Doujian homepage: design plan
Assumptions to confirm: I read the name as ่ฑ้ด ("among the beans"), so the page is bilingual-capable. The audience is home brewers who order online, plus a smaller group of cafรฉs buying wholesale. The page's main job is to get someone to buy a bag or start a subscription.
Concept
The page is organized around the roast curve. Green coffee turns yellow, then gold, then chestnut, then near-black as it roasts. That color progression is the palette, the navigation and the product filter. Most coffee sites use cream paper and a clay accent, which could belong to any cafรฉ. Doujian's colors come from the bean's own stages.
Color
| Name | Hex | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Green bean | #E3E7D6 |
Page ground, a pale green-white like unroasted coffee |
| Straw | #D8B554 |
First-crack gold, the single accent for actions and the active state |
| Cinnamon | #9C6236 |
Mid-roast stage and secondary text on light |
| Chestnut | #58361F |
Headlines, body text and the dark end of the spectrum |
| Drop | #1F1410 |
Footer and the darkest roast stage |
The five colors are used only as the bean spectrum and as ink. There are no gradients as decoration, and no grey shadows. Text on Green bean uses Chestnut, which passes AA easily. Straw is never used for text on light.
Typography
- Display: Big Shoulders Stencil (condensed stencil). It echoes the stencils on jute sacks and roaster batch tags. It is used large for origin names and the hero line, in sentence case with slightly tightened tracking. The face itself carries the personality, so nothing in the headline gets a single-word highlight.
- Body: Literata. It is a warm, readable serif. Body text is 18px with 1.65 line-height and a 62โ68 character measure, which is a little looser than a sans would get.
- Chinese: Noto Serif SC (Black for the wordmark, Regular for secondary text). The wordmark sets ่ฑ้ด large with "Doujian" in Literata italic beside it.
- Scale: 14 / 18 / 24 / 40 / 72 / 144px, roughly a 1.6 ratio. The 144px size is used only for the hero.
- Labels: sentence case in Literata italic. There are no tracked caps, no monospace data tags and no eyebrow labels. Product facts such as process, altitude and roast date are written as plain lines.
Layout
Everything is left-aligned on a 12-column grid with a wide left margin, so text is never centered or justified. The one exception is the slider's value, which sits under the thumb.
โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโ
โ ่ฑ้ด Doujian Shop Subscribe Roastery Bagโ
โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโค
โ [green โโโโ straw โโโโ cinnamon โโโโ chestnut โโโโ ] โ โ full-bleed
โ โ spectrum hero
โ Every coffee has a roast โ
โ it tastes best at. โ
โ โ
โ Light โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโ Dark โ draggable โ
โ Medium ยท chestnut. Cacao, orange peel, brown sugar. โ
โ Ethiopia Guji, 250g [Add to bag] โ
โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโค
โ This week's roasts (ledger rows, ordered lightโdark) โ
โ โ Name, origin, process notes 250g ยฅ [Add] โ
โ โ โฆ โ
โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโฌโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโค
โ Subscription: plain โ photo of the roaster โ
โ frequency picker โ caption: Batch 0412, 12 kg, โ
โ โ dropped at 205ยฐC โ
โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโดโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโค
โ Farms we buy from (horizontal list, no cards) โ
โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโค
โ Drop-colored footer: address, hours, wholesale โ
โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโ
- Hero (the one bold move): the slider is a roast-level control. Dragging it shifts the band's color through the five stages and swaps in the matching coffee and tasting notes. It does the real job of helping someone choose, rather than just decorating the page.
- Ledger rows: each row has a dot in its roast color, so the list reads as a spectrum. The dot encodes information, so it isn't decoration. Rows are separated by whitespace and one thin rule, not by cards.
- Roastery photo: the caption gives real batch data, which does the job of a trust badge.
- Numbering: none, since nothing on the page is a sequence.
Motion
There is one orchestrated moment. On load, the hero band "roasts" from green to chestnut over about 2 seconds and settles on the featured coffee's level. Everything else responds only to user action: slider dragging, the add-to-bag confirmation, and the row hover state. Reduced-motion users get the final state immediately.
Copy voice
The voice is plain and specific, in sentence case with active verbs.
- Buttons: "Add to bag," "Start subscription."
- Confirmation: "Added to bag," matching the button.
- Empty bag: "Your bag is empty. Pick a roast to start."
Review against defaults
The first draft was cream paper, a high-contrast serif and a terracotta accent. That is the generic specialty-coffee look, so I changed three things:
- Palette: the ground is now green-tinted, and the accent is the straw gold of first crack instead of clay. The brown family appears only as roast stages.
- Type: the display face is now a stencil tied to sack and batch-tag lettering, instead of a refined serif.
- Layout: the product grid is now a ledger ordered by roast level, and the hero is a functioning roast selector instead of a photo with a headline.
I also kept out numbered steps, all-caps eyebrows, monospace tags, arrow-suffixed links and uniform rounded cards.
Quality floor
- Layout is responsive: the hero stacks on mobile and the slider becomes full width.
- Keyboard users get visible focus rings in Chestnut with a Straw offset, and the slider supports arrow keys.
- The slider announces the roast level and tasting notes to screen readers.
If you'd like me to build it, tell me whether to adjust anything first, or confirm the ่ฑ้ด reading and the audience.
Real run, output shown verbatim.
What it does
Steers the model away from templated, generic-looking interface design. It asks the model to ground the design in the real subject matter, make deliberate choices about palette, typography and layout, and critique its own plan before writing code.
How it works
- Identify the subject, the audience and the page's primary job.
- Write a compact design plan: a 4-6 color palette, typefaces and their roles, a layout concept with ASCII wireframes, and guiding principles.
- Review the plan against the brief and revise anything that reads like a generic default.
- Only then write the code.
Good for: building new UI or reshaping an existing one when you want a distinct visual identity.
The skill also includes guidance on UI copywriting: active voice, specific button labels, and error and empty states that explain what to do next.
Pure instructions: no scripts, no network access and no file writes. It makes opinionated aesthetic choices, so always review the result against your own brand.