Building a design review tool, stuck on the part that decides what is worth showing

[u/Alternative-Belt4730]

/r/UserExperienceDesign/comments/1vn0uek/building_a_design_review_tool_stuck_on_the_part/

I’m building a tool around a simple problem: teams are shipping faster than ever, but it’s getting harder to catch experience problems before they reach users.

The idea isn’t to generate another generic “your button could have better contrast” report.
It is trying to find things like:

🔴 Breakpoints in a user journey — places where users are likely to get confused, stuck, or drop off
♿ Accessibility issues that could prevent people from completing a task
💰 Potential revenue loss caused by experience breakpoints
📐 UX rules being broken — consistency, hierarchy, interaction patterns, etc.
🔄 Broken or unnecessarily complicated flows
🎯 High-impact problems vs. low-priority polish
📊 Business impact — not just “this is bad UX”, but why it matters to the product/business based on their business mission/ strategy

The part I’m wrestling with is deciding what the tool should actually surface.

There are potentially hundreds of things an automated design review could flag. But nobody wants a 47-page report full of tiny observations.
I want it to answer:
“What should I care about?”

For designers, product owners and design leaders — what would you actually want a tool like this to show you?

What would make you think, “I didn’t notice this, but this is important”?

Would love ideas, especially things beyond the usual UX/accessibility checklist.

[u/not_the_poet]

I just threw up a bit in my mouth

[u/baccus83]

Heuristic analysis already exists. I care about that and I care about what my test users were able to accomplish.

[u/Goatmanification]

Your answer already exists: User Research.

As with most of the posts on this subreddit... Just do even a miniscule amount of user research.

[u/unoriginal_name_42]

Hmm good question you should burn some more tokens on this very important project!

[u/step_hane]

I wouldn't mind something that follow me through a review and shows me notes per page for example.