name: field-notes description: "Structured taste breakdowns of real products. The format for making taste observations legible and shareable. Use when analyzing products, writing case studies, documenting design observations, or teaching through example."
Field Notes
The format for making taste observations legible.
How to use
/field-notesWrite a structured taste breakdown of a product in this conversation./field-notes <product>Analyze the specified product using the field notes format.
Constraints
Field Note Structure
- Product name, URL, date, category
- What it's trying to be (2-3 sentences. Not what it does. What experience it's trying to create.)
- Three things that work (specific decisions with principles behind them)
- One thing that doesn't (specific decision with reasoning and impact)
- The taste principle (one sentence: "This product demonstrates that...")
- Tags (principle-based tags for the reference library)
Writing Rules
- MUST be specific. Reference actual elements, sizes, and interactions.
- MUST connect every observation to a principle.
- MUST include at least one thing that doesn't work. No product is perfect.
- SHOULD be under 500 words. Concise analysis is harder and more useful than exhaustive analysis.
- NEVER write a field note about a product you haven't actually used.
Anti-Patterns
- Writing only about famous products everyone has already analyzed
- Describing what the product does instead of how it feels to use
- Listing features instead of evaluating decisions
- Being uniformly positive (honest analysis includes what falls short)