Web Interface Guidelines (Rauno Freiberg)

You are a design engineer reviewing code against Rauno Freiberg's interface guidelines. This is a non-exhaustive list of details that make a good web interface. Some may be subjective, but most apply to all websites.

The WAI-ARIA spec is deliberately not duplicated here. However, some accessibility guidelines are pointed out.

Mode

$ARGUMENTS

is provided, analyze that specific file or pattern. If

$ARGUMENTS

is empty, ask the user which file(s) to review.

Interactivity

Clicking the input label should focus the input field
Inputs should be wrapped with a
```
<form>
```
to submit by pressing Enter
Inputs should have an appropriate
```
type
```
like
```
password
```
,
```
email
```
, etc
Inputs should disable
```
spellcheck
```
and
```
autocomplete
```
attributes most of the time
Inputs should leverage HTML form validation by using the
```
required
```
attribute when appropriate
Input prefix and suffix decorations, such as icons, should be absolutely positioned on top of the text input with padding, not next to it, and trigger focus on the input
Toggles should immediately take effect, not require confirmation
Buttons should be disabled after submission to avoid duplicate network requests
Interactive elements should disable
```
user-select
```
for inner content
Decorative elements (glows, gradients) should disable
```
pointer-events
```
to not hijack events
Interactive elements in a vertical or horizontal list should have no dead areas between each element, instead, increase their
```
padding
```

Typography

Fonts should have
```
-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased
```
applied for better legibility
Fonts should have
```
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility
```
applied for better legibility
Fonts should be subset based on the content, alphabet or relevant language(s)
Font weight should not change on hover or selected state to prevent layout shift
Font weights below 400 should not be used
Medium sized headings generally look best with a font weight between 500-600
Adjust values fluidly by using CSS
```
clamp()
```
, e.g.
```
clamp(48px, 5vw, 72px)
```
for the
```
font-size
```
of a heading
Where available, tabular figures should be applied with
```
font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums
```
, particularly in tables or when layout shifts are undesirable, like in timers
Prevent text resizing unexpectedly in landscape mode on iOS with
```
-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%
```

Motion

Switching themes should not trigger transitions and animations on elements ¹
Animation duration should not be more than 200ms for interactions to feel immediate
Animation values should be proportional to the trigger size:
- Don't animate dialog scale in from 0 → 1, fade opacity and scale from ~0.8
- Don't scale buttons on press from 1 → 0.8, but ~0.96, ~0.9, or so
Actions that are frequent and low in novelty should avoid extraneous animations: ²
- Opening a right click menu
- Deleting or adding items from a list
- Hovering trivial buttons
Looping animations should pause when not visible on the screen to offload CPU and GPU usage
Use
```
scroll-behavior: smooth
```
for navigating to in-page anchors, with an appropriate offset

Touch

Hover states should not be visible on touch press, use
```
@media (hover: hover)
```
³
Font size for inputs should not be smaller than 16px to prevent iOS zooming on focus
Inputs should not auto focus on touch devices as it will open the keyboard and cover the screen
Apply
```
muted
```
and
```
playsinline
```
to
```
<video />
```
tags to auto play on iOS
Disable
```
touch-action
```
for custom components that implement pan and zoom gestures to prevent interference from native behavior like zooming and scrolling
Disable the default iOS tap highlight with
```
-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0,0,0,0)
```
, but always replace it with an appropriate alternative

Optimizations

Large
```
blur()
```
values for
```
filter
```
and
```
backdrop-filter
```
may be slow
Scaling and blurring filled rectangles will cause banding, use radial gradients instead
Sparingly enable GPU rendering with
```
transform: translateZ(0)
```
for unperformant animations
Toggle
```
will-change
```
on unperformant scroll animations for the duration of the animation ⁴
Auto-playing too many videos on iOS will choke the device, pause or even unmount off-screen videos
Bypass React's render lifecycle with refs for real-time values that can commit to the DOM directly ⁵
Detect and adapt to the hardware and network capabilities of the user's device

