Design & UX

Dual Design Systems

Choose between shadcn/ui for marketing sites or AWS Cloudscape for data-heavy dashboards. Built on atomic design principles with IA and UX composition agents for rapid, consistent UI generation.

Two Systems, One Workflow

shadcn/ui

For marketing sites, landing pages, and content-focused applications

Best For:

  • Marketing websites and landing pages
  • Public-facing SaaS interfaces
  • Content-heavy applications
  • Mobile-first responsive designs

Features:

  • Tailwind CSS-based, fully customizable
  • Accessible (WCAG AA compliant)
  • Copy-paste components
  • Dark mode built-in

AWS Cloudscape

For internal dashboards, admin panels, and data-intensive applications

Best For:

  • Internal admin dashboards
  • Data-heavy applications with tables/charts
  • AWS console-like interfaces
  • Enterprise management tools

Features:

  • React-based with TypeScript
  • Complex data visualizations
  • Familiar to AWS users
  • Built-in form validation

Atomic Design Methodology

Build complex UIs from simple, reusable primitives

⚛️

Atoms

Basic building blocks like buttons, inputs, labels, icons

<Button variant="primary" size="lg">Click Me</Button> <Input type="email" placeholder="email@example.com" />
🔗

Molecules

Simple groups of atoms like form fields, search bars, cards

<FormField> <Label>Email</Label> <Input type="email" /> <ErrorMessage>Invalid email</ErrorMessage> </FormField>
🧬

Organisms

Complex components like navigation bars, data tables, forms

<NavigationBar> <Logo /> <NavLinks> <NavLink href="/features">Features</NavLink> <NavLink href="/pricing">Pricing</NavLink> </NavLinks> <UserMenu /> </NavigationBar>
📄

Templates

Page-level layouts combining organisms into structure

<DashboardTemplate> <Header /> <Sidebar /> <MainContent> {children} </MainContent> <Footer /> </DashboardTemplate>
🖼️

Pages

Complete views with real content and data

<DashboardTemplate> <AnalyticsWidget data={metrics} /> <RecentActivityFeed items={activities} /> <QuickActions actions={userActions} /> </DashboardTemplate>

Design Tokens

Design tokens are named design decisions (colors, spacing, typography) that ensure visual consistency across all components. ProtoFlow uses HSL color space for semantic token naming.

Color Tokens

--background

240 10% 3.9%

--primary

0 0% 98%

--accent

240 3.7% 15.9%

Spacing & Typography

space-4 (1rem / 16px)

space-8 (2rem / 32px)

space-12 (3rem / 48px)

Using Tokens (NO Raw Hex Values)

❌ Wrong

background: #1a1a2e; color: #ffffff; padding: 17px;

✓ Correct

background: hsl(var(--background)); color: hsl(var(--foreground)); padding: var(--space-4);

AI-Powered Design Agents

Two specialized agents collaborate to generate UIs

IA Agent

Information Architecture - Structures content and navigation

Responsibilities:

  • Analyze user goals and tasks
  • Design navigation hierarchy (max 3 levels)
  • Map user flows and decision points
  • Define content groupings and taxonomy
  • Create sitemap with page relationships

UX Composition Agent

User Experience - Composes visual components

Responsibilities:

  • Select appropriate templates from library
  • Compose components using atomic design
  • Apply design tokens (never raw hex)
  • Implement visual hierarchy from IA spec
  • Generate assets with metadata headers

Workflow: IA Agent → UX Agent

1

User Request

"Build a dashboard for project management"

2

IA Agent Designs Structure

Navigation: Projects → Tasks → Team → Settings

User flow: Create project → Add tasks → Assign team → Track progress

3

UX Agent Implements Visuals

Selects dashboard template, composes sidebar navigation, project cards, task lists with shadcn/ui components and design tokens

4

Validation

Check against design system checklist: tokens used, atomic classification, metadata present

Build Consistent UIs with Design Systems

Stop fighting with CSS and component libraries. Let ProtoFlow's design system agents generate production-ready UIs that follow best practices.