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anthropics/skills
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Apply the Law of Figure-Ground — establish which layer is foreground and actionable versus background.
Install Law Of Figure Ground
$ npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill law-of-figure-ground -a claude-codeProject install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/designer-skills law-of-figure-ground --agent claude-codeProject scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/ui-design/skills/law-of-figure-ground .claude/skills/law-of-figure-ground && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.
Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/
Install the "law-of-figure-ground" agent skill from https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills/tree/main/ui-design/skills/law-of-figure-ground into .claude/skills/law-of-figure-ground/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "law-of-figure-ground", then confirm the skill loads.Claude Code copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$skill-installer install https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills/tree/main/ui-design/skills/law-of-figure-groundType this inside Codex. $skill-installer <name> installs a curated skill from openai/skills. The installer writes to $CODEX_HOME/skills (default ~/.codex/skills). Restart Codex if the skill does not show up.
$ npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill law-of-figure-ground -a codexProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.codex/skills/.
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/designer-skills law-of-figure-ground --agent codexProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r skills-src/ui-design/skills/law-of-figure-ground .agents/skills/law-of-figure-ground && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.agents/skills/ instead of .agents/skills for a personal install.
Codex skills documentation · loads skills from .agents/skills/
Install the "law-of-figure-ground" agent skill from https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills/tree/main/ui-design/skills/law-of-figure-ground into .agents/skills/law-of-figure-ground/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "law-of-figure-ground", then confirm the skill loads.Codex copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill law-of-figure-ground -a cursorProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.cursor/skills/.
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/designer-skills law-of-figure-ground --agent cursorProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .cursor/skills && cp -r skills-src/ui-design/skills/law-of-figure-ground .cursor/skills/law-of-figure-ground && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.cursor/skills/ instead of .cursor/skills for a personal install.
Cursor skills documentation · loads skills from .cursor/skills/, .agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, .codex/skills/
Install the "law-of-figure-ground" agent skill from https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills/tree/main/ui-design/skills/law-of-figure-ground into .cursor/skills/law-of-figure-ground/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "law-of-figure-ground", then confirm the skill loads.Cursor copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ gemini skills install https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills.git --path ui-design/skills/law-of-figure-ground--scope user (default) or --scope workspace; --path is the subfolder of the repo that holds the skill; --consent skips the security confirmation prompt.
$ npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill law-of-figure-ground -a gemini-cliProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/designer-skills law-of-figure-ground --agent gemini-cliProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .gemini/skills && cp -r skills-src/ui-design/skills/law-of-figure-ground .gemini/skills/law-of-figure-ground && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.gemini/skills/ instead of .gemini/skills for a personal install, then run /skills reload.
Gemini CLI skills documentation · loads skills from .gemini/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "law-of-figure-ground" agent skill from https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills/tree/main/ui-design/skills/law-of-figure-ground into .gemini/skills/law-of-figure-ground/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "law-of-figure-ground", then confirm the skill loads.Gemini CLI copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/designer-skills law-of-figure-groundInstalls for Copilot at project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Preview a skill first with gh skill preview. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
$ npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill law-of-figure-ground -a github-copilotProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.copilot/skills/.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .github/skills && cp -r skills-src/ui-design/skills/law-of-figure-ground .github/skills/law-of-figure-ground && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.copilot/skills/ instead of .github/skills for a personal install. Commit .github/skills so cloud agent and code review can use it.
GitHub Copilot skills documentation · loads skills from .github/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "law-of-figure-ground" agent skill from https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills/tree/main/ui-design/skills/law-of-figure-ground into .github/skills/law-of-figure-ground/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "law-of-figure-ground", then confirm the skill loads.GitHub Copilot copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill law-of-figure-ground -a opencodeOpenCode documents no install command of its own. Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.config/opencode/skills/.
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/designer-skills law-of-figure-ground --agent opencodeProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .opencode/skills && cp -r skills-src/ui-design/skills/law-of-figure-ground .opencode/skills/law-of-figure-ground && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.config/opencode/skills/ instead of .opencode/skills for a personal install.
