01 Architect · L1 Design

L1 Design — design-time accessibility plugins

L1 Design is the Architect-tier design-time enforcement layer. Figma, Adobe UXP (InDesign / Photoshop / XD), Sketch, and Canva plugins enforce WCAG-compliant palettes, typography, and component patterns at design time — before a single line of front-end code is written. Designers cannot ship inaccessible artifacts without explicit friction: real-time contrast warnings, alt-text required on export, mandatory focus-state annotation. Compliance becomes the path of least resistance, not an afterthought.

What it does

  • Real-time contrast checker

    Every text / background pair is evaluated continuously against WCAG 2.2 4.5:1 (body) and 3:1 (large + UI). The plugin surfaces failing pairs directly on the canvas with a suggested replacement — the designer accepts or rejects the suggestion manually.

  • Mandatory alt-text on export

    Image components without an alt annotation cannot be exported to handoff. Decorative images get an explicit empty-alt marker; informative images require a descriptive string. The friction is by design.

  • Focus-state preview

    Every interactive component prompts the designer to annotate its focus indicator (outline width, offset, contrast). The plugin renders a Tab-order overlay so the keyboard journey is visible during design review.

  • Screen-reader preview

    A simulated AT walk-through reads the artboard in DOM order, surfacing semantic gaps (heading skips, missing landmarks, meaningless link text) before the artifact reaches engineering.

  • Triple-encoded status indicators

    Colour-only status lights, badges, and form-field states get flagged in real time. The plugin nudges toward a triple-encoded pattern (colour + shape + text), drawn from the L0 design rules.

  • Design-system scoring

    Component-library coverage is scored against WCAG 2.2 criteria, surfacing which design-system tokens already comply and which need remediation. Maps directly to the measurement contract used downstream.

Layer mapping

L1 Design sits between L0 Mindset (the rules a designer internalizes) and L2 Dev Tools (the rules an engineer enforces). It also short-circuits work that would otherwise surface only at L3 Testing — the earlier the catch, the cheaper the fix.
Axis Role Direction
L0 MindsetSource of the design rules L1 enforces (10 commandments, Cobbler's Shoes Test)Read
L1 DesignThis layer — Figma / Adobe / Sketch / Canva pluginsSource
L2 Dev ToolsReceives handoff artifacts that already satisfy L0 + L1; ESLint / CI catch the residual gapsFeeds
L3 Testing (WCAG / EAA)Scanner-axis runs against shipped product; fewer findings when L1 friction was respected upstreamFeeds
LLM remediation cascadeRe-uses the L1 colour-suggestion engine for source-level remediation when fixes do reach engineeringShares
Canonical scoringRe-uses the L1 design-system scoring contract to normalize cross-tool findings downstreamShares

Filed IP

ARIADA holds filed-IP positions covering the L1 Design surface — specifically the tiered colour remediation cascade and the design-system canonical scoring. Both are support applications at this layer: the plugins surface suggestions, the designer applies them manually. Provisional applications only; conversion to non-provisional and PCT national-phase decisions are pending within the 12-month window.

Application numbers, claim counts, and PCT deadlines are available for accredited-investor due diligence on the Legal & IP page.

Differentiator

L1 is a low-IP-risk surface among design-time accessibility tools because ARIADA surfaces suggestions only: the designer reviews each suggested replacement and applies it manually, avoiding automated-correction-without-consent patterns seen in certain competitor products. Stark, A11y Annotation Kit, and Adobe's built-in checkers cover slices of the capability set; none unify real-time enforcement, mandatory alt-text on export, focus-state preview, screen-reader preview, and design-system scoring across Figma + Adobe + Sketch + Canva on the same data contract.

Cross-references

  • L0 Mindset — the rules

    The 10 design rules, Cobbler's Shoes Test, and Progressive Enhancement architecture that L1 enforces at design time. See L0 Mindset →

  • L2 Dev Tools — build-time

    ESLint plugins, the MCP server, and the GitHub Action that catch any residual gaps once design has handed off. See L2 Dev Tools →

  • LLM remediation cascade

    Source-level pull requests for the engineering team, re-using the same colour-suggestion engine surfaced in the design plugins. See LLM remediation cascade →

  • Canonical scoring

    The design-system scoring contract that L1 produces is normalized against axe-core / Lighthouse / Siteimprove / WAVE / Pa11y. See canonical scoring →

  • AI artifact audit

    Tamper-evident chain that captures L1 design decisions as AI-Act Article 50 transparency evidence. See AI artifact audit →

  • Pipeline overview

    All Architect / Detect / Remediate modules in one place. See all modules →

Enquire about the plugins See Layer architecture

Source-level remediation only — agentic suggestions are not autonomous deployments; pull requests require client merge. Not a legal certification body. For accredited certification, customers consult a notified body or registered auditor.