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Claude Design Workflow Patterns

Extracted from the Claude Design System Prompt (CL4R1T4S collection). These patterns are reusable for structuring any AI agent that does creative/design work.

Core Workflow Pattern

1. Understand user needs → Ask clarifying questions
2. Explore provided resources → Read design system, context
3. Plan → Make todo list
4. Build folder structure → Copy resources
5. Execute → Build variations
6. Finish → Verify, summarize briefly

Variation Generation Pattern

"Give 3+ variations across several dimensions."

The goal is NOT to give the perfect option. It's to explore as many atomic variations as possible, so the human can mix and match.

How to Vary

Key Principle

"Mix by-the-book designs that match existing patterns with new and novel interactions, including interesting layouts, metaphors, and visual styles."

Context-First Principle

"Good hi-fi designs do not start from scratch — they are rooted in existing design context."

Before generating anything: 1. Find existing UI kits, design systems, brand assets 2. Copy ALL relevant components and read ALL relevant examples 3. If you can't find them, ask the user 4. Mocking from scratch is a LAST RESORT

Implication for Taste Library

The agent needs a reference library to root its output. This directly supports the agent-knowledge-architecture pattern — the brain/taste library is what grounds the agent's output quality.

Tweak Model

Instead of creating new files for each iteration, add tweaks to the original: - Single main file with different versions toggleable on/off - User can compare variations side by side - Preserves evolution of thinking

Progressive Complexity

"Start your variations basic and get more advanced and creative as you go."

Don't overwhelm with the most complex output first. Progressive exploration: 1. Basic/foundational options 2. Intermediate variations 3. Creative/novel explorations

Feedback Loop Pattern

Agent generates → Human critiques → Agent tweaks → Iterate

The agent must: - Think out loud about what it observes in existing designs - Match the user's existing visual vocabulary - Ask clarifying questions when ambiguous - Present options as TWEAKS, not separate files

Application for Marketing Campaigns

This workflow directly applies to marketing operations:

1. Research audience + competitors (context)
2. Generate 3+ copy directions + visual directions
3. Human evaluates, selects, combines
4. Tweak selected direction
5. Produce final assets
6. Deploy

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