Theory doesn't stick. Reps do.
You've read the articles. Reading is passive — recognition fades in a week. Here you make the call first, then get the principle attached to a screen you'll actually remember.
Every interface is hiding a UX mistake. Find it.
UX Check turns design critique into a game. Hunt broken interfaces, rebuild layouts piece by piece, and get the reason behind every fix.
- 100levels
- +15every week
- Freeon iPhone & iPad
You can feel that an interface is bad. Can you say why?
That gap is what stalls design reviews, portfolio critiques and interviews. UX Check closes it by making you argue with real screens — hundreds of times.
Critique is a muscle, not a talent.
Senior designers aren't guessing. They're pattern-matching against thousands of interfaces. This is the gym — 60 seconds a round, one broken screen at a time.
Vocabulary you can defend.
"It feels cluttered" loses the meeting. "Seven competing primary actions — Hick's law" wins it. Every level hands you the words along with the fix.
Made for gaps in your day.
No course to finish, no 40-hour commitment. Three levels in a queue, a streak on the train. Progress that survives a busy week.
Hunt
A sign-in screen with four mistakes buried in it. Tap each one — you get three misses.
assets/shot-hunt.png
drop the file in
Build
Eight pieces, one empty screen. Place each one until the layout actually works.
assets/shot-build.png
drop the file in
Learn
Name the heuristic. Four plausible answers, one that actually explains the problem.
assets/shot-learn.png
drop the file in
Three ways to play.
One thing to learn: judgement.
Mode 01 Hunt
Find what's broken before the timer does.
Each level drops you into an interface with mistakes buried in it — a 2.1:1 contrast ratio, a destructive button in primary blue, a 22px tap target. Tap what's wrong. Miss, and you lose the streak, not the lesson.
- Real patterns pulled from apps you use daily
- Difficulty scales from glaring to genuinely subtle
- Hints cost points — bragging rights are on the line
Checkout flowTap on every UX mistake
0 of 5 found
0 / 3 misses
Checkout
Cloud Headphones
Wireless · Sand · Qty 1
•••• 4242
Five mistakes are hiding in this checkout. Tap what's wrong — you get three misses.
↑ a real round — play it here
Mode 02 Build
Drag the pieces. Earn the layout.
Puzzle levels hand you a pile of loose elements and an empty screen. Drag them into an order that actually works — hierarchy, grouping, and the one action that deserves the most weight. The screen scores you the moment it makes sense.
- Snap-together canvas, no design tool required
- Scored on hierarchy, grouping and emphasis
- Every arrangement gets a written verdict
product card — order the hierarchy
- Add to cart
- Product image
- $24.90
- Merino runner — Slate
Drag the five pieces into a hierarchy that reads top to bottom.
Ready When You Are
No course to finish, no streak to protect. Open it in a queue, find one mistake, close it again — and walk into your next critique with the words.
Mode 03 Learn
Every mistake comes with its reason.
Getting it right isn't the point — knowing why is. Each answer opens a card with the principle, the measurable failure, the fix, and where the same trap shows up in the wild. Collect them into a reference you actually built yourself.
- Named principle, plain-language explanation
- Before / after, with the numbers that matter
- Saved to your library for later review
failed check
WCAG 1.4.3
Text contrast is 2.1:1
Body copy needs at least 4.5:1 against its background. At 2.1:1 roughly one reader in twelve can't resolve the price at arm's length in daylight.
before$24.902.1:1
→
after$24.907.4:1
Seen in: pricing rows, disabled states, placeholder text
A ladder, not a playlist.
Levels unlock in the order a designer's eye actually develops — from the glaring to the arguable. Fifteen new ones land every week, so the top of the ladder keeps moving.
-
01–20
Rookie
The obvious
Illegible text, invisible buttons, actions with no label. Train the reflex.
-
21–45
Inspector
The measurable
Tap targets, contrast ratios, spacing rhythm, hit areas. Numbers you can defend.
-
46–75
Critic
The structural
Hierarchy, grouping, flow, and forms that fight the user. Build mode opens up.
-
76–100
Lead
The arguable
Trade-offs with no clean answer. Defend your call against the counter-argument.
-
+15
Weekly
Every week
A fresh drop of levels, pulled from interfaces shipping right now. The ladder gets taller while you climb it.
What ends up in your head
Not a syllabus. The working vocabulary you'll use in your next critique.
- Contrast & legibility
- Fitts's law
- Touch target sizing
- Visual hierarchy
- Hick's law
- Error prevention
- Recovery & undo
- Affordance
- Jakob's law
- Form design
- Empty states
- Loading & latency
- Miller's law
- Grouping & proximity
- Consistency
- Destructive actions
- Peak-end rule
- Microcopy
- Accessibility basics
- Information density
Questions worth asking
Do I need a design background?
No. The first twenty levels assume nothing but a phone and an opinion. People arrive from development, marketing, product and career switches — the ladder is built for exactly that.
Is it actually free?
The app is free to download and play, with an optional subscription for the full library — including every weekly drop from here on. No ads mid-round, ever.
How long is a session?
A round is 60 seconds. Most people play three to five, which lands between three and six minutes. It's designed for the gap, not the evening.
What happens when I finish all 100?
Fifteen new levels arrive every week, so the library grows faster than most people climb it. Finishing the current ladder isn't the end of the app — it's the point where the weekly drop becomes the thing you show up for.
Are the interfaces real apps?
They're recreated patterns, not screenshots — the same structures you meet daily, rebuilt so a specific mistake can be isolated and measured. No brands are named or shamed.
Who decides what counts as a mistake?
Every level cites something checkable — a WCAG threshold, a platform guideline, a named heuristic. Where a call is genuinely debatable, the level says so and gives you the counter-argument too.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Downloaded packs play without a connection, and streaks sync the next time you're online.
Is there an Android version?
Not yet — UX Check is on iPhone and iPad today. Android is in the works. Send us your address and we'll mail you the link the day it lands, and nothing else.
free · no ads mid-round
Your eye gets sharper
one broken screen at a time.
Install it tonight, play three levels in tomorrow's coffee queue, and walk into your next critique with the words ready.
Android is in the works — tell us where to send it.