Frontend design skills
Skills that turn a prompt into polished, production-ready web UI.
We gave six frontend-design skills the same three build tasks, all generated by the same base model. Every output was screenshotted and scored blind by two independent judges on five axes. Because the model is held constant, the differences below reflect the skill, not the model.
Leaderboard
Anthropic · The most reliable all-rounder, it won both the portfolio and dashboard tasks.
Leonxlnx · Expressive, editorial pages that must feel considered, not stock.
superdesigndev · Distinctive visual directions and reusable systems, it won the SaaS landing task.
Vercel · Auditing and hardening an existing design for correctness.
nextlevelbuilder · Systematic product UIs with design tokens.
Leonxlnx · Mood-forward, editorial hero pages, it tied for best on the portfolio.
Overall = mean of the per-task overall scores from 2 blind judges.
Every result, side by side
Every skill built the same brief on the same model. Tap any result to open the live page.
SaaS landing page
Winner: superdesignA marketing landing page for an AI note-taking app, nav, hero + mockup, features, logos, 3-tier pricing, CTA, footer.
superdesignHighly polished, rich detailed mockup, colorful logo strip, dark pricing contrast; most production-ready feel.
design-taste-frontendDark theme done well; realistic app mockup, adds testimonials, tidy pricing and strong contrast throughout.
ui-ux-pro-maxClean light theme, polished lavender palette, realistic mockup, all sections present and well-spaced.
Generous whitespace, excellent spacing and rhythm, elegant restrained dark theme with strong pricing block.
Solid dark violet theme, decent mockup and pricing, but fairly generic and slightly flat feature section.
Dark theme but feels sparse and low-contrast; sections thin, mockup and features underdeveloped, feels unfinished.
Designer portfolio
Winner: frontend-designA personal portfolio for a product designer, hero, 4 to 6 project cards, about, contact. Must feel distinctive, not templated.
frontend-designStriking oversized serif nameplate, refined restraint, jewel-tone thumbnails; most distinctive and typographically confident of the set.
high-end-visual-designCohesive warm earthy palette, italic serif headings, quote pull, muted card art; the most polished and distinctive of the set.
design-taste-frontendWarm editorial feel with real photography and a systems-thinker narrative; polished hero, complete sections, cohesive but slightly safe.
Confident cream + acid-green scheme with real product-shot cards and metrics; distinctive, dense, well-structured process section.
Colorful gradient cards and dark about band are pleasant but the gradient-card grid reads slightly generic; all sections present.
Purple-heavy card grid with repetitive placeholder tiles and cramped dark blocks; competent but flat and templated.
Analytics dashboard
Winner: frontend-designA SaaS analytics dashboard UI, sidebar, top bar, 4 KPI cards, two charts, an activity table. Judged on hierarchy and data density.
frontend-designPolished, personable greeting header, vivid gradient charts and horizontal bar traffic list; excellent hierarchy though table is header-only.
design-taste-frontendDense, complete dark dashboard with full activity table, colored status pills, and donut; strong data density and hierarchy.
superdesignVery high data density with status pills, health chips, and full activity rows; slightly noisy but strong and complete.
Airy, well-spaced with clear KPI cards and legible donut legend, but the activity table is only headers with no rows.
Packs every section including full table but tiny cramped type and low-res rendering hurt polish and readability.
Attractive glossy dark theme but activity table barely starts and KPIs feel cramped near top; hierarchy a bit muddy.
How we scored frontend design
Two independent blind judges scored every output 1 to 10 on each of these axes, then we averaged across judges and tasks. These axes are specific to frontend design, while other arenas use their own rubric.
- Visual polish
- Overall craft and finish, does it look shipped, not wireframed?
- Layout & hierarchy
- Spacing, structure and how clearly the information is organized.
- Typography
- Type choices, scale, rhythm and readability.
- Task completeness
- Whether every element the brief asked for is actually present.
- Distinctiveness
- How memorable and non-templated the result looks.
Limitations. This arena is a single run on Claude Sonnet 5 with 3 tasks, scored by AI judges rather than crowd votes. Treat the results as directional evidence, not a definitive ranking; re-test on your own workload before committing.
How each skill performed, and who it’s for
frontend-design
Anthropic's frontend-design skill: aesthetic direction, typography and non-templated UI choices.
Best for: The most reliable all-rounder, it won both the portfolio and dashboard tasks.
Watch out: Signature look is restrained; it can read modern-generic on simpler briefs.
design-taste-frontend
Anti-slop skill that infers a design direction and ships interfaces that don't look templated.
Best for: Expressive, editorial pages that must feel considered, not stock.
Watch out: Its ~87K-character SKILL.md makes it by far the most token-expensive to run.
superdesign
Designs UI on the Superdesign canvas: design-system extraction, visual variants and multi-page flows.
