Public self-audit

Audit us.

We teach interface standards, so this site should be inspectable against them. Here is the checklist, including the gaps.

Self-assessed · October 16, 2026

The checklist today15 checks

14Pass

0Partial

1To do

Re-run after the Studio redesign, against the same checklist UXArcade runs every release: computed AA contrast for every visible text element, overflow probes, ≥44px targets, heading order, a keyboard focus check and a pass with scripting off. Measured on all 50 pages the site had that day at nine screen sizes (320, 375, 393, 412, 768, 1024, 1280, 1440 and 1920px wide), in both themes. Self-assessed, not yet independently verified — if you find a miss, tell us and it goes on this list.

The checklist

Each row is a law our products teach, held against this site.

Proximity
Related things sit together; unrelated things get space.
On this site: Every page is built the same way: a head, then sections that each hold one kind of thing under one heading. Nav, shelf and help cards group by relationship, not by grid convenience.
Pass
Miller / Chunking
Don't make people hold more than a handful of things at once.
On this site: Six House Rules, three nav links, one inbox. The help desk's questions fold into five groups you open one at a time.
Pass
Hick's Law
Fewer, clearer choices beat a wall of options.
On this site: Three nav links, no mega-menu, and never more than one primary button on a screen — measured on every page at nine screen sizes.
Pass
Fitts's Law
Make targets big enough and close enough to hit.
On this site: Every button, nav link, breadcrumb and footer link is at least 44px tall, measured on every page from a 320px phone to a 1920px screen. Links inside a sentence use WCAG 2.5.8's inline exception.
Pass
Von Restorff
The one thing that matters should look different.
On this site: One ember fill marks the page's one primary action, and never more than one per screen (measured). Otherwise ember only draws small marks, like the numbered pins in the protocol examples.
Pass
Jakob's Law
Meet the conventions people already carry.
On this site: Logo top-left goes home, nav where you expect it, contact is a plain email link. No reinvented furniture.
Pass
Visibility of system status
Always show what just happened.
On this site: The home decision answers beside your choice and announces it to screen readers (aria-live). Every interactive element shows a focus ring when reached by keyboard (checked on every page).
Pass
Match with the real world
Speak the user's language, not the system's.
On this site: Workbench, shelf, case file, catalogue, receipt — plain words borrowed from the thing each page actually is. No jargon, no growth-speak.
Pass
Error prevention
Stop the mistake before it happens.
On this site: There is no form on this site to get wrong — every contact route is a plain mailto. The home demo has no fail state that can trap you: a wrong call shows the principle that explains it, beside your choice, and nothing is lost or locked.
Pass
Honesty (house law)
Every on-screen claim describes shipped reality.
On this site: No fabricated metrics, no fake testimonials, no dark patterns. Numbers appear only when they're real. This site measures visits with Google Analytics — one cookie, no advertising storage anywhere — and the row below says exactly who is asked first. The earlier “zero cookies” claim stopped being true on 17 September 2026 and has been corrected here, on /help and on /privacy.
Pass
Consent (house law)
A consent choice is real or it is theatre; there is no third option.
On this site: Analytics arrived on 17 September 2026. Visitors in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland are asked before anything is stored, Consent Mode v2 defaults to denied until they answer, and Decline is the same size and weight as Allow with no blocking overlay. Everyone else is not asked, because no law requires it and a banner that changes nothing is the theatre we disowned — /privacy says so in those words. Ad storage and ad personalisation are denied for every visitor, everywhere, unconditionally. The region is guessed from the browser’s own timezone, biased toward asking more people rather than fewer, because the alternative is shipping every visitor’s IP to a lookup service nobody agreed to.
Pass
Works without JavaScript
Degrade honestly; label the fallback.
On this site: Every page is static HTML. With scripting off the home decision states its answer instead of offering a click that can't respond, the protocol examples render one after another, the help answers still open, and the theme switch (which needs scripting) is hidden.
Pass
Contrast (WCAG 1.4.3)
Text has to clear 4.5:1 against what is actually behind it.
On this site: Re-measured on 16 October 2026 after the Studio redesign: every visible text element on all 50 pages the site had that day, at nine screen sizes, in both themes, against its real composited background. All pass 4.5:1 for body text and 3:1 for large text. The first pass found three misses, fixed before this was published: the numbered pins in the protocol examples (white on ember, 2.9:1 in dark), a status chip on the featured product card in dark mode, and the size label on a download button.
Pass
Reflow (WCAG 1.4.10)
Content fits the screen it is on; nobody scrolls sideways to read.
On this site: No page scrolls sideways at any of the nine widths, 320px included, and nothing is clipped outside the viewport. Wide code blocks and tables scroll inside their own box. The 320px pass caught two misses, both fixed: the protocol install section pushed the page 22px wide, and the home decision's storefront hid its cart.
Pass
Independent verification
Audit us — the checklist is public.
On this site: This audit is self-assessed so far. An outside pass hasn't happened yet. That's the honest gap on this page today.
To do

Found a miss?

Tell us, and it goes on the list.

A broken page, a wrong claim, a failed contrast check: one inbox, read by the people who build the site.

Report a miss

Audit us.

The checklist

Related things sit together; unrelated things get space.

Don't make people hold more than a handful of things at once.

Fewer, clearer choices beat a wall of options.

Make targets big enough and close enough to hit.

The one thing that matters should look different.

Meet the conventions people already carry.

Always show what just happened.

Speak the user's language, not the system's.

Stop the mistake before it happens.

Every on-screen claim describes shipped reality.

A consent choice is real or it is theatre; there is no third option.

Degrade honestly; label the fallback.

Text has to clear 4.5:1 against what is actually behind it.

Content fits the screen it is on; nobody scrolls sideways to read.

Audit us — the checklist is public.

Tell us, and it goes on the list.