The Visual Language Audit (and why most designers skip this critical step)

Every week I review dozens of student projects inside Shift Nudge. One thing I notice again and again: the visuals don’t always speak clearly. The grids are solid, the typography is thoughtful, the colors look nice. But when you put them all together, the language feels mixed.

That’s when I do a quick check of the visual language. Nothing fancy. Just a pass to make sure grids, type, and color are pulling in the same direction. It’s a simple habit that helps turn “pretty good” into “deliberate and trustworthy.” Let’s take a look at this design and dive into some opportunities to elevate it even further.

Here’s the original design:

The 12-column approach provides layout flexibility while also maintaining mathematical relationships. When you build with a proven framework from the very beginning, you can make adjustments without breaking the underlying structure.

Next, I’m always trying to use as few font sizes as possible. In this case, three was enough: one for titles, one for metadata, one for detail text. Fewer sizes make the design look consistent, which reads as intentional. And that consistency often gets read as competence by the people reviewing your work.

The weak spot here was selection states. The highlight only wrapped the image, so it was easy to miss. I always say: make it painfully obvious. Wrapping the entire card with a selection indicator made the state unmissable. Details like this are small, but they show that you’re thinking about clarity instead of leaving things up to chance.

Now, let’s talk about redundancy and pattern recognition. Any time I can see something like /10, /10, /10, over and over, I like to see if there’s opportunities to remove that completely. In this design, just “8.9” was enough. Users infer the scale, and it matches what you see on Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB. Stripping away the extra bits makes the interface faster to read and signals that you know when less is more.

Lastly, background colors are a common source of confusion. If one shade means “selected,” another also means “selected,” and a third means something else entirely, the whole system breaks down. A quick color check — what does each background mean? — helps you spot and fix conflicts before they trip up users.

And here’s the revised design with those suggestions applied:

Running through these checks doesn’t take long, but it makes a huge difference. Clear grids, restrained typography, obvious states, reduced redundancy, and consistent colors all add up to a design that feels confident.

And when your work comes across as clear and consistent, it doesn’t just help users. It helps other people trust you as a designer.