# Blode Course

> Audit and improve web interfaces through product design, copywriting, typography, craft, interaction, and animation.

Course outcome: Audit an almost-good interface across six design lenses, prioritise its costliest failures, write actionable briefs, implement the highest-value repair, and verify that it worked.

## Modules

- [Train your eye](https://blode.co/course/train-your-eye): Learn the whole game in miniature: feel what is off, name it, and ask for the stronger version.
- [Make text feel right](https://blode.co/course/make-text-feel-right): Make text feel right before anyone reads a word of it.
- [Make words earn their place](https://blode.co/course/make-words-earn-their-place): Write words that help people decide and act. The one domain you can improve today, yourself.
- [Make space and colour feel chosen](https://blode.co/course/make-space-and-colour-feel-chosen): Make space and colour feel chosen, and keep layouts standing when real content arrives.
- [Decide what it does](https://blode.co/course/decide-what-it-does): Decide what an interface should do before you decide how it looks.
- [Make every interaction feel considered](https://blode.co/course/make-every-interaction-feel-considered): Sweat the small interactions people feel but never mention.
- [Use motion to explain change](https://blode.co/course/use-motion-to-explain-change): Use motion to explain change, preserve context, and give feedback.
- [Keep your taste with AI](https://blode.co/course/keep-your-taste-with-ai): Apply your judgement to AI output: spot slop, edit deliberately, and say what you see.
- [Rebuild real screens](https://blode.co/course/rebuild-real-screens): Put every domain to work on real screens, then prove it on your own product.
- [Audit AI people trust](https://blode.co/course/design-ai-people-trust): Turn your six lenses on an AI surface: audit the states it exposes and the trust it earns.

## Lessons

### Train your eye

- [See how quality compounds](https://blode.co/course/train-your-eye/see-how-quality-compounds): Trace how small decisions compound into quality, then spot one in a product you use
- [Training your eye](https://blode.co/course/train-your-eye/training-your-eye): Train your eye with compare, name, test: six judgement exercises across the domains
- [Write your first design brief](https://blode.co/course/train-your-eye/write-your-first-design-brief): Spot a weak detail, name what is wrong, and turn it into a request anyone could act on

### Make text feel right

- [Match type to the message](https://blode.co/course/make-text-feel-right/match-type-to-the-message): Match a typeface's visible traits to the voice the product needs
- [Judge a font's quality](https://blode.co/course/make-text-feel-right/judge-a-fonts-quality): Spot the quality signals that separate a well-made font from a shoddy one
- [Pair typefaces by role](https://blode.co/course/make-text-feel-right/pair-typefaces-by-role): Pair typefaces by role, contrast, and shared qualities
- [Make text comfortable to read](https://blode.co/course/make-text-feel-right/make-text-comfortable-to-read): Set size, measure, line height, and the spacing between blocks so paragraphs invite reading
- [Build a clear hierarchy](https://blode.co/course/make-text-feel-right/build-a-clear-hierarchy): Control what the eye lands on first with size, weight, spacing, and colour
- [Finish the typographic details](https://blode.co/course/make-text-feel-right/finish-typographic-details): Clean the edges, then swap in the finished marks and figures your keyboard cannot type
- [Set headlines with intent](https://blode.co/course/make-text-feel-right/set-headlines-with-intent): Set large headlines with deliberate spacing, rhythm, and detail

### Make words earn their place

- [Map the reader's path](https://blode.co/course/make-words-earn-their-place/map-the-readers-path): Name the parts of a page, read your audience's temperature, and reweight by page type
- [Lead with the reader's world](https://blode.co/course/make-words-earn-their-place/lead-with-the-readers-world): Lead with the reader's motivation and outcome, not the product's inventory
- [Replace claims with evidence](https://blode.co/course/make-words-earn-their-place/replace-claims-with-evidence): Replace vague claims with specific evidence and examples
- [Write a clear call to action](https://blode.co/course/make-words-earn-their-place/write-a-clear-call-to-action): Write action labels that set a clear expectation
- [Write microcopy people can act on](https://blode.co/course/make-words-earn-their-place/write-microcopy-people-can-act-on): Write labels, errors, and empty states people can act on
- [Edit one lens at a time](https://blode.co/course/make-words-earn-their-place/edit-one-lens-at-a-time): Cut repetition, filler, and qualifiers, then run the sweeps that catch what you missed

### Make space and colour feel chosen

- [Align by relationship](https://blode.co/course/make-space-and-colour-feel-chosen/align-by-relationship): Build consistent spacing and optical alignment from visible relationships
- [Build a coherent colour system](https://blode.co/course/make-space-and-colour-feel-chosen/build-a-coherent-colour-system): Choose colour with intent: palettes that hold together, contrast that reads
- [Stress-test a layout](https://blode.co/course/make-space-and-colour-feel-chosen/stress-test-a-layout): Judge a layout by what breaks it: long names, small screens, and zoom
- [Run the final polish pass](https://blode.co/course/make-space-and-colour-feel-chosen/run-the-final-polish-pass): Run a final pass across spacing, colour, edges, and shadows

