UI/UX Polish — Iterative Enhancement Workflow

When to Use: App already works and looks decent, you want to elevate it.

When NOT to Use: App is broken, styling is fundamentally wrong, or starting from scratch.

Key Insight: Asking for agreement ("don't you agree?") motivates better polish. Instructing to consider desktop vs mobile separately leads to much better outcomes.

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THE EXACT PROMPT — UI/UX Polish

This prompt is used so frequently it's worth putting on a Stream Deck button:

I still think there are strong opportunities to enhance the UI/UX look and feel and to make everything work better and be more intuitive, user-friendly, visually appealing, polished, slick, and world class in terms of following UI/UX best practices like those used by Stripe, don't you agree? And I want you to carefully consider desktop UI/UX and mobile UI/UX separately while doing this and hyper-optimize for both separately to play to the specifics of each modality. I'm looking for true world-class visual appeal, polish, slickness, etc. that makes people gasp at how stunning and perfect it is in every way.  Use ultrathink.

Best Models

Model	Configuration
Claude Code + Opus 4.5	Use ultrathink
Codex + GPT 5.2	High/Extra-High reasoning
Gemini CLI	Good

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Why This Prompt Works

Element	Effect
"don't you agree?"	Engages reasoning about whether improvements are possible
"desktop and mobile separately"	Prevents compromise solutions that are mediocre on both
"world class", "Stripe"	Sets high anchor point
"makes people gasp"	Pushes toward exceptional quality
"ultrathink"	Extended thinking for thorough analysis

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Iteration Protocol

The Workflow

1. App already works and looks decent
   ↓
2. Run the polish prompt
   ↓
3. Agent makes incremental improvements
   ↓
4. Repeat many times (10+ iterations)
   ↓
5. Small improvements compound dramatically

Why Multiple Passes Work

• Each pass makes some incremental improvement (even if minor)
• These really add up after 10 iterations
• Multiple agents can work simultaneously on different areas
• Cumulative effect is dramatic

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What Typically Gets Improved

Visual Polish

• Spacing and padding consistency
• Typography hierarchy
• Color contrast and accessibility
• Shadow and depth effects
• Border radius consistency
• Hover/focus states

Interaction Design

• Button feedback
• Loading states
• Transitions and animations
• Error/empty state design

Desktop vs Mobile

Desktop Optimizations	Mobile Optimizations
Keyboard navigation	Touch target sizes
Hover states	Mobile-specific navigation
Multi-column layouts	Gesture support
Sidebar navigation	Performance
Power user shortcuts	Responsive breakpoints

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When to Use vs When NOT

USE When:

• App works correctly
• Basic styling is in place
• Want to elevate from "decent" to "world-class"
• Ready for iterative refinement

DON'T Use When:

• App is broken or buggy (fix bugs first)
• Styling is fundamentally wrong (need complete overhaul)
• No basic design system in place
• Starting from scratch

For complete overhauls, establish a design system and component library first.

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Tips

1. Don't skip iterations — Even when changes seem small, keep going
2. Review changes — Make sure improvements don't break things
3. Test on real devices — Desktop browser != mobile experience
4. Consider accessibility — WCAG compliance matters
5. Keep performance in mind — Pretty but slow is bad UX

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References

Topic	Reference
Additional prompts	PROMPTS.md
Improvement checklist	CHECKLIST.md