Skip to main content
Once your design system exists, most design work is a short prompt away. This page gives you the vocabulary to describe what you see, plus copy-paste prompts for the checks non-designers most often miss.

The vocabulary

  • “more breathing room / airier” → bigger gaps
  • “tighter / denser” → smaller gaps
  • “the padding inside the card” → space between a card’s edge and its contents
  • “the margin” → space from the screen edge to the content
  • “the gap / the rhythm between items” → space between repeated elements
Useful sentence: “Increase the vertical rhythm between sections by one step on the spacing scale.”
iOS uses a fixed type scale. You rarely need the numbers, but here they are so you can point at a role:
  • 34pt — large title (the big screen title)
  • 22pt — title
  • 17pt — body / headline (default reading size; anything smaller starts to look like a website)
  • 15pt — subheadline
  • 13pt / 11pt — caption / metadata (timestamps, labels)
The words iOS uses, light to heavy: regular → medium → semibold → bold. “Make the amount semibold so it stands out from the label.”
  • accent / primary — the interactive color (buttons, active tab, selection)
  • surface / background — the color behind content (card vs screen)
  • ink / text-primary / text-secondary — text colors: primary for headings, secondary for supporting text
  • semantic roles — success, warning, error, plus your app’s own named roles
  • corner radius — how rounded corners are (“softer corners” / “sharper corners”)
  • elevation / shadow / depth policy — whether things float on shadows, sit on surfaces, or use gradients. Your system should pick one policy; point at it: “we use surfaces, not shadows — remove that drop shadow.”
  • tap target — the invisible touchable area (must be at least 44×44pt)
  • pressed / disabled state — how something looks when tapped or unavailable
  • hairline — a 1px divider line
Not sure what to ask for? Use this:

Reuse values and components

Extract repeated things into shared components:
Before building anything new, reuse what exists:

Accessibility — text contrast

For dots, icons, and other non-text elements:

Tap targets

Anything tappable must be at least 44×44pt, even if the visible icon is smaller.
Quick version for a single element: “Is this chevron’s tap target at least 44pt? If not, pad it to 44 without moving the icon.”

Consistency check

The catch-all “does this all feel like one app” review:
Follow-up once you’ve picked the standards:

Check for hardcoded values

“Hardcoded” means a number or color typed directly into a screen instead of pulled from the token file. It’s the #1 source of drift — it looks fine today and breaks consistency the moment you restyle.
Your DesignTokens.swift is the source of truth. A restyle should be a one-file edit. Every hardcoded value is a place that edit will silently miss.

Animation and motion

Describe motion by feel and purpose; the agent picks the spring, duration, and easing. The vocabulary: spring vs ease, snappy vs gentle, duration, and transition (how something enters/exits). Describing a motion you want — no jargon needed:
Iterating on a motion that’s not quite right:
Respect the accessibility setting:

Things non-designers forget

Dark mode — half your users:
Empty / loading / error states — screens aren’t always full of data:
Icon consistency:

The big audit — everything at once