# Taste Training > 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. ## Units - [Train your eye](https://blode.co/taste-training/train-your-eye): Run the whole loop in miniature: feel that a screen is off, name the weak decision using the six design lenses, and ask for the stronger version. - [Make text feel right](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-text-feel-right): Choose, pair, and set type so a page reads as trustworthy before a single word registers, from a typeface’s voice down to the marks a keyboard cannot type. - [Make words earn their place](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-words-earn-their-place): Write the words that help someone decide and act, from a page’s structure down to its error messages. The one domain you can improve today, by yourself. - [Make space and colour feel chosen](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-space-and-colour-feel-chosen): Turn guessed spacing and colour values into chosen relationships, then check the layout still stands when real names, small screens, and zoom arrive. - [Decide what it does](https://blode.co/taste-training/decide-what-it-does): Settle what an interface should do before anyone styles it: which control, how much friction, which states it can land in, and how small the fix can be. - [Make every interaction feel considered](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-every-interaction-feel-considered): Sweat the interactions people feel but never mention: pressed states, focus, targets, forms, and feedback, so everyone can finish the task without guessing. - [Use motion to explain change](https://blode.co/taste-training/use-motion-to-explain-change): Use motion to explain a change, keep context across it, and answer an action, then take it away when frequency, performance, or comfort asks you to. - [Rebuild real screens](https://blode.co/taste-training/rebuild-real-screens): Take four broken blocks to shipped one domain at a time, then run the full six-lens audit on a product you own and prove the repair actually landed. - [Keep your taste with AI](https://blode.co/taste-training/keep-your-taste-with-ai): Point your judgement at generated work: spot the defaults that read as slop, edit in passes instead of regenerating, and hand back specific context. - Optional · [Design AI people trust](https://blode.co/taste-training/design-ai-people-trust): Turn the six lenses on an AI surface: audit the actions it exposes, the states it can reach, and whether its friction matches what it is allowed to do. ## Lessons ### Train your eye - [See how quality compounds](https://blode.co/taste-training/train-your-eye/see-how-quality-compounds): Trace how many small decisions add up to a screen that feels finished, meet the six lenses that produce them, and find one at work in a product you use. - [Training your eye](https://blode.co/taste-training/train-your-eye/training-your-eye): Practise compare, name, test across nine interfaces, so you can say what makes the weaker version weaker instead of only sensing it. - [Write your first design brief](https://blode.co/taste-training/train-your-eye/write-your-first-design-brief): Take one weak detail through four passes of copy, type, spacing and craft, then motion, and turn what you noticed into a request someone else can act on. ### Make text feel right - [Match type to the message](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-text-feel-right/match-type-to-the-message): Sort a typeface by serifs, stress, and contrast, learn the six genres that cover most of the web, and pick the voice that agrees with what the words say. - [Judge a font’s quality](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-text-feel-right/judge-a-fonts-quality): Catch faked bold and italic in the letters a, f, and g, test Il1O0 and rn for ambiguity, and set AWAY large to see whether the spacing was cared for. - [Pair typefaces by role](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-text-feel-right/pair-typefaces-by-role): Give each face one job, match their stress so they share a world, and stop at two, because near misses read as accidents rather than deliberate contrast. - [Make text comfortable to read](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-text-feel-right/make-text-comfortable-to-read): Set a 45 to 75 character measure, size body text for the device, and space paragraphs and subheads so a block of text invites reading instead of resisting. - [Build a clear hierarchy](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-text-feel-right/build-a-clear-hierarchy): Decide where the eye lands first using size, weight, letterspaced caps, and colour, keeping any two ranks either identical or clearly different. - [Finish the typographic details](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-text-feel-right/finish-typographic-details): Tidy the rag, stop a headline stranding its last word, swap in curled quotes and the right dash, and use the figure styles a well-made font already ships. - [Set headlines with intent](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-text-feel-right/set-headlines-with-intent): Tighten letters and lines