OpenCode skills documentation · loads skills from .opencode/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "law-of-figure-ground" agent skill from https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills/tree/main/ui-design/skills/law-of-figure-ground into .opencode/skills/law-of-figure-ground/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "law-of-figure-ground", then confirm the skill loads.OpenCode copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
Facts
- Skill name
law-of-figure-ground- GitHub stars
- 2.9k
- Token cost
- ~1.2k tokens
- SKILL.md length
- 685 words
- Files
- 1
- Skills in repo
- 107
- Repo updated
- First seen
- Licence
- MIT
At a glance
Apply the Law of Figure-Ground — establish which layer is foreground and actionable versus background.
- Designing modals
- SKILL.md covers What You Do, The Principle, Characteristics of Figure vs.… and Establishing Clear…, plus 4 more sections
- Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md
What it does
Law Of Figure Ground is an agent skill from Owl-Listener/designer-skills. Apply the Law of Figure-Ground — establish which layer is foreground and actionable versus background. Use when designing modals, overlays, and depth. For emphasising one element among peers, use von-restorff-effect.
Its SKILL.md is about 1.2k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.
It sits in Frontend & Design. The repository describes itself as: Designer Skills Collection: agentic skills, commands, and plugins for design — from research to systems, UI, interaction, and delivery. The licence is MIT.
When your agent uses it
- Designing modals
Example prompts
- “/law-of-figure-ground”
What it can do on your machine
Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 9a6930c. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.
Tool permissions
Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.
From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.
Runs code
No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.
From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.
Network
No URLs in SKILL.md.
From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.
Credentials
Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.
From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.
Context cost
Law Of Figure Ground loads about 1.2k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 60 tokens; SKILL.md has 685 words of instructions outside code blocks.
Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.
Safety
Auto-check passed
The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.
Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.
SKILL.md
The full file from Owl-Listener/designer-skills at commit 9a6930c, republished under its MIT licence (© Owl-Listener). 685 words, ~1,237 tokens.
Download SKILL.mdSave it as
.claude/skills/law-of-figure-ground/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).- name
- law-of-figure-ground
- description
- Apply the Law of Figure-Ground — establish which layer is foreground and actionable versus background. Use when designing modals, overlays, and depth. For emphasising one element among peers, use `von-restorff-effect`.
Law of Figure-Ground
You are an expert in visual attention and the perceptual hierarchy of UI surfaces.
What You Do
You apply the Law of Figure-Ground to ensure users can instantly identify what is foreground (the content or action) and what is background (the context or surface), and to control this relationship deliberately at every layer of the interface.
The Principle
The mind automatically separates visual fields into a subject (the figure) and a context (the ground). Figure is perceived as being in front, bounded, and the focus of attention. Ground is perceived as behind, unbounded, and receding.
This parsing is not a choice — it is a perceptual reflex. Every UI surface triggers figure-ground separation. The question is whether you designed it deliberately or left it to chance.
Characteristics of Figure vs. Ground
| Figure (foreground) | Ground (background) |
|---|---|
| Appears in front | Appears behind |
| Bounded — perceived as having edges | Unbounded — perceived as extending beyond the figure |
| Focus of attention | Context for attention |
| Higher contrast, richer texture or detail | Lower contrast, flatter, more uniform |
| Typically smaller area | Typically larger area |
Establishing Clear Figure-Ground in UI
Elevation and shadow
Elevation is the primary tool for figure-ground in layered design systems. A card elevated above a page surface is figure; the page is ground. The shadow signals depth, and depth signals foreground. Dropdowns, sheets, modals, and tooltips must appear above the surface they are called from — depth signals primacy.
Overlays and scrims
A modal requires the background to recede. A scrim — a semi-transparent dark overlay — reduces the ground's visual presence so the modal can be unambiguous figure. Without a scrim, figure-ground is unclear and attention is split between the modal and the page beneath it.
Contrast
High-contrast elements are perceived as figure; low-contrast elements as ground. Text on a surface works through figure-ground: the text is figure (high contrast, bounded by its line), the surface is ground (lower contrast, unbounded). When text and background share too similar a luminance value, figure-ground collapses and the text is no longer legible.
Active and selected states
In navigation or lists, the selected item becomes figure; unselected items become ground. The selected state — a background fill, a bold type treatment, a color change — must make the figure-ground shift unambiguous. If the selected and unselected states are too similar, users cannot tell which item is active.
Show full SKILL.md (299 more words)Show less
Ambiguous Figure-Ground
Ambiguous figure-ground occurs when the same element can be read as either figure or ground — the visual equivalent of the Rubin vase. In fine art and illustration this is sometimes intentional. In UI, it is almost always a failure.
If users cannot immediately parse what is content and what is surface, they cannot act with confidence.
