home / skills / alinaqi / claude-bootstrap / ui-testing

ui-testing skill

/skills/ui-testing

This skill verifies generated UI meets accessibility standards through a pragmatic checklist of visibility, contrast, focus, and responsive targets.

npx playbooks add skill alinaqi/claude-bootstrap --skill ui-testing

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---
name: ui-testing
description: Visual testing - catch invisible buttons, broken layouts, contrast
---

# UI Verification Skill

*Load with: ui-web.md or ui-mobile.md*

## Purpose

Quick verification that generated UI meets accessibility standards. Run these checks after creating any new UI components.

---

## Pre-Flight Checklist

### Before Shipping ANY UI:

```markdown
## Visibility Check
- [ ] All buttons have visible background OR border
- [ ] No text is same color as its background
- [ ] All text meets 4.5:1 contrast ratio
- [ ] Ghost/text buttons have visible borders

## Touch/Click Targets
- [ ] All buttons are minimum 44px height
- [ ] Icon buttons are minimum 44x44px
- [ ] Adequate spacing between clickable elements

## States
- [ ] Hover states visible (web)
- [ ] Pressed states visible (mobile)
- [ ] Focus rings on keyboard navigation
- [ ] Disabled states visually distinct (opacity 0.5)
- [ ] Loading states show indicators

## Dark Mode (if applicable)
- [ ] Text readable on dark backgrounds
- [ ] Borders visible in dark mode
- [ ] No gray-400 text on dark backgrounds

## Responsive (web)
- [ ] No horizontal scroll on mobile (320px)
- [ ] Content readable at all breakpoints
- [ ] Touch targets adequate on mobile
```

---

## Quick Contrast Check

### Use Browser DevTools
```
1. Right-click element → Inspect
2. In Styles panel, click on color value
3. Look for contrast ratio display
4. Must show ✓ for AA compliance (4.5:1 for text)
```

### Online Tools
- https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/
- https://coolors.co/contrast-checker

### Tailwind Safe Combinations

```
LIGHT MODE (on white bg):
✓ text-gray-900  (#111827) = 16:1
✓ text-gray-800  (#1F2937) = 12:1
✓ text-gray-700  (#374151) = 9:1
✓ text-gray-600  (#4B5563) = 6:1
✗ text-gray-500  (#6B7280) = 4.6:1 (barely)
✗ text-gray-400  (#9CA3AF) = 2.6:1 (FAILS)

DARK MODE (on gray-900 bg):
✓ text-white     (#FFFFFF) = 16:1
✓ text-gray-100  (#F3F4F6) = 13:1
✓ text-gray-200  (#E5E7EB) = 11:1
✓ text-gray-300  (#D1D5DB) = 8:1
✗ text-gray-400  (#9CA3AF) = 5:1 (barely)
✗ text-gray-500  (#6B7280) = 3:1 (FAILS)
```

---

## Common Fixes

### Invisible Button
```tsx
// PROBLEM: No visible boundary
<button className="text-gray-500">Click</button>

// FIX: Add background OR border
<button className="bg-gray-100 text-gray-900 px-4 py-3 rounded-lg">
  Click
</button>
// OR
<button className="border border-gray-300 text-gray-700 px-4 py-3 rounded-lg">
  Click
</button>
```

### Low Contrast Text
```tsx
// PROBLEM: Light gray on white
<p className="text-gray-400">Secondary text</p>

// FIX: Use darker gray
<p className="text-gray-600">Secondary text</p>
```

### Missing Focus State
```tsx
// PROBLEM: Focus removed without replacement
<button className="outline-none">Submit</button>

// FIX: Add visible focus ring
<button className="outline-none focus-visible:ring-2 focus-visible:ring-blue-500 focus-visible:ring-offset-2">
  Submit
</button>
```

### Small Touch Target
```tsx
// PROBLEM: Too small for fingers
<button className="p-1 text-sm">×</button>

// FIX: Minimum 44px
<button className="w-11 h-11 flex items-center justify-center">×</button>
```

### Dark Mode Broken
```tsx
// PROBLEM: Same colors in both modes
<p className="text-gray-400">Text</p>

// FIX: Adjust for dark mode
<p className="text-gray-600 dark:text-gray-300">Text</p>
```

---

## Automated Checks (Optional)

### ESLint Plugin
```bash
npm install -D eslint-plugin-jsx-a11y
```

```json
// .eslintrc
{
  "extends": ["plugin:jsx-a11y/recommended"]
}
```

### Playwright Quick Test
```typescript
// e2e/accessibility.spec.ts
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';
import AxeBuilder from '@axe-core/playwright';

test('no accessibility violations', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('/');
  const results = await new AxeBuilder({ page }).analyze();
  expect(results.violations).toEqual([]);
});
```

---

## When to Use Full Testing

Add comprehensive visual testing (Playwright screenshots, Storybook) when:
- Building a component library
- Multiple developers on UI
- Frequent UI changes
- Design system enforcement needed

For solo projects or MVPs, the checklist above is sufficient.

Overview

This skill performs quick visual and accessibility verification for web and mobile UIs to catch invisible buttons, broken layouts, and low-contrast text. It provides a short pre-flight checklist, concrete code fixes, and guidance for automated checks to prevent regressions. Use it as a fast gate before shipping new components or pages.

How this skill works

The skill inspects common visual issues: button visibility, contrast ratios, touch/click target sizes, focus and interaction states, dark-mode mismatches, and basic responsive problems. It guides manual DevTools checks, lists proven Tailwind-safe color pairs, and offers small code snippets to fix common problems. Optionally, it recommends integrating automated tools like eslint-plugin-jsx-a11y and Playwright + axe for continuous verification.

When to use it

  • Before shipping any new UI component or page
  • When merging pull requests that change layout or styles
  • During design-to-code handoffs to validate implementation
  • Before releases that include dark mode or responsive updates
  • When onboarding new frontend contributors to enforce basic accessibility

Best practices

  • Run the pre-flight checklist on every UI change: visibility, states, touch targets, contrast.
  • Prefer visible backgrounds or borders for buttons; avoid relying on text-only affordances.
  • Enforce minimum touch targets (44px) and visible focus rings for keyboard users.
  • Check contrast in DevTools and with a contrast checker; aim for 4.5:1 for body text.
  • Add dark-mode variants for colors and test at target breakpoints (320px mobile).
  • Automate where practical: ESLint accessibility rules and Playwright + axe in CI.

Example use cases

  • Quick QA on a generated component library to catch invisible buttons before publishing.
  • Sprint review: run the checklist on redesigned pages to catch regressions early.
  • MVP projects: lightweight manual checks to keep accessible defaults without heavy tooling.
  • Multi-developer teams: add automated Playwright + axe tests to PR pipelines.
  • Design system work: run full visual testing (screenshots, Storybook) when components are shared widely.

FAQ

What contrast ratio should I target?

Aim for 4.5:1 for normal text (WCAG AA). Use DevTools or online contrast checkers to verify.

Is the checklist enough for large projects?

For solo projects or MVPs the checklist is often sufficient. For component libraries or multi-dev teams add visual regression and accessibility automation.