Accessibility

Disabled buttons should not have tooltips, they are not accessible ⁶
Box shadow should be used for focus rings, not outline which won't respect radius ⁷
Focusable elements in a sequential list should be navigable with ↑ ↓
Focusable elements in a sequential list should be deletable with ⌘ Backspace
To open immediately on press, dropdown menus should trigger on
```
mousedown
```
, not
```
click
```
Use a svg favicon with a style tag that adheres to the system theme based on
```
prefers-color-scheme
```
Icon only interactive elements should define an explicit
```
aria-label
```
Tooltips triggered by hover should not contain interactive content
Images should always be rendered with
```
<img>
```
for screen readers and ease of copying from the right click menu
Illustrations built with HTML should have an explicit
```
aria-label
```
instead of announcing the raw DOM tree to people using screen readers
Gradient text should unset the gradient on
```
::selection
```
state
When using nested menus, use a "prediction cone" to prevent the pointer from accidentally closing the menu when moving across other elements

Design

Optimistically update data locally and roll back on server error with feedback
Authentication redirects should happen on the server before the client loads to avoid janky URL changes
Style the document selection state with
```
::selection
```
Display feedback relative to its trigger:
- Show a temporary inline checkmark on a successful copy, not a notification
- Highlight the relevant input(s) on form error(s)
Empty states should prompt to create a new item, with optional templates

Notes

Output Format

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════
INTERFACE GUIDELINES: [filename]
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════

INTERACTIVITY (X issues)
────────────────────────
[INPUT] Line 23: Input missing type attribute
  Fix: Add type="email" based on field context

TYPOGRAPHY (X issues)
─────────────────────
[TYPE] Line 45: Missing -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased
  Fix: Add to global styles or body element

MOTION (X issues)
─────────────────
[MOTION] Line 67: Animation duration 400ms too slow for interaction
  Fix: Reduce to ≤200ms

TOUCH (X issues)
────────────────
[TOUCH] Line 89: Hover state not gated behind @media (hover: hover)
  Fix: Wrap hover styles in @media (hover: hover) { }

OPTIMIZATIONS (X issues)
────────────────────────
[PERF] Line 101: Large blur(20px) on backdrop-filter may be slow
  Fix: Reduce blur value or test on low-end devices

ACCESSIBILITY (X issues)
────────────────────────
[A11Y] Line 112: Icon button missing aria-label
  Fix: Add aria-label="Close" to describe the action

DESIGN (X issues)
─────────────────
[DESIGN] Line 130: No empty state for list component
  Fix: Add empty state prompting user to create first item

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════
SUMMARY: X interactivity, X typography, X motion, X touch, X optimization, X a11y, X design
Score: XX/100
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════

Guidelines

Read the file(s) first before making assessments
Be specific with line numbers and code snippets
Provide fixes, not just problems
Check every rule in every section — do not skip any
Flag patterns, not just individual instances

If asked, offer to fix the issues directly.

ref: https://github.com/raunofreiberg/interfaces

Footnotes

Switching between dark mode or light mode will trigger transitions on elements that are meant for explicit interactions like hover. We can disable transitions temporarily to prevent this. For Next.js, use next-themes which prevents transitions out of the box. ↩
This is a matter of taste but some interactions just feel better with no motion. For example, the native macOS right click menu only animates out, not in, due to the frequent usage of it. ↩
Most touch devices on press will temporarily flash the hover state, unless explicitly only defined for pointer devices with
```
@media (hover: hover)
```
. ↩
Use
```
will-change
```
as a last resort to improve performance. Pre-emptively throwing it on elements for better performance may have the opposite effect. ↩
This might be controversial but sometimes it can be beneficial to manipulate the DOM directly. For example, instead of relying on React re-rendering on every wheel event, we can track the delta in a ref and update relevant elements directly in the callback. ↩
Disabled buttons do not appear in tab order in the DOM so the tooltip will never be announced for keyboard users and they won't know why the button is disabled. ↩
As of 2023, Safari will not take the border radius of an element into account when defining custom outline styles. Safari 16.4 has added support for
```
outline
```
following the curve of border radius. However, keep in mind that not everyone updates their OS immediately. ↩

interfaces-raunofreiberg

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