DesignScan is back: the website checkup that tells you how old your site feels

In 2008 DesignScan was the first place where web designers could put a website in front of other designers and get an honest verdict. It ran for years, then the software under it grew old and the scans stopped. The old site, ironically, became the kind of website it was built to warn people about.

So we started over. The new DesignScan is rebuilt from the ground up, and today it opens its doors again.

What a scan does now

Type an address and DesignScan loads the site in a real browser, on a desktop, a tablet and a phone. In about a minute you get a report that reads the site three ways at once:

• Like a developer: speed, code, images, search engine basics and accessibility, measured.
• Like a designer: how the layout holds up on every screen, and how modern it looks.
• Like a visitor: where people are likely to get stuck, and what makes them trust the site or leave.

The quick scan is free and needs no account and no install.

Ten gauges and one score

Every report has ten gauges: Design, Age, Speed, SEO, Images, Code, UX, Accessibility, Trust and People. Together they make one score and a grade. More useful than the number is the verdict that comes with it: polish what you have, or start over. We wrote a whole post about how that verdict is made, coming in two weeks.

Website Age: how old does your site feel?

Speed tools tell you how fast a site is. DesignScan also tells you how old it feels. Every website has a birth year, even after a few facelifts: the frameworks, the fonts, the code and the images give it away. Website Age dates each of those and tells you which year your visitors think they are in. It is the gauge people talk about most, so it gets its own post next week.

The UX Doctor writes the fix list

A score without a plan is just a grade. Every report ends with the UX Doctor’s diagnosis and prescription: what is wrong, why it matters to a visitor and what to do about it, sorted from critical to minor. Plain language, no jargon you need to look up.

People, not only a program

Machines measure, but people judge. Designers and developers vote on scanned sites in about 20 seconds each: look, clarity, trust and how modern it feels. Voters earn Ghost Credits for every honest vote, and three experienced members form the Board of Three, whose votes count five times.

Real visitors, through GhostStat

A scan sees your site from the outside. Add one line of GhostStat code and your report also shows what real visitors do: where they click in frustration, which pages they leave from and where they hesitate. GhostStat uses no cookies, so it needs no consent banner.

Fix it yourself, or hire help

Most owners fix the first few things themselves. For the rest you can open your report to the community and let designers and developers pitch for the job. Payments are held until you approve the work. When it is done, scan again and the report shows the before and after.

The newest scans

These are the sites scanned most recently. Click one to see its full report.

What’s next on this blog

Twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we post something you can use on your own site: Website Age, rage clicks, Core Web Vitals in plain language, the redesign-or-polish question, accessibility basics and how to hire a web professional without regret.

Curious how your own site does? Run a free scan. It takes about a minute.