as type grows, drop leading toward 1.1 so a headline reads as one object, and use the display cut when the family ships one. ### Make words earn their place - [Map the reader’s path](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-words-earn-their-place/map-the-readers-path): Name the parts of a page from hero to final call to action, order them promise, proof, ask, and reweight them for your reader’s temperature and page type. - [Lead with the reader’s world](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-words-earn-their-place/lead-with-the-readers-world): Write a headline that names the reader’s problem and a body that names their changed day, then learn where the rule relaxes in pricing, docs, and onboarding. - [Replace claims with evidence](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-words-earn-their-place/replace-claims-with-evidence): Swap each aspirational adjective for a number, a name, or a scenario, keep the factual ones, and catch the vague figures that only look like evidence. - [Write a clear call to action](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-words-earn-their-place/write-a-clear-call-to-action): Write a button as verb plus result plus qualifier, test it by covering the page and reading only the button, and keep one primary action per section. - [Write microcopy people can act on](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-words-earn-their-place/write-microcopy-people-can-act-on): Label actions with a verb and object, write errors that name what happened and how to recover, and make empty states prompt a first step, not the void. - [Edit one lens at a time](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-words-earn-their-place/edit-one-lens-at-a-time): Cut filler, qualifiers, and repetition with the removal test, then run the sweeps one lens at a time, flagging as you go and fixing after the last pass. ### Make space and colour feel chosen - [Align by relationship](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-space-and-colour-feel-chosen/align-by-relationship): Space elements by how related they are, hang from as few left edges as you can, centre by mass, and size nested corners so they share a centre. - [Build a coherent colour system](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-space-and-colour-feel-chosen/build-a-coherent-colour-system): Build a small family of colours that share lightness steps, pull the endpoints in from pure black and white, and give the accent one job to do. - [Stress-test a layout](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-space-and-colour-feel-chosen/stress-test-a-layout): Judge a layout under the longest real name, the narrowest screen, 200 per cent zoom, and an open keyboard, asking that it bend rather than break. - [Run the final polish pass](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-space-and-colour-feel-chosen/run-the-final-polish-pass): Run five sweeps over spacing, colour, edges, and shadows, checking every value against the systems you built rather than sanding over a structural problem. ### Decide what it does - [Match the control to the choice](https://blode.co/taste-training/decide-what-it-does/match-the-control-to-the-choice): Read the shape of a choice, its option count, its timing, and whether it picks somewhere or something, then choose the control from that, not from habit. - [Scope an action before it runs](https://blode.co/taste-training/decide-what-it-does/scope-an-action-before-it-runs): Name an action’s object, scope, and consequence before the user commits, write it as verb plus noun, and set friction in proportion to what it destroys. - [Design every reachable state](https://blode.co/taste-training/decide-what-it-does/design-every-reachable-state): Design each state a screen can actually land in, empty, loading, error, and forbidden, so a failure names the next step and never clears what was typed. - [Make the smallest intervention](https://blode.co/taste-training/decide-what-it-does/make-the-smallest-intervention): Work the ladder before adding UI: a better default, then a behaviour change, then a pattern the product already has, and only then something new and quiet. - [Write a decision brief](https://blode.co/taste-training/decide-what-it-does/write-a-decision-brief): Sort a change as material or mechanical, write the job, outcome, and consequence first, keep facts apart from decisions, and clear the five checks. ### Make every interaction feel considered - [Make invisible states visible](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-every-interaction-feel-considered/make-invisible-states-visible): Answer every press, keep focus visible and returning to its trigger, honour what the cursor promises, and hold a page’s shape while its content loads. - [Make every target easy to hit](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-every-interaction-feel-considered/make-every-target-easy-to-hit): Give controls a fingertip of room, grow targets until the dead zones between them close, and follow the finger during a gesture rather than after it. - [Make forms easy to