Fix what is generic, one change at a time

The first draft is on screen. It is mostly yours and partly average. This lesson is the method for the partly-average part, and it is the method you will use for the rest of the site’s life: name the section, say what you see, say what you want, say what not to touch, say how you will check. One message, one change, look, next.

The swap test

Cover the business name with your thumb and scroll. Every section where you think "this could be anyone" is a section to fix. Usually it is one of three things: the layout is a template (cards), the copy is filler (the builder rewrote yours), or a section exists that you never asked for. Fix content before decoration: a "Why choose us" grid does not need better shadows, it needs deleting.

The change request

CHANGE REQUEST
Page: [Home]
Section: [section 4, services overview]
What I see now: [three cards with icons in circles and a shadow, all the same height, centred text]
What I want instead: [three columns of plain text with an h3, one paragraph and a text link, a 1px muted rule above the row, left-aligned, no icons, no borders, no shadow]
Do not touch: [the header, the hero, the copy, the colours, the fonts, anything on other pages]
How I will check: [at 1280 the row has no boxes and no icons; at 390 the three columns stack with 40px between; the three links still go to /services]
Only make this change. Then tell me what files you changed and anything else you had to touch.

Twelve tells, twelve fixes

✗ A row of three identical cards with an icon above each

Send: "Section [n]: replace the three cards with three plain text columns, h3 plus one paragraph plus a text link, a single 1px rule above the row, no icons, no borders, no shadows. Keep the copy."

✗ Purple, a gradient, or a glow somewhere

Send: "Remove every gradient and glow in the project. Backgrounds are flat [background hex] or [surface hex] only. Check the buttons, the hero and the footer, then confirm no gradient class or style remains anywhere."

✗ A headline that could be anyone’s ("Elevate your space")

This is a copy problem, not a layout problem. Fix the COPY DOC first, then send: "Replace the h1 with exactly: [new line]. Change nothing else."

✗ Stock-looking photos or generated placeholders

Send: "Delete every image I did not upload. Where an image is missing, show a flat surface-colour rectangle at the stated size with the filename in the corner." Then upload your own files (Lesson 8).

✗ Everything centred

Send: "Left-align all body copy and all section headings except the closing call band. Limit paragraphs to 65 characters per line. Keep the grid."

✗ A "Why choose us" or FAQ or "Trusted by" section that you never asked for

Send: "Remove section [n] completely. Do not replace it with anything. Close the gap so the spacing between the neighbouring sections is 128px."

✗ Same layout for every section

Send: "Sections [3] and [4] use the same two-column layout. Change section [4] to [a full-width heading with the content in the right eight columns]. Keep the copy and the tokens."

✗ A hero taller than the screen, or text on top of a photo

Send: "Hero: put the image below the headline, not behind it. The headline and sentence sit on the page background. The section fits within one screen at 1280 by 800."

✗ Wrong fonts (Inter crept in)

Send: "Only Fraunces and Manrope may be used. Search the whole project for any other font-family, including in the token file and the HTML head, and remove it."

✗ Animation everywhere on scroll

Send: "Remove every scroll-triggered animation. Keep only a 250 ms fade on the hero at load and a 150 ms colour transition on links and buttons. Respect prefers-reduced-motion."

✗ Rounded cards with big soft shadows

Send: "Set every radius to the token value [2px] and remove all shadows except the header shadow. No element may have its own shadow."

✗ Icons or emoji appearing in lists

Send: "Remove all icons and emoji. Lists use numbers in the small label style or a plain 1px rule between items."

Pointing at things

The preview toolbar has a Select elements tool (press S): click it, click the thing on the page, and your message is about that element only. Use it for spacing, a wrong crop, a button that is the wrong colour. It is more precise than describing "the third box on the left" and it keeps the change small. For a wording fix, the Text tool (T) edits inline and is free up to a hundred edits a day. Draw (D) lets you circle a spot when words fail. For anything structural, write the change request.

The rhythm

1. One change

   Send the request.

2. Look at the whole page

   Not just the section. Check the header, the hero and the phone width after every change, because shared styles can move.

3. Good? Next. Bad? Revert

   Open History, press Revert on the version before the change, and write a smaller request. Never send a second fix on top of a broken one; that is how a site becomes a pile of patches.

4. Keep a log

   Three columns: what I saw, what I sent, what happened. Two minutes a change. It is the only way to know which decision helped when something looks better.

Generic is not a style. It is the absence of one. Every fix here is just a decision that was missing.N.V.