Rams Design Review

A Claude skill that checks your design against Dieter Rams' ten principles and tells you which one each mistake breaks.

The principles

01Innovative
Technology keeps opening new possibilities, and design should move with it instead of copying what already exists. Innovation here means a better way to do the task, not novelty for its own sake.
The review looks for: Copied patterns with no reason behind them, and obvious better interactions the platform already allows.
02Useful
A product is bought to be used. Everything on the screen should help with that, and anything that distracts from it works against the product.
The review looks for: Elements that don't serve the user's goal, a buried primary task, or something the task needs that's missing.
03Aesthetic
People live with the things they use every day, so how they look and feel matters. Only well-made things can be beautiful.
The review looks for: Inconsistent spacing, alignment, type scale and color, visual noise, and weak hierarchy.
04Understandable
Good design makes a product explain itself. At best, nobody needs a manual or a tooltip to know what to do.
The review looks for: Unclear labels, icons without text, ambiguous buttons, and states or next steps you have to guess.
05Unobtrusive
Products are tools, not works of art. They should stay neutral and leave room for the person using them.
The review looks for: Decoration competing with content, loud colors, badges and animation where calm would do, and branding that shouts over the task.
06Honest
Design shouldn't make a product look more powerful or valuable than it is, and it shouldn't manipulate people into decisions.
The review looks for: Dark patterns: fake urgency, hidden costs, preselected upsells, confirmshaming, and misleading weight between options.
07Long-lasting
Good design avoids fashion, so it doesn't look dated in a year. It stays useful for a long time, even in a world that throws things away.
The review looks for: Trend-driven styling with no functional reason, the kind that will need a redesign once the trend passes.
08Thorough down to the last detail
Nothing should be left to chance. Care and precision in the details show respect for the people who use the product.
The review looks for: Missing empty, loading and error states, truncation, inconsistent components, and accessibility gaps like contrast and tap targets.
09Environmentally friendly
Design should conserve resources and avoid waste across the product's whole life. On screens, that includes data, energy and people's time.
The review looks for: Heavy assets, autoplaying video, needless animation, and extra steps or pages a flow doesn't need.
10As little design as possible
Less, but better. Focus on what's essential so the product isn't weighed down by everything else, and get back to simplicity.
The review looks for: Redundant elements, duplicate calls to action, and ornament without purpose. Of every element it asks: what breaks if you remove it?

How it works

Share the design. A screenshot, a Figma link, a live URL or UI code.

Answer up to four questions. The goal, the users, how finished it is, and what it has to follow. It skips anything the design already answers.

Get the review. A one-line verdict, issues ranked by severity with a concrete fix for each, and a table covering all ten principles. Only real problems are reported. See an example.

Example review

Forgettable app: a list of home checks grouped into Hall, Kitchen and Car, each with a toggle

Forgettable, home checklist app

Assumed: goal is seeing at a glance which checks are done; users are household members; final hi-fi; iOS.

The toggles mean two different things, so you can't tell whether a check is done or just a reminder that is switched on.

High Toggle meaning is ambiguous

Where: Every row
Problem: "Lock house doors · Anna · 08:12" reads as done. "Water the plants · When connecting to Home Wi-Fi" reads as a rule. The same switch can't say both "completed" and "reminder enabled".
Breaks: #4 Understandable · #6 Honest
Fix: Pick one meaning. For completion, use a checkbox and show who and when. Move trigger rules into the item's settings.

High Nothing shows what still needs doing

Where: Whole list
Problem: Done and pending items look the same apart from the switch, and there's no state for overdue. The main question, "did we forget anything?", has no answer at a glance.
Breaks: #2 Useful
Fix: Add a summary at the top ("2 of 6 done") and visually dim done items, or move them below the pending ones.

Medium ✕ in the off state reads as failure

Where: Off toggles
Problem: A cross signals an error or something missed. "Feed cat" at 9:41 isn't failed, it's just later today.
Breaks: #4 Understandable · #5 Unobtrusive
Fix: Use an empty neutral state. Save warning styling for actually overdue items.

Medium "Forgettable" as a noun

Where: "Add Forgettable" button
Problem: It's a fine app name but unclear as an object. New users won't know what they're adding.
Breaks: #4 Understandable
Fix: "Add check" or "Add reminder".

Medium Inconsistent row details

Where: Subtitles
Problem: One row shows a person and time, others a trigger, "Lock car doors" shows nothing, and only "Charge the car" names its alert type ("Alarm").
Breaks: #8 Thorough
Fix: Same structure for every row: status line first (who · when, or due time), trigger as secondary detail.

Low Heavy chrome for six items

Where: Section headers, cards
Problem: Widely tracked all-caps headers, large gaps and a card per item fit only six checks on a screen.
Breaks: #10 As little design as possible
Fix: Group items in one card per room with dividers, and use quieter sentence-case headers.

Low Android-style caps on iOS

Where: "EDIT", "ADD FORGETTABLE"
Problem: All-caps buttons and a floating action button come from Material Design and feel foreign next to iOS system UI.
Breaks: #3 Aesthetic · #7 Long-lasting
Fix: Sentence-case labels; consider a + in the navigation bar instead of the floating button.

Principle	Status
01 Innovative	OK. Wi-Fi and location triggers are a smart use of the phone.
02 Useful	1 issue
03 Aesthetic	1 issue
04 Understandable	3 issues
05 Unobtrusive	secondary
06 Honest	secondary
07 Long-lasting	secondary
08 Thorough	1 issue
09 Environmentally friendly	OK
10 As little design as possible	1 issue

Install

Claude app: download SKILL.md, put it in a folder named rams-design-review, zip it and upload under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

Claude Code:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/rams-design-review
curl -L https://github.com/Sevcovic/rams-design-review/raw/main/skill/SKILL.md \
  -o ~/.claude/skills/rams-design-review/SKILL.md

Then ask: "Review this with Rams principles" and attach your design.

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