# Principle Experience First

Apply when product, UX, or feature-scope tradeoffs come up.

- Repository: https://github.com/nightly-labs/openbot (4509 stars)
- Category: Design
- License: see repository
- Last updated: 2026-11-01
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add nightly-labs/openbot --skill principle-experience-first -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add nightly-labs/openbot --skill principle-experience-first -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add nightly-labs/openbot --skill principle-experience-first -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add nightly-labs/openbot --skill principle-experience-first -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Apply when product, UX, or feature-scope tradeoffs come up. Choose user delight over implementation convenience; ship fewer polished features over more rough ones.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Experience First

When implementation convenience conflicts with user delight, choose delight.

- Every feature, control, and option must be justified
- Ship less, ship better (polished experience with three features beats rough one with ten)
- Prototype before committing (design decisions are cheaper in throwaway HTML than production code)
- Get the details right (transitions, alignment, spacing, feedback, error states)
- Tighten the core loop (every feature should serve the central workflow or get out of the way)

The user is whoever consumes the work. For a UI that is the end user. For a library or an internal API it is the colleague who imports it. The engineer who maintains the code next is a user too. Weigh their experience the same way, and explain impact from their perspective.

Foundations should serve the experience. Foundational thinking governs the *sequence* of work. This principle governs the *target*.