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Spent an hour on my Contra Discovery Score today. 59 to 74. Top 35% to top 25%.
Almost all of it came from one thing I'd been ignoring: five of my case studies had no description. Title and an image, nothing else. Contra was flagging every one of them under "Case studies quality", a HIGH IMPACT factor, and I'd simply never scrolled far enough down the page to read it.
Wrote five descriptions. Profile quality went 76% to 100%. Score moved 15 points.
The part worth stealing: that page tells you exactly what it wants, including the next threshold for every single factor. Mine says likes boost at 10 (I'm on 7), expert badges boost at 1 (I have 0), verified projects boost at 1. None of those need a client. They're just sitting there.
I'd assumed the score was a black box and left it alone for months. It's a checklist with the answers printed on it.
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Excited to share my latest case study for Graffeo! ☕
A big thank you to Bethany Ren and the Graffeo team for the collaboration. It was a pleasure working together.
The checkout said €171.
The final payable total was €218.
That €47 gap wasn’t a calculation error. It was interface design.
Honest Mode is a concept for a browser-side decision layer that helps people see how an interface is shaping their choices before they complete a purchase.
In this fictional airline checkout, the user wants one economy flight with cabin baggage only, no insurance, and no paid seat. Yet the original experience preselects €42 in optional extras, delays €47 in mandatory charges until the final step, introduces unverified urgency, and gives accepting extras far more visual weight than declining them.
Honest Mode first lets the user experience the problem.
Then it scans the interface, identifies five manipulative patterns, connects each finding to visible evidence, separates measurable financial cost from possible behavioral influence, and explains what changed.
But detection is only half of the product.
Honest Mode rebuilds the same booking around the user’s stated intent. Mandatory charges are shown immediately, optional extras are presented transparently, accept and decline receive equal visual weight, cancellation terms are clarified, and every explicit decision is recorded in an Honesty Receipt.
Original payable default: €218
Honest total: €176
Optional defaults removed: €42
Mandatory charges revealed late: €47
The result is not simply a cheaper checkout. It is a decision the user can understand, verify, and confidently own.
Honest Mode is a six-screen high-fidelity prototype built in Flowstep, covering:
01 — Intent capture
02 — Manipulative checkout
03 — Diagnostic scan
04 — Evidence-based X-Ray
05 — Transparent rebuild
06 — Honesty Receipt
The prototype includes connected navigation, selectable findings, dynamic pricing states, explicit consent, and an end-to-end interactive walkthrough.
Public Flowstep file:
https://app.flowstep.ai/file?activeFileId=21d203bd-9dc9-41b0-b3b7-f04a1a603fb3
Built with Flowstep, Flowstep MCP, ChatGPT, and Codex.
Honest Mode is built around one belief:
Interface design should not only optimize conversion.
It should protect the quality of the decision.
Social post:
https://x.com/hmcrafted/status/2083442151824740505
The €171 to €218 reveal is such a strong way to frame the problem. I really like that Honest Mode doesn’t just flag dark patterns, but rebuilds the same flow around the user’s actual intent. The Honesty Receipt is a great ending too it makes the decision feel clear and accountable. Good luck
