BRAND PRESENCE: Can you, based on a cursory view of the experience, determine what the sender does, what sets them apart, what they stand for, how they are relevant to the customer?

BRAND IDENTITY: Does the design align with brand standards and other brand touchpoints?

BRAND RECOGNITION: If you cover up the logo, can you still recognize the brand, or at least the industry, or does the page appear generic and unspecific?

TEXT HIERARCHIES: Is typography used purposefully to create a structured appearance of the text, where it is clear how sections relate to each other, linearly and/or hierarchically?

LEGIBILITY: Are characters, words, lines and sections sufficiently large, recognizable and distinguished from each other, but not so far separated or contrasted so as to cause confusion? Are line lengths appropriate (preferably no less than 20 chars and no more than 60 chars)? Are lines spaced apart enough to guide the eye along one line at a time, but not so much that the reader has trouble finding the next line? Are different weights (for instance: light, regular, bold, extra bold) being used to appropriately contrast with ordinary body copy?

CHOICE OF FONTS: Is there an appropriate variety of fonts on the page so as to create clarity and contrast, but not so varied as to cause confusion and disharmony? Do headlines stand out sufficiently from body copy? Do fonts align with the brand identity? Do fonts render well, or do characters seem fuzzy, or bump up against each other?

IMAGE SIZE: Are images able to render on the page without “crowding” it and compromising the layout? Does image size align with the purpose of the content, or is image size unrelated to the importance of the content piece it is representing?

IMAGE CROPPING: Does the way the images are cropped create confusion or lack of clarity about what the image is meant to convey?

IMAGE COMPOSITION: Does the way the images are composed and placed on the page draw attention to appropriate elements, or does it create a distraction? Does image composition create an appropriate emotional response?

IMAGE TREATMENTS: Are effects and filters applied to the images, and if so, are these treatments aligned with the purpose of the page, and/or the brand identity, or do the treatments appear gratuitous?

COLOR USAGE: Are there a lot of colors on the page, and if so, do they all appear to be justified by the purpose of the page, or do they cause confusion? Are there very few colors on the page, and if so, are components of the page looking too similar? Could the page have benefited from more colors? Does there appear to be a system behind how colors are applied, or do they appear to have been applied randomly? Do the colors evoke an appropriate emotional response?

CHOICE OF COLORS: Are color choices justified either by the brand identity, or by elements on the page being made more easily distinguishable and/or groupable by contextual similarity? Do colors contrast sufficiently to not cause uncertainty and vagueness, but not so much that it causes visual competition and conflict?

PATHS TO CONTENT: Does navigation provide sufficient direction in how to structure and assimilate the content?
Does navigation aid sufficiently in finding and selecting the various pieces of content?

CONFIDENCE IN NAVIGATION: Is the navigation behaving consistently and predictably so as to instill confidence in the user that using the nav will have the desired results? Do navigation elements provide sufficient cues to guide the user in what to expect, and to confirm current position in the site structure?

ICON DESIGN: Are icons designed in a manner consistent with the overall aesthetics of the brand and the site? Do they stand out sufficiently to aid in scanning the page, or do they create a visual distraction? Do they detract from the brand?

CTA ADEQUACY: Do CTAs reflect actual user needs, do they describe consequences and benefits of actions, are they specific rather than generic, and are they persuasive and emphasize urgency?

VISUAL STRUCTURE: Are columns and sections defined in a way that creates visual cohesion where needed, and visual separation where needed, in order for users to assimilate the content? Is the scale of the content well adapted to the available space, or does the content create visual noise that is hard to penetrate? ? Are the most granular levels of content arranged into larger groups in a manner that facilitates consumption of content? Does the visual structure help guide the eye through the page towards the desired actions, or does the visual structure create “roadblocks”?

PATHS OF INTERACTION: Are actionable elements placed together with content in a progressive order, in an either horizontal or vertical “path”, where content creates interest and drives towards increasing levels of decisiveness, so that interaction follows naturally from the consumption of content?

UTILIZATION OF VIEWPORT SIZE: Do the content and design elements scale and re-organize to fit the available screen real-estate, or do they appear to be inappropriately sized, or shoe-horned in?