Design Lab

Nobody can describe a website. Everybody can point at one.

So I stopped asking. Ten pairs of pictures, about five minutes, and three designs of your own page.

Watch the page below change colour.

The same client page shown in six different colour sets, one after another.
Same page. Same words.One tap on a colour swatch is the only thing changing.

Try one

Which page would you rather land on?

Go with your gut. A first reaction is exactly what this is for.

That is one of ten. Nothing to type, nothing to get wrong, and both were drawn the same size so you picked taste, not the bigger card.

Which page would you rather land on?Which feels more like your business?Which would you rather your customers felt?How loud should it be?Which reads more like you?Corners: which do you prefer?Light or dark?Which finish do you like?Which layout appeals more?How much breathing room?

The loop this gets rid of

I guess, I build, you say it is not quite right, and neither of us can say why. That loop eats the budget and the goodwill with it.

“Something modern but not too modern. Can you make it pop?”

becomes
  • Three words: solid, honest, precise
  • Corners: Sharp
  • Light or dark? Light
  • Breathing room: Lots of space
  • Photography: Natural
  • Movement: Subtle

Does not want: nothing orange, no stock photos of people giving a thumbs up, not cheap looking

Five minutes, start to finish

One private link. No account, no password, nothing to sign up for.

  1. 1

    Open your link

    It goes straight into the questions. Nothing to install.

  2. 2

    Tap ten pairs

    Two pictures, pick one. Or say you like neither.

  3. 3

    Answer a few questions

    Four typed in your words, two with a tap. I read them, not a machine.

  4. 4

    Get three designs

    Real pages, already leaning the way you pointed.

  5. 5

    Shape the one you like

    Colour, lettering, shape, photos, movement.

  6. 6

    Send it over

    Nothing is final. Send another whenever you change your mind.

Stop halfway and nothing is lost. It saves at every step and picks you up on the question you stopped at.

The same page, six ways

This is what tapping one swatch does. Same words, same layout, entirely different business.

The same client page rendered in the Sage colour set.
SageDeep green, natural, grounded
The same client page rendered in the Clay colour set.
ClayWarm rust against cool grey
The same client page rendered in the Cobalt colour set.
CobaltConfident blue, crisp cream
The same client page rendered in the Orchid colour set.
OrchidMuted plum, soft and considered
The same client page rendered in the Noir colour set.
NoirOff-black and warm tan, evening
The same client page rendered in the Mono colour set.
MonoMonochrome with one emerald pop

There is a seventh, and you can also point at your logo and have it read your own brand colours straight out of the file.

Three to choose from, not one

One computed answer is a guess dressed up as a fact, and most people accept it out of politeness rather than say it is wrong.

The end of the brief: three complete designs of the same page side by side, labelled Closest to your answers, A quieter version and A bolder version, each with a line explaining why it was offered.

Built from your answers

Not a mood board. Real pages, on screen, already leaning your way.

Your outright answers stick

Say light and all three are light. Only the guesswork changes.

None of it is AI

Fixed maths over ten answers. Same answers, same three designs.

Five things to play with

Colour, Lettering, Shape and feel, Photography, Movement. There is no sixth, and nothing you touch can break it.

SagePorcelainClayCobaltOrchidNoirMono

It says Lettering, not typography. You should not need the trade words to say what you like.

Not yours to change

  • The words
  • The photographs
  • Which sections exist
  • Their order
  • The layout

Those are mine, set in advance. You are signing off a look, not building a site.

The customiser: a live preview of the client's page on the left, and a control drawer on the right showing the seven colour sets and the lettering pairs as live letterforms.
The same tool on a phone, with the design filling the screen and the controls reachable underneath.

All of it works on a phone.

Anything you definitely do not want?

The most useful box on the page. Say it plainly and it will not appear.

“No stock photos of men in hard hats giving a thumbs up. Nothing orange. Not cheap looking.”

It is one of two answers the tool checks afterwards, along with light or dark. If the design drifts into something you ruled out, it asks you about it in your own words.

Then I build exactly that

One approved design, your exact colours and lettering, every answer next to the question you were asked, and your own words about what you never want to see.

