representation of target users. Triggers on: persona, user persona, proto-persona, user profile, target user, who is the user, disability persona, accessibility persona, inclusive persona.

Identify and design for edge cases that disproportionately affect users with disabilities. Use when reviewing designs for completeness, planning test cases, or when someone says 'that's an edge case.' Triggers on: edge case, corner case, that's unlikely, only a few users, exception, unusual scenario, we'll handle that later, happy path, unhappy path, error state, empty state.

Design error prevention, error messages, and recovery flows for cognitive accessibility. Use when designing forms, checkout flows, account creation, settings, data entry, or any flow where users can make mistakes. Triggers on: error handling, error messages, form errors, validation, users make mistakes, users abandon, error recovery, undo, forgiving design.

Design feedback and status communication that works across senses — visual, auditory, and haptic. Use when designing loading states, success messages, progress indicators, notifications, alerts, or any system response to user action. Triggers on: feedback, status, notification, alert, loading, progress, success message, confirmation, toast, snackbar, screen reader announcement, aria-live, colour alone.

Design typography systems that adapt to user needs — scaling, spacing, and font preferences. Use when designing type systems, setting font sizes, defining line heights, or reviewing text readability across conditions. Triggers on: typography, font size, line height, letter spacing, word spacing, text scaling, dyslexia font, readable font, type scale, font units, rem, em, px, reading difficulty.

Design interfaces that support sustained focus and reduce distractions. Use when designing for users with ADHD, attention difficulties, anxiety, or any context where focus matters — dashboards, reading experiences, task flows, forms, learning interfaces. Triggers on: focus, distraction, ADHD, attention, too busy, cluttered, visual noise, autoplay, notifications, pop-ups, interruptions.

Design form labels, instructions, and grouping that work for screen readers and cognitive accessibility.

Design alternatives to gesture-based and motion-based interactions. Use when designing swipe actions, pinch-to-zoom, shake-to-undo, tilt controls, multi-finger gestures, or any interaction that requires specific physical movements. Triggers on: gesture, swipe, pinch, shake, tilt, multi-touch, two-finger, rotation gesture, device motion, accelerometer, gyroscope.

Write user stories that account for disability and diverse abilities from the start. Use when writing user stories, acceptance criteria, jobs to be done, or requirements. Triggers on: user story, user stories, acceptance criteria, jobs to be done, JTBD, requirements, as a user I want, definition of done, story writing.

Design interfaces where information density can be adjusted to suit different cognitive needs and preferences. Use when designing dashboards, data tables, feeds, inboxes, settings panels, or any interface with variable amounts of content. Triggers on: information density, too dense, too sparse, compact view, comfortable view, spacing, whitespace, data density, content density, crowded, breathing room.

Keyboard accessibility, focus management, and shortcuts.

Review keyboard navigation and focus management in an existing interface. Chains: keyboard-navigation, feedback-and-status. Use when testing or reviewing keyboard accessibility specifically, before a release, or when users report keyboard issues.

Write link text that makes sense out of context for screen reader users and improves usability for everyone. Use when writing or reviewing links, calls to action, navigation labels, or any clickable text. Triggers on: link text, click here, read more, learn more, screen reader links, link purpose, anchor text, call to action, CTA, ambiguous link.