Signals Colour, type and surface
Glowing orbs behind a permanently dark page
- Category
- Colour, type and surface
- Direction
- Pushes the score up
- Weight
- +8
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
8 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
Delete the blurred gradient orbs. If the page should be dark, make it dark deliberately — a surface scale with real contrast, not a black ground with glow stuck on it.
Where it fires
Of the homepages we scan as worked examples, this signal fired on 6:
- vercel.com 21/100 — 50 glow surfaces over a permanently dark ground. Learned from crypto and AI launch pages, where it was atmosphere. Here it decorates nothing.
- tailwindcss.com 75/100 — 24 glow surfaces over a permanently dark ground. Learned from crypto and AI launch pages, where it was atmosphere. Here it decorates nothing.
- webflow.com 23/100 — 2 glow surfaces over a permanently dark ground. Learned from crypto and AI launch pages, where it was atmosphere. Here it decorates nothing.
- framer.com 9/100 — 14 glow surfaces over a permanently dark ground. Learned from crypto and AI launch pages, where it was atmosphere. Here it decorates nothing.
- lovable.dev 21/100 — 29 glow surfaces over a permanently dark ground. Learned from crypto and AI launch pages, where it was atmosphere. Here it decorates nothing.
- webflow.io 23/100 — 2 glow surfaces over a permanently dark ground. Learned from crypto and AI launch pages, where it was atmosphere. Here it decorates nothing.