About absence-audit
Absence Audit is a design-review skill that examines what is missing from a design shown in the conversation. It distinguishes deliberate omissions from overlooked gaps and considers their effect on the experience and what they imply about the design approach.
Key features
- 01Lists conspicuously absent elements
- 02Hypothesizes intentional or accidental omissions
- 03Evaluates effects on the experience
- 04Considers what omissions reveal about design
Use cases
- 01Auditing missing interface elements
- 02Checking for absent content or states
- 03Assessing whether omissions support the design
Install
Copy the command and run it in a terminal.
$
npx skills add https:/After installing, type/absence-auditin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.
Details
From the project READMEAbsence Audit
The hardest things to notice are the things that aren't there.
How to use
/absence-auditApply absence analysis to any design in this conversation.
Constraints
What to Look For
- MUST list 5-10 things that are conspicuously absent from the design
- MUST hypothesize for each: intentional removal or never considered?
- MUST evaluate: does the absence strengthen or weaken the experience?
- SHOULD note what the absence reveals about the design philosophy
Categories of Absence
- Missing UI elements (no breadcrumbs, no tooltips, no onboarding tutorial)
- Missing content (no testimonials, no feature comparison, no pricing)
- Missing states (no loading skeleton, no empty state, no error recovery)
- Missing interaction (no animation, no hover effects, no sound)
The Restraint Signal
- Intentional absence is a strong taste signal. It says "we thought about this and decided it wasn't needed."
- Accidental absence (missing error states, broken edge cases) signals the opposite.
- MUST distinguish between the two.
Anti-Patterns
- Treating every absence as a problem to fix
- Assuming absence equals minimalism (it might just be incomplete)
- Missing obvious gaps because you're focused on what IS there
Comments
Markdown supported