### Decide what it does

- [Match the control to the choice](https://blode.co/course/decide-what-it-does/match-the-control-to-the-choice): Pick a control from the shape of the choice, not from habit
- [Scope an action before it runs](https://blode.co/course/decide-what-it-does/scope-an-action-before-it-runs): Name an action's object, scope, consequence, and required friction before it runs
- [Design every reachable state](https://blode.co/course/decide-what-it-does/design-every-reachable-state): Design every state a screen can land in, not just the happy path
- [Make the smallest intervention](https://blode.co/course/decide-what-it-does/make-the-smallest-intervention): Try a better default, a behaviour change, or reuse before adding new UI
- [Write a decision brief](https://blode.co/course/decide-what-it-does/write-a-decision-brief): Run every product decision through one repeatable layer: brief, evidence, checklist

### Make every interaction feel considered

- [Make invisible states visible](https://blode.co/course/make-every-interaction-feel-considered/make-invisible-states-visible): Notice the details you feel but do not see: pressed states, focus, and a page that keeps its shape as it loads
- [Make every target easy to hit](https://blode.co/course/make-every-interaction-feel-considered/make-every-target-easy-to-hit): Make things easy to hit and honest to touch, on every kind of screen
- [Make forms easy to finish](https://blode.co/course/make-every-interaction-feel-considered/make-forms-easy-to-finish): Audit labels, recovery, browser help, and input behaviour in a real form
- [Put feedback where attention is](https://blode.co/course/make-every-interaction-feel-considered/put-feedback-where-attention-is): Give honest feedback: near the trigger, at the right moment, in plain words
- [Make the task work for everyone](https://blode.co/course/make-every-interaction-feel-considered/make-the-task-work-for-everyone): Judge an interface by whether everyone can finish the task, not by a checklist

### Use motion to explain change

- [Decide when motion helps](https://blode.co/course/use-motion-to-explain-change/decide-when-motion-helps): Decide whether motion helps at all, and train the judgement to tell
- [Shape a single movement](https://blode.co/course/use-motion-to-explain-change/shape-a-single-movement): Tune duration and easing so one movement feels like a consequence of the action
- [Choreograph related movement](https://blode.co/course/use-motion-to-explain-change/choreograph-related-movement): Direct the dance: where things come from, where they go, and what moves first
- [Make motion comfortable](https://blode.co/course/use-motion-to-explain-change/make-motion-comfortable): Reduce motion for comfort, repetition, performance, and user preference

### Keep your taste with AI

- [Spot visual slop](https://blode.co/course/keep-your-taste-with-ai/spot-visual-slop): Spot repeated defaults that make generated interfaces feel generic
- [Edit AI output in three passes](https://blode.co/course/keep-your-taste-with-ai/edit-ai-output-in-three-passes): Improve generated layout and copy through a repeatable three-pass edit
- [Extract decisions from references](https://blode.co/course/keep-your-taste-with-ai/extract-decisions-from-references): Study reference interfaces, extract their decisions, and feed them back as context
- [Verify the last mile](https://blode.co/course/keep-your-taste-with-ai/verify-the-last-mile): Finish the browser identity and failure paths a first draft leaves out

### Rebuild real screens

- [Repair across design seams](https://blode.co/course/rebuild-real-screens/repair-across-design-seams): Fix one domain by acting in another: three worked repairs at the seams
- [Rebuild a hero section](https://blode.co/course/rebuild-real-screens/rebuild-a-hero-section): Improve a hero's message, typography, layout, and restraint
- [Rebuild a feedback popover](https://blode.co/course/rebuild-real-screens/rebuild-a-feedback-popover): Shape a feedback popover with clear motion, focus, and recovery
- [Rebuild a pricing page](https://blode.co/course/rebuild-real-screens/rebuild-a-pricing-page): Clarify pricing tiers, comparison, billing controls, and calls to action
- [Rebuild a settings page](https://blode.co/course/rebuild-real-screens/rebuild-a-settings-page): Make settings trustworthy with clear states and safe destructive actions
- [Audit and improve your own product](https://blode.co/course/rebuild-real-screens/audit-and-improve-your-own-product): Audit every design lens, prioritise the failures, repair the costliest one, and verify the result

### Audit AI people trust

- [Audit what an AI feature exposes](https://blode.co/course/design-ai-people-trust/give-agents-the-right-tools): Check that an AI feature reaches the right actions and designs every state it can land in
- [Audit an AI feature for trust](https://blode.co/course/design-ai-people-trust/design-for-earned-trust): Check friction, goal playback, confidence, escape hatches, and memory against the blast radius