Signs of slop

Go through every group and note each sign you find with where it lives. Each line pairs the sign with its fix.

Surfaces and color

Purple to blue or violet to pink gradients on backgrounds, cards, buttons or the active nav item → one neutral surface, accent only where it means something
Gradient text in headings, numbers or the logo → solid primary text color
Colored glows, like shadow-[0_0_20px_rgba(139,92,246,0.5)], drop-shadow on emoji or glowing pills → remove, depth from surface steps and hairlines
Radial color washes or blurred blobs behind content → remove
Neon or high contrast colored borders → hairline at 6 to 10% opacity
Many near identical tints of the same hue for text, like five lavenders → three text roles from one neutral ramp
Every element highlighted, so nothing stands out → one accent used once or twice per screen
Glass cards with a white inner highlight and a colored shadow → plain raised surface with a hairline

Headings at weight 800 or 900 → 400 to 500 and size for hierarchy
Uppercase labels with wide tracking, like NAVIGATION or PAID THIS MONTH → sentence case at normal or slightly open tracking
Too many sizes and weights on one screen → a few sizes from the scale, weights 400 and 500
Numbers in mixed formats, like $48,210 next to $124,860.40, or 07 → one format, tabular figures
Negative letter spacing on small text → zero or slightly positive
Italic used for emphasis → color or weight instead

Emoji as nav icons, label decoration or status, like 🏠 📥 🚀 💰 ⚠️ 📈 🔥 😬 → one line icon set or nothing
Emoji inside pills and counts, like 18 👤 → plain number
Icons in many sizes and colors → one size, one stroke, text role color
Icons nudged off the column → same icon box width in every row
A sparkle ✨ for anything AI → remove or use a plain icon only where it explains something

Arbitrary values, like mt-[13px], ml-[7px], h-[31px] → steps on the 4px scale
Rows in one list with different heights or gaps → one height, one gap
Groups that sit closer to their neighbours than to their own items → smaller gaps inside groups, bigger between them
Uneven padding inside sibling cards → one padding
Big empty gaps above a section and cramped space below it → balanced rhythm

Greeting headlines, like Welcome back, Damir! 👋 → the page or period as the title
Exclamation marks and !! → plain statement
Changes without a reference, like +12%!! or 3 less!! → +12% vs last month, 3 fewer vs last month
Wordy placeholders, like Search anything... → Search
Hype words, like supercharge, seamless, unlock, magic, revolutionize → what the thing actually does
Trailing periods on labels and buttons → none
Fake looking data, like $123,456 or [X] → plausible numbers

Glowing pills for counts, plans, shortcuts or status → quiet mono text or a keycap
PRO, New ✨, Beta 🚀 badges everywhere → remove or one quiet text badge
Every element a full pill, from search to buttons to cards → radius by size, nested radius math
Charts with rainbow bars, glowing bars, pill shaped bars or uppercase day labels → one or two series, muted grid and mono labels, one highlight color
Every chart or stack in several shades of the accent, so nothing leads → neutral steps with the accent only on the one thing that matters
Sparklines, tallies or mini bars added to every stat card → the number, its label and its change
Equal cards side by side, each with the same chart or layout → one main chart, compact stats, varied widths
Logo as a gradient tile with a sparkle and a gradient wordmark → product name as text plus a simple flat mark
Logo mark as a glossy orb, a gradient ball or a glowing dot → a flat glyph in one solid color, or the wordmark alone

A pill badge above the headline, like ✨ Introducing X 2.0 → remove, or a quiet text link if it is real news
A headline that could fit any product, like Supercharge your workflow with AI → say what the product does for whom
Gradient or shimmer on the headline → solid text
Floating blobs, orbs, grids and glowing lines behind the hero → plain background or one real product visual
Everything stacked and centered, headline, text, buttons and a picture below → an asymmetric split or text over a large product view, see the Layout pass
Three or more buttons, or chips and avatars stacked under the buttons → one primary and at most one secondary action
Trusted by 10,000+ teams, Loved by 10,000+, rows of avatar dots or five stars without a source → ask if it is real, then make it quiet and specific or remove it
Parallax and elements floating on scroll → static layout, motion only with a purpose
Feature cards with an emoji, a bold title and a vague line each → fewer features, concrete copy, line icons or none

Glossy 3D blobs, orbs, liquid chrome shapes or a purple nebula as the hero visual → the product itself or one concrete metaphor for what it does
Stock robots, glowing brains, circuit lines or holograms for anything AI → remove, or show what the AI actually produces
Text, fake buttons or a fake logo baked into an image → real text in the page, a clean image without text
An image that does not blend into the page, with a hard edge and a different black → background matched to the page and a soft mask at the edges
A visual on every section → one visual where it helps, usually only the hero

animate-pulse, animate-ping or breathing glows on things that are not live → static
transition-all and hover:scale on cards and buttons → color or surface step on hover, a tiny scale down on press
Bouncy springs and overshoot on simple UI → one ease-out curve
Everything flying in on load from different directions → one short fade and rise with a small stagger
Parallax, floating loops and elements that move on scroll → static layout
Animating width, height, top or left → transform and opacity

These are not slop, but they are what a cleaned up screen falls back to when nobody made a decision. Watch for them after the passes.

Pure grey #161616 page, Inter, white text and the old brand color on one button, on a product whose world is warm or bright → a ramp tinted toward the world and an accent from it
A headline that would fit another product if you swapped the name → say what this product does, with its own nouns
A hero visual that is an empty box or a generic picture → a product preview in code or an image from the world
Every product getting the same layout, type and palette → let the direction choose

Part of unslop by Damir Sokolovsky (@heydamir), CC BY 4.0. Keep this credit in copies and adaptations.