Every coach rule

The UX coach checks 16 rules. Twelve are measured: a real number against a published threshold, so they are never a matter of taste. They are on every plan, and they are the only ones that speak up on their own. Four are judgement rules: patterns rather than measurements, more likely to be wrong about your file, so they wait until you ask. They are on Pro.

You can see the same list in the coach panel under What I check.

Measured rules (Free and Pro)

Rule	What it checks	Threshold	One-click fix
Text contrast	Text too close in tone to what sits behind it.	4.5:1, or 3:1 for large text (24px, or about 18.7px bold).	Yes: the nearest colour that passes.
Tap targets	Buttons and links too small to hit on a phone.	44 × 44.	Yes: resizes to at least 44 each way.
Control edges	A button or field whose edge is too faint against the page.	3:1.	Only when it has a border: the border is deepened.
Text size	Sentences set too small.	Below 14px, for text of 25 characters or more.	Yes: 14px.
Line height	Lines packed too tight.	Below 1.4 × the size, for text up to 20px with 40 characters or more.	Yes: 1.5 × the size.
Line length	Lines running well past a comfortable measure.	More than 75 characters a line, for text of 90 characters or more.	No: it suggests a width.
Spacing scale	Auto layout gaps and padding off your scale.	Not a multiple of 4, and not one of your spacing variables.	Yes: the nearest step on your scale.
Typefaces	Too many families on one screen.	More than two.	No.
Image descriptions	Images with no alt text that are not marked decorative.	WCAG 1.1.1.	No: add a description in Accessibility.
Control names	Layers you can click with no text or label to read out.	WCAG 4.1.2.	No: add a name in Accessibility.
Single-key shortcuts	A key trigger on one letter, number or symbol, which speech input sets off by accident.	WCAG 2.1.4.	No: use an arrow, Enter or Escape, or add Ctrl, Alt or ⌘.
Page language	A file with no language, so exported pages cannot tell a screen reader how to pronounce them.	WCAG 3.1.1.	No: choose it in the file’s Settings, Site, Language.

Page language only appears when you ask for a review, never on its own.

Judgement rules (Pro)

Rule	What it looks for
Type scale	More than four text sizes on one screen.
Button hierarchy	Two buttons side by side in the same container that look equally important (same fill and height), so neither reads as the main one. Three or more alike, such as a tab bar, are treated as a set.
Empty states	A frame named like a list (list, feed, results, items, table, grid, inbox, history, notifications and similar) with nothing in it, so nothing is designed for when it is empty.
Affordance	Words that ask to be clicked (“Sign up”, “Continue”, “Learn more”, “Download” and so on) with no fill, border or underline to make them look clickable.

None of the judgement rules has a one-click fix. Show me a better version can still ask the agent to rework the screen.

How serious a finding is

A dot beside each finding says how serious it is: Worth stopping for or Worth knowing. A few rules decide by how far off you are:

• Text contrast is worth stopping for when the ratio is more than 1.5 below the threshold.
• Tap targets is worth stopping for when the smaller side is under 32.
• Line height is worth stopping for below 1.15 ×.
• Line length is worth stopping for past 100 characters.
• Image descriptions and Control names are always worth stopping for.

What the rules skip

• Text on a photo or a gradient, where contrast cannot be measured with confidence.
• Text that sizes itself to its content, for Line length.
• A Block’s Previous and Next buttons, for Button hierarchy: they are alike on purpose.

Catches

• Your spacing variables count as the scale. A gap of 10 bound to a spacing variable is on scale.
• Short text is not judged for size. Captions and labels under 25 characters can be smaller than 14px.
• Typefaces and Type scale count per screen. A screen is a top-level frame.
• Judgement rules can be wrong about your file. Mute any that do not help, from the finding.