design-narrative

April 1, 2026 · View on GitHub

A Claude Code skill that writes the design rationale behind a Figma file.

Most handoff docs describe what was built. This one argues why it was the right call — and where the feeling was designed in deliberately.


What it does

Reads a Figma file and writes a structured four-part narrative: the context, the insight that shaped the direction, the design decisions made, and where the emotional quality was deliberately placed.

The output is a markdown document ready to paste into Confluence, Notion, a PR description, or a client presentation.

The four parts:

PartWhat it covers
ContextThe problem, the user, the moment — why this needed to exist
InsightThe single observation that made the solution obvious
Design responseThe decisions made, what was rejected, what tradeoffs were accepted
Delight intentionWhere the feeling was designed in, and what it's meant to make people feel

Setup

  1. Install Claude Code
  2. Connect the Figma MCP server
  3. Add this skill to your Claude config:
    {
      "skills": ["path/to/design-narrative-figma/SKILL.md"]
    }
    

Usage

/design-narrative

Then provide your Figma file URL. Claude reads the design and writes the narrative — no prompting needed beyond the link.

You can also scope it:

"Write a design narrative for the onboarding flow in this file: [URL]"


Example output

# Design Narrative — Onboarding Redesign

## Context
New users were dropping off before completing setup — not because the product was
hard to use, but because the first five minutes felt like form-filling, not
arrival. The redesign treats onboarding as a first impression, not a gate.

## Insight
Users who saw value in the first session retained at 3× the rate of those who
didn't. The insight wasn't "simplify the form" — it was "get to value faster."

## Design response
We cut four setup steps and moved them to an opt-in post-activation flow.
The progress indicator was removed entirely — replacing it with a single
"you're almost there" moment that appears only once, at the right time.

## Delight intention
The completion screen uses the user's name and the specific action they just
completed — not a generic "you're all set." Small, but it signals: we were
paying attention.

MCP tools used

get_design_context get_metadata get_screenshot


By Marie Spreitzer · MIT License