finish](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-every-interaction-feel-considered/make-forms-easy-to-finish): Keep labels visible while typing, preserve every value after a failed submit, name the field and its fix beside the problem, and let Enter and paste work. - [Put feedback where attention is](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-every-interaction-feel-considered/put-feedback-where-attention-is): Acknowledge a press immediately, hold space with a skeleton instead of a flicker, and put the confirmation on the control the person just used. - [Make the task work for everyone](https://blode.co/taste-training/make-every-interaction-feel-considered/make-the-task-work-for-everyone): Finish the same task by keyboard, by screen reader, and in bad light, give icon-only controls a spoken name, and never let colour carry a signal alone. ### Use motion to explain change - [Decide when motion helps](https://blode.co/taste-training/use-motion-to-explain-change/decide-when-motion-helps): Name motion’s job, feedback, orientation, continuity, or delight, before you animate, and let frequency and stakes decide how much movement is allowed. - [Shape a single movement](https://blode.co/taste-training/use-motion-to-explain-change/shape-a-single-movement): Tune the two dials, duration and easing, so a movement starts fast and settles, exits quicker than it entered, and never reads as mechanical travel. - [Choreograph related movement](https://blode.co/taste-training/use-motion-to-explain-change/choreograph-related-movement): Grow anchored elements from their trigger, hold one direction for forward and back, and stagger a group so the last item arrives while it is still useful. - [Make motion comfortable](https://blode.co/taste-training/use-motion-to-explain-change/make-motion-comfortable): Keep animation from blocking input, cut the sweep without losing the state change when reduced motion is on, and let daily actions and loops go quiet. ### Rebuild real screens - [Repair across design seams](https://blode.co/taste-training/rebuild-real-screens/repair-across-design-seams): Work three repairs where the fix lives one domain over from the symptom: a headline widow, a label that is really copy, and focus treated as state. - [Rebuild a hero section](https://blode.co/taste-training/rebuild-real-screens/rebuild-a-hero-section): Rebuild a hero in four passes, words, then type, then space, then motion, so a visitor knows the outcome and the one action within about two seconds. - [Rebuild a feedback popover](https://blode.co/taste-training/rebuild-real-screens/rebuild-a-feedback-popover): Open a popover where the press happened, rank its parts so the eye reads in order, add the reflex dismissals, then connect its motion back to the click. - [Rebuild a pricing page](https://blode.co/taste-training/rebuild-real-screens/rebuild-a-pricing-page): Name the buyer rather than the product, put every price on one baseline with equal-width figures, and show each billing option, its saving, and a default. - [Rebuild a settings page](https://blode.co/taste-training/rebuild-real-screens/rebuild-a-settings-page): Group settings by consequence, isolate the irreversible action, match its friction to the loss, and put the confirmation where the eye already is. - [Audit and improve your own product](https://blode.co/taste-training/rebuild-real-screens/audit-and-improve-your-own-product): Sweep your own page with all six lenses, rank findings by harm, frequency, and reach, brief the top three, repair the costliest, and verify on the task. ### Keep your taste with AI - [Spot visual slop](https://blode.co/taste-training/keep-your-taste-with-ai/spot-visual-slop): Recognise four repeated defaults, the stock font, the purple gradient, the symmetric layout, and stacked decoration, and tell an unowned one from a choice. - [Edit AI output in three passes](https://blode.co/taste-training/keep-your-taste-with-ai/edit-ai-output-in-three-passes): Subtract first, then edit structure, then surface, then details, because polish cannot rescue a broken structure and regenerating loses what already worked. - [Extract decisions from references](https://blode.co/taste-training/keep-your-taste-with-ai/extract-decisions-from-references): Study an interface for its typography, spacing, colour, and interaction decisions, store them by component, and feed them back as tokens and constraints. - [Verify the last mile](https://blode.co/taste-training/keep-your-taste-with-ai/verify-the-last-mile): Finish the four browser identity details, tab title, favicon, share preview, and theme colour, then break the screen on purpose to test its failure paths. ### Design AI people trust - [Audit what an AI feature exposes](https://blode.co/taste-training/design-ai-people-trust/give-agents-the-right-tools): Check an AI feature can finish every task the UI offers, designs the states a plain screen never reaches, and puts feedback where attention already is. - [Audit an AI feature for trust](https://blode.co/taste-training/design-ai-people-trust/design-for-earned-trust): Check the gate matches the blast radius, the goal is played back before long autonomous work, and nobody is trapped without cancel, undo, or a hand off.