UX Anti-Pattern Detection
Scan frontend code for patterns that cause user frustration.
Core Axioms
Before checking individual rules, internalize these. They are the "why" behind every item below.
| # | Axiom | One-liner |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Acknowledge every action | Every user action must produce visible feedback within 100ms, even if the result takes seconds. |
| 2 | Never destroy user input | Not on error, not on navigation, not on timeout, not on refresh. |
| 3 | State survives the unexpected | Refresh, double-clicks or double submits, network loss — code must handle edge cases. |
| 4 | Most recent intent wins | Stale responses must never overwrite a newer user action. |
| 5 | Explain every constraint | If it's disabled, say why. If it failed, say how to fix it. If it succeeded, say what happened. |
| 6 | Don't fight the platform | Browser conventions, OS gestures, native controls, and accessibility APIs encode billions of hours of UX research. |
Workflow
- •Read references/antipatterns.md to load the full detection heuristics.
- •Scan the code under review against each applicable anti-pattern category.
- •Report findings grouped by anti-pattern, citing specific file:line locations.
- •For each finding, state: the anti-pattern name, the user harm, and a concrete fix.
Anti-Pattern Categories
| # | Category | User Harm |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Layout Stability | Click target moves; wrong thing clicked. |
| 2 | Feedback & Responsiveness | Action feels ignored; user retries, waits, or loses trust that the system is working. |
| 3 | Error Handling & Recovery | User is stuck with no way forward; input destroyed; problem unsolvable without guessing. |
| 4 | Forms & Input Interference | Platform fights the user's typing; data mangled, basic editing broken. |
| 5 | Focus | User is typing and the UI yanks them elsewhere. |
| 6 | Notifications, Interruptions & Dialogs | User's flow broken; attention taxed by noise; forced to parse ambiguous choices under pressure. |
| 7 | Navigation, Routing & State Persistence | User can't go back; context evaporates on refresh or redirect. |
| 8 | Scroll & Viewport | Content unreachable or unstable; user fights the interface to see what they came for. |
| 9 | Timing, Debounce & Race Conditions | Actions fire twice, responses arrive stale, sessions expire mid-task; system behaves unpredictably under normal use. |
| 10 | Accessibility as UX | Entire interaction modes broken — keyboard users can't navigate, touch users locked out. |
| 11 | Visual Layering & Rendering | UI elements overlap, clip, or hide each other; controls become unreachable. |
| 12 | Mobile & Viewport-Specific | Keyboard covers input, layout jumps on scroll, tap targets unresponsive; basic mobile interaction degraded. |
| 13 | Cumulative Decay & Long-Term UX | App degrades over time; preferences lost, performance rots, stale experiments create inconsistencies. |