What we find when we audit real websites — usability, performance, accessibility, and whether AI search engines can read the page at all. Some posts come with a prompt or template you can use on your own site.
Fashionable UI patterns are built for attention, not completion, and copying them blindly raises churn for stressed users. This is a four-point test, cognitive load, emotional fit, navigation trust, and accessibility, that you can score any trend against before you ship it.
A single design-system maturity level averages away the one number you needed to see. Score six dimensions separately instead, read the profile as a shape, and fix the short leg that is capping the rest.
Most AI features fail the same Nielsen heuristics: they sit on the task path, resist dismissal, and demand attention instead of doing the boring work silently. This is a concrete self-audit to tell whether your site's AI is a quiet helper or an interruption, and how to demote it back.
Baymard scored seven major ISPs across 280+ UX parameters and none reached a decent level, with the worst damage in comparison tables, unclear pricing, and confusing signup progress. This piece turns those findings into a diagnostic checklist you can run on your own pricing page and checkout.