Expectation Effect — design cues Agent Skill

Apply in-product expectation cues — typography, animation, spacing, copy tone, micro-interactions, and visual register that signal "this…

Context cost
5.2k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
2 files · 20.7 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
Apache-2.0the author’s own terms
Last change
—no release on file
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Apply in-product expectation cues — typography, animation, spacing, copy tone, micro-interactions, and visual register that signal "this is the kind of product you''re using" within seconds of opening it. Use when designing the first-screen experience, picking a typography system, deciding loading-state behavior, choosing animation timing, or polishing the surface details that telegraph product quality. Surface cues set expectations for the whole session and create halo effects (positive or negative) that color every later interaction.

What this skill changes about the agent has not been set out here as a list. Its SKILL.md, shown below, says it in the author’s own words.

animationdesign
Filed under

Design & Media

The skill itself

A skill is instructions the model reads, so you can see what you are getting: below is the start of its SKILL.md. The front matter loads with every session, the body loads when the skill triggers, and the whole file comes with the install.

SKILL.md12.9 kB · preview
--- name: expectation-effect-design-cues ---
6# Expectation Effect — design cues
7
8In-product design cues are everything the user sees, hears, and feels in the first few seconds of using the product. Typography, color, spacing, animation timing, copy tone, micro-interaction polish, loading-state behavior — all set expectations almost instantly for what the rest of the experience will be like.
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10The surface cues matter not because they're the most important parts of the product (they aren't) but because they're the *first* parts of the product. The expectations they set become the lens through which every later interaction is interpreted. A polished first impression makes a slightly slow loading state read as "the system is being thorough." An unpolished first impression makes the same loading state read as "this is broken."
11
12## What the user reads in the first 5 seconds
13
14The user is forming an evaluation in the first few seconds whether you want them to or not. The cues they're reading include:
15
16**Typography quality.** Are the typefaces chosen with intent, or are they default system fonts placed without thought? Are line heights, weights, and sizes coordinated, or do they wander? Typography is the single most-noticed surface cue because text is everywhere on screen, and a weak typography system signals weakness throughout. Conversely, considered typography signals craft instantly.
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18**Spacing and alignment.** Are elements in deliberate relationships, or do they crowd and float at near-but-not-aligned positions? The "near miss" alignment — where two elements are not quite aligned but clearly trying to be — signals carelessness more strongly than either tight alignment or generous, intentional asymmetry.
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20**Animation smoothness and timing.** Do transitions feel deliberate, with consistent timing and easing across the product? Or do some transitions snap, others slide jerkily, others take too long? Inconsistent animation signals a product cobbled together from disparate components.
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22**Color discipline.** Is the palette used consistently — five or six colors with clear semantic roles — or is it sprawling, with new colors introduced for each feature? A disciplined palette signals a coherent design system; an undisciplined one signals improvisation.
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24**Copy tone.** Does the writing have a consistent voice — formal, casual, witty, direct — or does it shift register between screens? Inconsistent tone signals multiple writers with no shared voice and primes users to expect inconsistency in functionality too.
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md1,959 words
Files2
LicenceApache-2.0
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈170
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
5,005
on trigger
The instruction body and 1 supporting file, read only when the skill fires.
2.6%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 26% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

5.2k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Heavy. Teams tend to install this one per project rather than globally, and load it only when the job comes up.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been set out here step by step. It is in the body of its SKILL.md: the start of it is shown above, and the whole file comes with the install.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

Its SKILL.md does not declare which tools it asks the agent for, so what it touches is whatever the instructions themselves ask for — read them before you install it.

What it asks for
Writes filesnot declared
Network accessnot declared

This SKILL.md carries no allowed-tools line, so neither is declared. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

2 files, 20.7 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • SKILL.md12.9 kB
  • references/cue-priorities.md7.8 kB
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the bundle is 2 files you can review in full before installing. The Apache-2.0 licence covers the templates and examples as well as the instructions.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# Expectation Effect — design cues · 5.2k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/expectation-effect-design-cues/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/expectation-effect-design-cues" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/expectation-effect-design-cues ] || { mv .claude/skills/expectation-effect-design-cues "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/expectation-effect-design-cues" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/expectation-effect-design-cues"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add hashgraph-online/expectation-effect-design-cues

Windows PowerShell says 'running scripts is disabled on this system'? Run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, or type npx.cmd instead of npx (codex.cmd, gemini.cmd, grok.cmd likewise). PowerShell 7 needs neither. Writes to .claude/skills/expectation-effect-design-cues/ in the current project. For every project instead, run mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/expectation-effect-design-cues/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/expectation-effect-design-cues" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/expectation-effect-design-cues ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/expectation-effect-design-cues "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/expectation-effect-design-cues" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/expectation-effect-design-cues" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/expectation-effect-design-cues/ only after the download succeeds, so files left there by another skill of the same name, or by an older release, do not mix in. A copy already there is moved aside, not deleted, and the line prints where.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. Most of these read a skills folder and pick it up without being told; the rest take the same folder another way — an upload in the app, a parameter on an API call — and then choose it by its description just the same.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude DesktopCustomize › Skills
ChatGPTSkills › Create › Upload
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok Build.grok/skills/
Microsoft CopilotSkills › Upload a skill
PerplexityComputer › Skills › Upload a skill
DeepSeek Harness.dsh/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Devin Desktop.devin/skills/
Windsurf (legacy).windsurf/skills/
OpenAI Agents SDKInstructions or sandbox Skills
HTTP / APIa request parameter
This release
Versionnot versioned
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referencehashgraph-online/expectation-effect-design-cues

Versions

Its author publishes no version number, so there is nothing here to pin to: what you install is the folder as it stands today. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

Pinning

Nothing to pin to: this skill carries no version number of its own. What you install is what the folder holds on the day you install it.

Reviews

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