ihlamury

monzo-ui-skills

Monzo's UI design system. Use when building interfaces inspired by Monzo's aesthetic - light mode, Inter font, 4px grid.

ihlamury 84 12 Updated 7mo ago

Resources

1
GitHub

Install

npx skillscat add ihlamury/design-skills/monzo-ui-skills

Install via the SkillsCat registry.

About this skill

We need to produce a 2-3 sentence plain-text summary, objective, factual, no marketing language, no superlatives, no calls to action. Must be natural prose, no bullet points, no headings, no markdown. At most 60 words. No quotes. Provide only the summary text. Summarize: skill provides Monzo UI design system guidelines: light mode, Inter font, 4px grid, colors, typography constraints. Problem: ensures consistent Monzo-inspired UI, accessibility, design consistency. Use when building light-mode interfaces, Monzo-inspired design systems, implementing UIs with Inter font and 4px grid.

SKILL.md

Monzo UI Skills

Opinionated constraints for building Monzo-style interfaces with AI agents.

When to Apply

Reference these guidelines when:

  • Building light-mode interfaces
  • Creating Monzo-inspired design systems
  • Implementing UIs with Inter font and 4px grid

Colors

  • SHOULD use light backgrounds for primary surfaces
  • MUST use #FFFFFF as page background (surface-base)
  • SHOULD reduce color palette (currently 15 colors detected)
  • MUST maintain text contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for accessibility

Semantic Tokens

Token HEX RGB Usage
surface-base #FFFFFF rgb(255,255,255) Page background
surface-raised #C1C5C8 rgb(193,197,200) Cards, modals, raised surfaces
surface-overlay #DEDEDE rgb(222,222,222) Overlays, tooltips, dropdowns
text-primary #606366 rgb(96,99,102) Headings, body text
text-2 #494D50 rgb(73,77,80) Additional text
text-secondary #BEC4C7 rgb(190,196,199) Secondary, muted text
border-default #8A8D8F rgb(138,141,143) Subtle borders, dividers
destructive #ED4948 rgb(237,73,72) Error states, delete actions

Typography

  • MUST use Inter as primary font family
  • SHOULD use single font family for consistency
  • MUST use 48px / 700 for primary headings
  • MUST use 21px / extra_bold for body text
  • SHOULD reduce font weights (currently 5 detected)
  • MUST use text-balance for headings and text-pretty for body text
  • SHOULD use tabular-nums for numeric data
  • NEVER modify letter-spacing unless explicitly requested

Text Styles

Style Font Size Weight Color Count
heading-1 Inter 48px 700 #F0F1EE 1
body Inter 21px extra_bold #ED4948 1
body-secondary Inter 19px 300 #723C7E 1
text-17px Inter 17px semi_bold #373737 1
text-16px Inter 16px 400 #9EA0A2 1
text-15px Inter 15px 400 #606366 1
text-15px Inter 15px 400 #494D50 1
text-15px Inter 15px 400 #BEC4C7 1
text-15px Inter 15px 400 #C4C6BC 1
text-13px Inter 13px 400 #4D4D4D 1

Typography Reference

Font Families:

  • Inter (used 16x)

Font Sizes: 8px, 9px, 11px, 12px, 13px, 15px, 16px, 17px, 19px, 21px, 48px

Spacing

  • MUST use 4px grid for spacing
  • SHOULD use spacing from scale: 2px, 4px, 5px, 6px, 9px, 11px, 20px, 54px
  • SHOULD use 5px as default gap between elements
  • NEVER use arbitrary spacing values (use design scale)
  • SHOULD maintain consistent padding within containers

Borders

  • MUST use border-radius from scale: 3px, 4px, 6px, 16px, 25px
  • SHOULD use 25px+ radius for pill-shaped elements
  • MUST use 1px border width consistently
  • SHOULD use 16px as default border-radius
  • NEVER use arbitrary border-radius values (use design scale)
  • SHOULD use subtle borders (1px) for element separation

Border Radius Reference

Scale: 3px, 4px, 6px, 16px, 25px

Layout

  • MUST design for 1920px base viewport width
  • SHOULD use consistent element widths: 12px, 116px, 43px, 60px, 299px
  • SHOULD maintain text-heavy layout with clear hierarchy
  • NEVER use h-screen, use h-dvh for full viewport height
  • MUST respect safe-area-inset for fixed elements
  • SHOULD use size-* for square elements instead of w-* + h-*

Detected Layout Patterns

  • Main Content: width: 1470px, height: 870px
  • Main Content: width: 1455px, height: 762px
  • Header: height: 82px

Components

Buttons

Variant Background Text Border Height Radius
Ghost transparent #494D50 none - -

Interactive States

Focus

  • MUST use 2px outline with accent color (#5E6AD2)
  • MUST use 2px outline-offset
  • NEVER remove focus indicators

Hover

  • Buttons (primary): lighten background by 10%
  • Buttons (secondary): use #C1C5C8 background
  • List items: use #C1C5C8 background

Disabled

  • MUST use opacity: 0.5
  • MUST use cursor: not-allowed

Interaction

  • MUST use an AlertDialog for destructive or irreversible actions
  • SHOULD use structural skeletons for loading states
  • MUST show errors next to where the action happens
  • NEVER block paste in input or textarea elements
  • MUST add an aria-label to icon-only buttons

Animation

  • NEVER add animation unless it is explicitly requested
  • MUST animate only compositor props (transform, opacity)
  • NEVER animate layout properties (width, height, top, left, margin, padding)
  • SHOULD use ease-out on entrance animations
  • NEVER exceed 200ms for interaction feedback
  • SHOULD respect prefers-reduced-motion

Performance

  • NEVER animate large blur() or backdrop-filter surfaces
  • NEVER apply will-change outside an active animation
  • NEVER use useEffect for anything that can be expressed as render logic