The Check Design feature automatically scans your email for common design mistakes — like missing links, missing alt text, oversized images, broken URLs, and accessibility issues — so you can catch and fix problems before your audience ever sees them. Running a design check before exporting or sending your email helps ensure your content is complete, accessible, and error-free.
Running a Design Check
To run a design check, locate the Check Design text button in the editor toolbar, to the right of the Actions menu.
Click Check Design to start the scan. The button text will change to Checking... while the scan is in progress. This may take several seconds depending on the number of images and links in your email.
Once the check is complete, a results window will appear over the editor.
Understanding Your Results
The results window displays a summary of everything the check found, organized by severity. The summary header at the top shows icon and count totals for each severity level:
- 🔴 Red circle icon — Warnings that Ascent360 recommends resolving prior to sending
- ⚠️ Yellow triangle icon — Suggestions for improvement
- ✅ Green checkmark icon — Checks that passed with no issues
Below the summary, results are grouped by check type. Click on any check category to expand it and see the specific items that need attention. Each item shows the content block type (such as image, button, or heading) and a label to help you identify it.
Items in locked or synced rows will display a badge indicating their status. These items will need to be unlocked or edited at the Synced Row level.
Note: Check Design warnings & suggestions are for information-only; they will not prevent you from sending your email. You may choose to ignore any number of warnings or suggestions populated in the Check report.
Navigating to an Issue
The results window is movable — click and drag the header bar to reposition it anywhere on screen so you can view your results and your email side by side.
To locate a specific issue in the editor, hover over any item in the results list. The row will highlight to indicate it is clickable. Click the row and the editor will automatically scroll to and highlight the content block that needs attention, opening it for editing.
Re-checking Your Email
After making fixes, you can verify your changes by clicking the Re-check button at the top of the results window. This will run the full check again using the current state of your email and refresh the results.
Types of Checks
Check Design scans for the following issues across your email:
Missing Alt Text
Identifies images, GIFs, stickers, icons, and social icons that are missing alt text. Alt text is important for accessibility — it allows screen readers to describe images to visually impaired recipients and displays as a fallback when images don't load.
Missing Link on Copy
Identifies buttons, social icons, and menu items that are missing a link. These elements are expected to be clickable, so a missing link means your recipients won't be able to take the intended action.
Missing Link on Images
Identifies images, GIFs, and icons that don't have a clickable link. While not every image needs a link, adding one can improve engagement.
Image Overage Weight
Identifies images that exceed the file size limit (700KB). Large images slow down email load times and can negatively impact the recipient experience, especially on mobile devices. The current limit is displayed alongside the actual file size for any flagged image.
Insufficient Color Contrast
Identifies text and background color combinations that don't meet WCAG 2.0 AA accessibility standards. Low contrast makes text difficult to read, particularly for recipients with visual impairments. Normal text requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1, and large text (24px or larger, or 19px bold) requires at least 3:1.
Unreachable Web Link
Identifies links in your email that may be broken or unreachable. This check scans links across all content block types — including buttons, images, headings, paragraphs, and more — and flags any URLs that don't return a valid response.
Note: Dynamic links that use merge tags (such as {{[unsubscribe_link]}} or {{[custom_url]}}) are automatically excluded from this check, since they resolve at send time and cannot be validated during the design phase.
Insufficient Font Size
Identifies text elements with a font size under 14px. Small text can be difficult to read, especially on mobile devices. Results will indicate whether the issue applies to the desktop view, mobile view, or both.
Severity Levels Explained
Each check result is assigned one of three severity levels:
Warnings are issues that are likely to cause usability problems for your recipients; Ascent360 recommends that these be resolved before sending. These include missing alt text, missing links on buttons and menus, oversized images, color contrast failures, and broken links.
Suggestions are recommended improvements that can enhance your email. These include adding links to images and increasing small font sizes.
Passed checks confirm that your email meets the criteria for that check with no issues found.
