design-audit-final-FINAL-v3-actually-final.fig

_{Day 234/100}

Hey—It's Tim. 

Wow. This daily email thing is getting to me.
Sending out an email with the template subject line and preview text is some amateur sh*t.

Regardless, the email did well.
Ooof.

This evening I have a meeting in my calendar: "Design review - Wave 2 screens."

It's at 8pm. This is how I spend my Friday nights.
I know, I know. You wish your life was as interesting as mine.

I have five minutes to make sure I'm not showing up with amateur-hour spacing and seven font weights like some kind of design anarchist.

So I run the same five checks I run every Friday before I show work to anyone.

Here's what I'm doing in those five minutes on the Wave 2 planning screens.

Check 1: Squint test

Time: 60 seconds

Close one eye. Squint hard at the screen.

What should stand out: The primary CTA
What's actually standing out: The "Add Topic" button and a random date label that's screaming in semibold

The date labels are stealing focus from the action I actually want people to take.

The fix:
Date labels: Semibold
→ Date labels: Regular

Hierarchy restored. Next.

Check 2: White space ratio

Time: 60 seconds

Pick the busiest section. Draw an imaginary box around all the content.

Look at everything outside that box.

The math:
Content: 85% of the card
White space: 15% of the card

That's claustrophobic. Everything's touching.

The fix:
Card padding: 16px → 24px
Tag-to-button gap: 0px → 12px

Now it breathes.

My rule for all padding, font sizes, gaps, everything. Must be a multiple of 4.
Don’t ask me why. It just makes more sense to me.

Check 3: Designed vs. decorated

Time: 90 seconds

Zoom out. Look at the whole interface.

Current state:
✓ Every card has a shadow
✓ Every card has a border
✓ Every section has a slight gradient background

That's not design doing work. That's me adding effects because the layout felt empty.

The rule: Shadow OR border. Never both. Both is the same as underlining AND bolding something. Looks dumb.

And if you play your colours well, you don’t need a border.

The fix:
Gradients: Everywhere
Shadows + Borders: On every card

→ Gradients: Deleted
→ Depth cards: Shadow only
→ Definition cards: Border only

Way more confident now.

Your turn

Set a recurring calendar event: "Friday 4pm: Design audit"

Run these three on whatever you shipped this week:

1. Squint → What's stealing focus?

2. Spacing → Pick one number, use it everywhere

3. Effects → Shadow OR border, never both

Catch it before they do.

✌️ Tim "Design Detective" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

Same brain, different platforms: X, Threads, LinkedIn.

P.S. The squint test is my go to. You can spot 90% of all issues with this.

Penfriend.ai
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