Best for: Distinctive visual directions and reusable systems, it won the SaaS landing task.
Watch out: Canvas/exploration-oriented; overkill for a quick one-off page.
web-design-guidelines
Reviews and enforces Web Interface Guidelines: semantics, accessibility, focus states and correctness.
Best for: Auditing and hardening an existing design for correctness.
Watch out: A reviewer, not a look-generator, steady but rarely the most distinctive.
ui-ux-pro-max
A large UI/UX design database: styles, palettes, font pairings and motion presets across many stacks.
Best for: Systematic product UIs with design tokens.
Watch out: Less standout on expressive or data-dense pages, it slipped on the portfolio and dashboard here.
high-end-visual-design
Teaches an 'expensive', high-end-agency aesthetic: premium fonts, spacing, shadows and card structures.
Best for: Mood-forward, editorial hero pages, it tied for best on the portfolio.
Watch out: Aesthetic-first; weakest on data-dense dashboards and landing pages.
The tasks, head-to-head
How each skill scored on the three briefs, and how quality trades off against token cost.
| Skill | SaaS landing page | Designer portfolio | Analytics dashboard | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| frontend-design | 7.0 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 8.0 |
| design-taste-frontend | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| superdesign | 8.5 | 8.0 | 7.5 | 8.0 |
| web-design-guidelines | 6.5 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 6.8 |
| ui-ux-pro-max | 8.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.7 |
| high-end-visual-design | 5.0 | 8.5 | 6.0 | 6.5 |
Cell = the skill’s score on that task (darker = higher). A ring marks the task winner.
Token cost & efficiency
Every skill ran on the same base model, so token use reflects the skill itself: how much it writes (generated) and how large its SKILL.md is (context processed). Summed across the 3 tasks; lower is cheaper.
Context includes the skill’s SKILL.md re-read into the model each turn, so a larger skill file drives up cost, while the no-skill baseline is cheapest.
What we learned
- Three very different skills tied for the top overall score (8.0): frontend-design, design-taste-frontend and superdesign, there is no single best frontend skill, it depends on the job.
- superdesign won the SaaS landing page, its exploratory, systems-first approach shines on marketing pages that need a distinctive look.
- frontend-design is the most reliable all-rounder, it won both the portfolio and the dashboard tasks.
- Aesthetic-first skills trade off on data-dense UIs: high-end-visual-design tied for best on the portfolio but was among the weakest on the dashboard.
- web-design-guidelines is a reviewer, not a look-generator, reach for it to audit accessibility and correctness rather than to invent a visual identity.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AI skill for frontend and UI design?+
In our blind head-to-head, three skills tied for the top overall score (8.0/10): frontend-design (Anthropic), design-taste-frontend (Leonxlnx) and superdesign (superdesigndev). The best choice depends on the task: superdesign won the marketing landing page, while frontend-design won both the portfolio and the dashboard.
Which AI skill is best for landing pages, dashboards, or portfolios?+
It varies by task. In our tests superdesign scored highest on a SaaS landing page, frontend-design won the analytics dashboard, and frontend-design and high-end-visual-design tied for best on the designer portfolio. Structured product UIs favor frontend-design; expressive, brand-forward pages favor superdesign and the 'taste' skills.
Is superdesign better than frontend-design?+
They tied on overall score (8.0). superdesign is stronger for exploratory, distinctive visual directions and won the landing-page task, while frontend-design is the more consistent all-rounder and won the portfolio and dashboard. Pick superdesign for a standout look, frontend-design for reliability across page types.
How much do AI design skills cost to run in tokens?+
Cost scales with how large the skill's instructions are, because the SKILL.md is re-read into the model each turn. superdesign is relatively lean, while design-taste-frontend is the most expensive (its ~87K-character SKILL.md drives ~1.9M tokens across the three tasks).
Where can I find and install these frontend design skills?+
All are openly available: frontend-design from Anthropic, web-design-guidelines from Vercel, superdesign from superdesigndev, and community skills design-taste-frontend and high-end-visual-design (Leonxlnx) and ui-ux-pro-max (nextlevelbuilder). On Happycapy you can install any of them and run them in your browser with no local setup.
How is the Skill Arena scored, and is the comparison fair?+
Every skill builds the same set of tasks with the same base model, so the results isolate the skill rather than the model. Each output is rendered, anonymized (A to F), and scored 1 to 10 by two independent blind judges across five axes: visual polish, layout and hierarchy, typography, task completeness and distinctiveness. Scores are averaged across judges and tasks.
Build with these skills, no setup required
Every skill in this frontend design arena installs on Happycapy in one click and runs in your browser on the same model. Start free, or explore 2M+ skills in the Skill Store.