Signals Colour, type and surface
Backdrop blur everywhere
- Category
- Colour, type and surface
- Direction
- Pushes the score up
- Weight
- +7
What it is
The visual defaults, applied unedited. Looks are the weakest evidence in the whole set. Anyone can reach for a gradient on purpose, which is why craft damps this entire category.
How it is weighted
7 points is mid-weight: real evidence, not a smoking gun. On its own it moves the number a few points.
What to do about it
Use blur only where something is genuinely layered above content — a modal scrim, a sticky bar. Remove the decorative uses.
Where it fires
Of the homepages we scan as worked examples, this signal fired on 4:
- tailwindcss.com 75/100 — 9 blurred surfaces.
- framer.com 9/100 — 12 blurred surfaces.
- cloudflare.com 17/100 — 48 blurred surfaces.
- openai.com 11/100 — 6 blurred surfaces.