Layers Conceptual Model
Most products have an implicit conceptual model that nobody wrote down, which is why the UI contradicts itself and engineers rebuild the same confusion in code. This skill gives you techniques to make it explicit: what objects exist (and what's just an attribute or instance), how they relate, what states matter, and what to call everything. The disciplines are the real value here, especially "real objects only" and catching when generic verbs like "edit" hide operations with different consequences. Use noun foraging when you have research to mine, relational diagrams when relationships are murky, or just define objects directly if you know what they are. It sits between domain understanding and interaction design, and it's genuinely load bearing even though most teams skip it.
- skills.sh installs
- 2K
- GitHub stars
- 314
- last updated
- Aug 21, 2026
Install
$ npx -y skills add jamiemill/layers-skills --skill layers-conceptual-model --agent claude-codeInstalls into .claude/skills of the current project.
Files
/layers-conceptual-model
Assumes /layers-intro has been loaded. This skill is a library of techniques, not a script — see "How to use these skills" there.
The conceptual model is the most neglected load-bearing layer. It defines the objects the product recognises, how they relate, what states they can be in, and the vocabulary for all of it — a deliberate decision about how the product models its domain, independent of any interface.
It is not the users' messy mental model (that's the domain layer), and not a database schema, wireframe, or flow. But the gap between this model and what engineers build matters: a large, unexamined gap is both UX debt (users meet a product that contradicts the model) and technical debt (the system is hard to evolve).
The decisions this layer makes
- What objects the product recognises, and where each object's boundary is
- How those objects relate — cardinality, and named roles where an object plays several
- What a user can do to or with each object
- What states an object can be in, and which transitions matter
- The product's vocabulary — one name per concept, one concept per name
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- Repository
- github.com/jamiemill/layers-skills
- First seen
- Jun 3, 2026
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