  • Your words at the top. Above a single colour code.
  • Changes in plain English. It says “Corners: Sharp -> Soft”, not a code.
  • Left alone is not chosen. It says which values you actually picked.
The spec sheet from an approved demonstration brief: a block headed The brief, the client's words, not ours, listing their three words, who it is for, what they definitely do not want, and every picture pair next to the answer they pressed, then the colour codes below.
From a demonstration brief, not a real client. It carries on past the fold.

Partway through and stuck?

You cannot break it. No wrong answers, nothing permanent, and sending a design commits you to nothing.

Try refusing a question.

Recorded, and you have still given me an answer.

Nothing moved. Those two feed nothing into the design, so you are never nudged into a preference you do not hold.

What is this, exactly?
It is how you tell me what you like when you cannot find the words for it. You tap through ten pairs of pictures, answer a few short questions in your own words, and land on designs built from your answers. It is not a website builder and it does not build your site. It is the step before that.
Do I need to know anything about design?
No, and that is the point. The pictures come first precisely so you never have to reach for a word you do not have. Their labels then hand you the vocabulary for the few typed questions that follow.
How long does it take, and what if I stop halfway?
The brief is about five minutes. Stop whenever you want. It saves at every step and picks you up on the question you stopped at rather than back at the beginning. Shaping the design afterwards takes as long as you fancy.
I cannot choose between two pictures, or I do not like either.
Then do not choose. Under every pair there is “Somewhere between”, “I dislike both” and “No preference”, and the last two deliberately feed nothing into your design. Use them on all ten and you get one neutral starting point instead of three.
What if I pick the wrong one of the three designs?
There is not a wrong one. They are starting points, not verdicts, and everything in them moves once you are inside. If you reach past “Closest to your answers” for the bolder one, that tells me the picture test read you a bit quiet, which is useful.
What if I do not like any of the three?
Then change one until you do. Colour, lettering, shape, photography and movement all move. If it still is not right, send one over with a note saying so. That is far more useful to me than a polite yes.
Why can I not move things around or change the layout?
Because you are signing off a look, not a site map. Everyone shapes the same page on purpose: when only the colour, lettering and feel move, your preference means something. If the layout shifted too, I could not tell which half you liked.
Is my logo uploaded anywhere?
No. Tap “Take colours from my logo” and the file is read on your own device and then thrown away. It is never sent anywhere and never stored. Only the colour codes it found are kept. If you have exact brand colours, send them to me and I will set them by hand.
How do I tell you what I want changed?
Tap “Add notes”, tap any part of the design, write on it, then press “Save note”. That last press is the bit people miss. The note sticks to that exact part of the page and reaches me without you sending a version first.
Why is it asking me about something I said I did not want?
Either the design has drifted into something you wrote in the “definitely do not want” box, or it has gone dark when you picked the light card earlier. It only asks. “Keep it” is a perfectly good answer, and it gets recorded as your choice rather than as a mistake.
Can I change my mind?
As often as you like. Undo and redo are always there, and you can send as many different designs as you want, up to a hundred per project. Each one is listed under “Your designs” so you can reopen any of them later.
Is this my actual website?
No. It is a stand-in page built to show a look. Your business name is on it, but the headline, the wording and the photographs are placeholders, so ignore them. I build the real site from the look you approve.
Can I do the whole thing on my phone?
Yes, start to finish. Two parts want a tablet or bigger: seeing your design at desktop width, and putting two of your designs side by side to compare them.
Do I have to do the websites-you-like part?
No, it is optional and plenty of people skip it. If any do come to mind it takes seconds: paste the address and say what caught your eye.
What happens when I approve one?
Two taps, with a plain explanation in between. If you have changed anything since your last send, that gets kept first. Then it says “Locked in”. You can still send more ideas afterwards, and approving a later one moves the approval across.
Who sees my answers?
Me. They are stored on the hosting that runs this tool and they are not sold or shared. There is no account and no password, so the private link you were sent is the whole way in.
I have lost my link.
Ask me and I will send you a fresh one. There is nothing to log into and no password to reset, so the link really is the only way back in. If it got cut off in a message, use the whole thing exactly as it was sent.

The first build is the right one.

If that sounds better than a blank page and a phone call, say hello.

Talk to me about your site