Is your design generic? The AI-slop check
Generic design has become easy to make and easy to spot. Visitors may not name what bothers them, but they leave.
The tells
These are the patterns that show up again and again in pages generated without a point of view. Any one of them is fine. A page with six is a template.
- A default or tech-neutral font stack, set at the same weight from top to bottom.
- A soft gradient behind the hero, usually purple into blue.
- A small tracked-out label sitting above every section heading.
- Pill-shaped buttons with an arrow glued to the text.
- Three or four identical cards in a row, same icon size, same text length.
- Sections that all share one width and one background, so the page never changes pace.
- Copy with the usual vocabulary: "seamless", "unlock", "empower", "not just X but Y", a triad in every list, a dash in every sentence.
- A diagnosis with no next step, or links that lead nowhere.
Run the scanner
Design Check takes a URL or raw HTML and CSS and checks for the visual, written and experiential tells above. It returns a score from 0 to 100 where higher is more distinctive, a verdict of generic, mixed or distinctive, and a list of findings. Each finding comes with a concrete fix, which is the part I care about most; a score without a next step is one of the tells it looks for. It is free with a limit of 20 requests a minute per IP, and the paid plans only raise that limit.
It also runs as an MCP server, so an agent can call check_design on its own work before it shows you the result. That is how I use it: the build is not finished until the check has run and its findings have been dealt with.
Five minutes by hand
- Squint at the page from a metre back. If every section has the same rhythm, the composition is the problem, whatever the details.
- Read only the headings. If they could belong to any company, rewrite them with something only you could say.
- Replace the font of one element with your actual brand face and see whether the page still holds together. If nothing breaks, nothing was designed.
- Count the identical cards. Make one of them larger, or cut two.
- Paste your copy into the Toolbox tells checker to flag stock words, negative-parallel sentences and dashes. It handles the writing side; Design Check handles the page.
What it cannot do
Design Check measures the presence of known patterns. It cannot tell you whether a layout is good, whether the photography is right or whether the idea behind the page is worth anything. A page can score as distinctive and still be a mess. A hand-built page can score low because it uses a common font on purpose. Treat a verdict of generic as a reason to look again, not as a block.
The Designers slop check runs similar signals inside an agent session, next to the contrast and accessibility tools. If your page also has to meet a legal bar, the European Accessibility Act guide and the WCAG 2.2 checker cover that side.
Questions people ask
Can a tool tell if a design was made by AI?
No. Design Check does not detect authorship. It looks for patterns that repeat across generated pages, such as default fonts, soft tech gradients, pill buttons with arrows and uniform card grids, and reports how many appear. A human designer can trip the same checks.
What does a high score mean?
Design Check scores 0 to 100 and a higher score means more distinctive. It means few of the known tells were found. It does not mean the design is good.
Is Design Check free?
Yes, with a rate limit of 20 requests a minute per IP. The paid plans change the rate limit and nothing else; they run the same checks.