Common Figure-Ground Failures
- Insufficient scrim: a modal on a white page without a scrim requires users to parse figure-ground from edges alone — always provide a background-dimming layer
- Nested elevation without contrast: cards inside cards without clear luminance difference between levels produce ambiguous depth
- Text on photography: the image competes as figure; separate text from images with a color overlay, blur, or gradient layer
- Flat design without surface differentiation: removing elevation signals entirely makes foreground/background relationships invisible — some depth signal is necessary
Dark Mode Considerations
Light and dark modes invert the typical luminance relationship between figure and ground. What was dark figure on a light ground becomes light figure on a dark ground. Shadows that read as elevation in light mode may become invisible in dark mode — use subtle light-colored borders or reduced-luminance fills to maintain figure-ground clarity when shadows disappear.
Best Practices
- Define your surface stack in design tokens: base, raised, overlay, modal — each level should have a clear and consistent contrast relationship to the layers below it
- Never place text directly on photography or complex imagery without a separation layer
- Test figure-ground by removing color: can you still identify foreground from background using only shape and contrast?
- Use elevation sparingly — the more surface layers you stack, the harder it becomes to maintain an unambiguous hierarchy
- Validate scrims in both themes: a scrim that works in light mode may need adjusting in dark mode where the base surface is already dark
© Owl-Listener, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file
Files
Just SKILL.md in ui-design/skills/law-of-figure-ground of Owl-Listener/designer-skills.
Open the folder on GitHubat commit 9a6930c
Compare with similar skills
Law Of Figure Ground next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.
| Skill | Stars | Used in | Tokens | Auto-check | Licence | Repo updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Law Of Figure Ground this skillOwl-Listener/designer-skills | 2.9k | — | ~1.2k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Web Artifacts Builderanthropics/skills | 180k | 40 repos | ~769 | Automated safety check: Pass | Apache-2.0 | |
| React Doctormakeplane/plane | 61k | 12 repos | ~657 | Automated safety check: Pass | AGPL-3.0 | |
| Impeccablebestofjs/bestofjs | 3.1k | 26 repos | ~2.6k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Figma Design System Builderwarpdotdev/warp | 65k | 2 repos | ~4.4k | Automated safety check: Pass | AGPL-3.0 | |
| Web Interface Guidelines Reviewervercel-labs/openreview | 1.7k | 97 repos | ~308 | Automated safety check: Pass | None |
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Questions about Law Of Figure Ground
What does Law Of Figure Ground do?
Apply the Law of Figure-Ground — establish which layer is foreground and actionable versus background. Law Of Figure Ground is an agent skill from Owl-Listener/designer-skills. Apply the Law of Figure-Ground — establish which layer is foreground and actionable versus background.
When should I use Law Of Figure Ground?
Law Of Figure Ground fits situations like: designing modals.
How do I install Law Of Figure Ground in Claude Code?
Run `npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill law-of-figure-ground -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (ui-design/skills/law-of-figure-ground in Owl-Listener/designer-skills) into .claude/skills/law-of-figure-ground in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.
How do I install Law Of Figure Ground in Codex?
Run `npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill law-of-figure-ground -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (ui-design/skills/law-of-figure-ground in Owl-Listener/designer-skills) into .agents/skills/law-of-figure-ground in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.
Can I use Law Of Figure Ground in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?
Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill law-of-figure-ground -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/law-of-figure-ground, .gemini/skills/law-of-figure-ground, .github/skills/law-of-figure-ground and .opencode/skills/law-of-figure-ground in your project.
What does Law Of Figure Ground need to run?
SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Law Of Figure Ground is instructions for the agent only.
Does Law Of Figure Ground access the network?
SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.
Is Law Of Figure Ground safe to install?
Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.
What licence does Law Of Figure Ground use?
Law Of Figure Ground is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.
How many tokens does Law Of Figure Ground use?
About 1.2k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 4.9k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.
What are the alternatives to Law Of Figure Ground?
Skills that share tags, products or a category with Law Of Figure Ground: Web Artifacts Builder (anthropics/skills, 180k stars), React Doctor (makeplane/plane, 61k stars), Impeccable (bestofjs/bestofjs, 3.1k stars) and Figma Design System Builder (warpdotdev/warp, 65k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.
Who maintains Law Of Figure Ground?
Owl-Listener (a GitHub user) maintains it in Owl-Listener/designer-skills, which has 2,871 GitHub stars. The repository holds 107 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 5, 2026.
Source: Owl-Listener/designer-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.