How to de-slopify your designs

Slop is what you get when nobody decided anything. Maya Brennan's How to de-slopify your designs agrees: slop "strips out considered decisions." I don't think her fix works.

Her tips are mostly: pick a palette, a font, some icons, some photos. But swapping those only changes the default, it isn't a decision. And her stack is popular enough to become the next look everyone recognizes.

Typing "make it look less vibecoded" is "not super effective," she says. Of course not. The model doesn't know what you like, so you get the average again. Someone has to bring the taste, and she tells non-designers to "hire one."

Dieter Rams has a better test: nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Ask who chose each element, and why. Removing the tells isn't designing.