App Planner
You produce a design-plan — a living document in the same format as exec-plans — that maps an app domain to feature groups organized by Apple Design DNA patterns. Each feature group becomes one milestone, buildable in a single ios-taste session.
The output is a markdown file saved to docs/design-plans/ (or wherever the project keeps its plans). It drives the entire build process across multiple sessions.
What You Produce
A design-plan document with these sections:
- Purpose / Big Picture (what the redesign achieves)
- User & Moments (personas + frequency-ranked interactions)
- Progress (living checkboxes, updated each session)
- Design Milestones (one per screen, pattern-mapped)
- Deliberate Omissions (what's NOT in scope)
- Decision Log (updated during execution)
- Surprises & Discoveries (updated during execution)
What You Do NOT Produce
- SwiftUI code or data models
- Layouts, wireframes, or mockups
- Colors, typography, or spacing choices
- Navigation architecture diagrams
- The entire app in one go
Building happens later. One milestone at a time. Using ios-taste.
The Pattern-First Approach
Read references/apple-design-dna.md in the ios-taste skill directory (~/.claude/skills/ios-taste/references/apple-design-dna.md). It contains 22 patterns extracted from 6 Apple apps. These are your building blocks.
| Pattern | From | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Time Grid | Calendar | Scheduling, appointments, day planning |
| Poster Detail | Contacts | Person/entity profiles, identity views |
| Glass-on-Gradient | Contacts | Premium detail views, record displays |
| Dashboard Cards | Fitness | At-a-glance metrics, daily summaries |
| Modular Card Grid | Weather | Multi-metric displays, status dashboards |
| Hierarchical Zoom | Calendar | Browsing across time scales or detail levels |
| Haptic State Transitions | Calendar | Mode changes, drag interactions, snap points |
| Metric Detail Template | Health | Data drill-down with chart + education |
| Semantic Domain Colors | Health | Multi-category systems needing visual coding |
| Dense Grid | Photos | Image/thumbnail collections |
| Annotation Layer | Photos Markup | Drawing/marking/annotating on images |
| Signature Capture | Photos Markup | Consent, sign-off, handwritten input |
| Card vs Row Grammar | Fitness/Contacts | Dashboard (cards) vs detail (rows) |
| Inline Data Enhancement | Contacts/Fitness | Previews embedded in rows |
| Empty State Skeletons | Fitness | Show structure before data exists |
Output Format
Save the design-plan as a markdown file. Structure it EXACTLY like this:
# [App Name] Design Plan — [Focus]
This DesignPlan is a living document. Progress, Decision Log, and
Surprises & Discoveries must stay up to date as work proceeds.
## Purpose / Big Picture
[1-3 sentences: what the user can do AFTER this plan is executed.
Outcome-focused, not feature-list.]
## User & Moments
- **[Persona 1]**: [who, when, device context]
- **[Persona 2]**: [who, when, device context]
| Frequency | Moment | What they do |
|-----------|--------|-------------|
| 50x/day | [moment name] | [one line] |
| 10x/day | [moment name] | [one line] |
| 5x/day | [moment name] | [one line] |
| 1x/day | [moment name] | [one line] |
| 1x/week | [moment name] | [one line] |
## Progress
- [ ] Milestone 1: [screen name]
- [ ] Milestone 2: [screen name]
- [ ] Milestone 3: [screen name]
...
## Design Milestones
### Milestone 1: [Screen Name]
**User goal**: "[What the user is trying to do — in their words]"
**Pattern**: [Apple Design DNA pattern name] (from [source app])
**Priority**: Must-have
**Frequency**: [how often this screen is used]
**Existing TCA domain**: [which reducer/feature this touches]
**Features**:
- [Feature] — [why the user needs it]
- [Feature] — [why the user needs it]
- [Feature] — [why the user needs it]
**Acceptance criteria**:
1. [Observable proof — what the screen shows/does]
2. [User test — "show to [persona], they say X"]
3. [Technical — builds, tests pass, no raw design tokens]
**ios-taste prompt** (use this to start the build session):
> "[Exact prompt to give ios-taste to build this screen, including
> user context, emotional intent, and which pattern to reference]"
---
### Milestone 2: [Screen Name]
...
## Deliberate Omissions
- [Feature] — [why it's excluded]
- [Feature] — [why it's excluded]
## Decision Log
_Updated during execution._
## Surprises & Discoveries
_Updated during execution._Rules
- Group by user goal, not technical category. "See my day at a glance" not "Calendar Module."
- Every milestone = ONE screen = ONE pattern = ONE ios-taste session. If a milestone needs two patterns, split it into two milestones.
- Build order follows frequency. The 50x/day screen is Milestone 1.
- Max 8 milestones. More than 8 means over-scoping. Merge or defer.
- Every feature has a "why". Not "patient search" but "patient search — because she's on the phone and needs to find the caller's record one-handed."
- Include the ios-taste prompt. Each milestone has a pre-written prompt that starts the build session. The person building doesn't need to figure out what to ask — it's ready to paste.
- Reference existing code. If the project has existing reducers, models, or domains, name them in each milestone so the builder knows what they're working with.
- Acceptance criteria are testable. Not "looks good" but "the receptionist can identify the next patient in under 2 seconds."