Allaboutcookies Brand Design System Deep-Dive

1. Brand Overview

Allaboutcookies.org is a consumer-facing site with a single mission: make sense of cookies, privacy policies, and internet tracking for the everyday user. The vibe is straightforward and educational. They’re not here to dazzle with flashy gradients or micro-interactions — the priority is clarity, trust, and digestibility.

The design philosophy leans toward “utility first.” There’s an emphasis on content hierarchy, legibility, and a lack of visual clutter. This makes sense for a brand dealing with privacy — over-designed interfaces can feel manipulative, while clean layouts suggest transparency.

This is a brand for people who want answers fast. It’s built for readers who land from search queries, skim headlines, and dive into sections that matter to them. The design supports scannability over deep immersive storytelling.

What surprised me: there’s almost no visible “brand system” in the extracted data. The JSON shows no defined color palette, no typography styles, no shadows, no breakpoints. That’s rare. It means the site is probably running on default browser styles or a very minimal, hardcoded CSS, rather than a formal design token library. This could be intentional — less tech overhead, faster page loads — but it also means consistency relies on developer discipline instead of a centralized design system.

If you’re coming here expecting bold brand colors, you won’t find them. That’s a conscious choice. The experience is almost “unstyled” in the system sense, but visually it still communicates clarity and reliability through restraint.

2. Color System

We have no extracted colors from the site’s CSS. That’s telling. It suggests either:

1. Colors are applied inline or via a theme file that wasn’t captured in the dataset.
2. The site leans heavily on browser defaults (black text, white background, blue links).

2.1 Primary Colors

No primary hex value is defined. If the site does have a "brand color," it wasn’t detected in the extraction. Most likely, the primary action color is the default link blue (#0000EE in standard browsers) or a simple CSS override.

Without a defined primary brand color, the psychological read is: "content is the star." Color isn't being used to lure clicks — the trust signal is in the typography and layout instead.

2.2 Complete Palette

Since no colors were extracted, the palette table is empty:

That’s not a mistake. It’s reality: no CSS variables, no palette tokens.

2.3 Color Relationships

Without defined colors, there’s no formal system for contrast or accessibility. However, default browser styles are generally high contrast (black text on white background) and meet WCAG AA easily.

2.4 Usage Guide

If you’re designing for this brand, you need to define your own palette from scratch or stick to default HTML colors. The safest approach is:

• Black or very dark gray for text.
• White backgrounds.
• Blue for links (either default or a chosen accessible shade).
• Avoid introducing multiple accent colors — it would clash with the minimal visual language.

3. Typography

3.1 Font Families

No fonts were extracted. This likely means the site is using system fonts (e.g., font-family: sans-serif;), which cascade to platform defaults like Arial on Windows, Helvetica on macOS.

System fonts fit the brand — they’re fast to load, familiar, and trustworthy.

3.2 Type Scale

No formal type scale was found. Without CSS definitions, headings and body text probably rely on browser defaults:

3.3 Hierarchy

Even in a minimal system, typography hierarchy matters. Browser defaults give you:

• <h1> ~ 2em bold
• <h2> ~ 1.5em bold
• <p> ~ 1em normal

This hierarchy is simple and accessible, but designers should avoid overriding sizes arbitrarily without creating a scale.

4. Spacing & Layout

4.1 Spacing Scale

No spacing values were extracted. That means spacing is probably defined ad hoc in CSS, or defaults from user agent styles.

Scale type is marked as custom in the data, but with no commonValues. This is essentially a “freeform” layout — spacing decisions are made per element.

4.2 Layout

No breakpoints are defined in the extracted data. If the site is responsive (and it likely is), the implementation is not tokenized — it’s probably simple media queries in the CSS without naming conventions.

5. Visual Elements

• Border radius: None detected. This often means square corners everywhere — no rounded buttons or cards.
• Shadows: None detected. Likely a flat design.
• Borders: No defined border styles in the data.

This is as minimal as it gets — no visual depth, no soft corners, just content.

6. Components

Here’s the key: no buttons, inputs, or links have defined styles in the extracted data. The site likely relies on default HTML elements.

6.1 Buttons

No variants are defined. Default HTML buttons are rectangular, with system styles.

6.2 Links

Default link styling — blue text with underline, turning purple after visit — is likely in play.

6.3 Forms

Inputs are probably default browser styles, with no custom borders, padding, or focus states.

6.4 Cards

No card components were detected.

7. Design Tokens

Since no tokens were extracted, the CSS custom properties file is empty:

/* Colors */
/* None */

/* Typography */
/* None */

/* Spacing */
/* None */

/* Radius */
/* None */

/* Shadows */
/* None */

8. AI Coding Assistant Prompt

Even though we have no extracted values, we can define the “spec” based on actual absence — which is useful for building in the same minimal style.

# Allaboutcookies Design System Specification

This design system is inspired by Allaboutcookies.org's production site. All values here match the extracted data — the absence of colors, typography tokens, and components is intentional. Use this specification to replicate the minimal, browser-default-driven visual language.

## Colors
- None defined — use default HTML colors
- Text: browser default (usually black on white)
- Links: browser default blue
- Background: white

### Color Rules
- Do not introduce extra brand colors
- Maintain high contrast for accessibility
- Use blue only for hyperlinks

## Typography
- Font: system sans-serif stack
- Headings: browser default sizes
- Body: browser default size

## Spacing
- No defined scale — use browser defaults or 1em-based spacing

## Border Radius
- none: 0 — square corners everywhere

## Shadows
Flat design — no shadows. Use borders if needed.

## Components

### Primary Button
```css
button {
  font-family: inherit;
  font-size: inherit;
  padding: 0.5em 1em;
  border: 1px solid #ccc;
  border-radius: 0;
  background: #f0f0f0;
}
button:hover { background: #e0e0e0; }
button:focus { outline: 2px solid #000; }
button:disabled { opacity: 0.5; cursor: not-allowed; }
```

### Link
```css
a {
  color: blue;
  text-decoration: underline;
}
a:hover { text-decoration: none; }
```

### Input Field
```css
input {
  border: 1px solid #ccc;
  padding: 0.5em;
  border-radius: 0;
}
input:focus { border-color: #000; outline: none; }
```

## Layout
- Use fluid width containers
- Centered content with max-width ~ 800px for readability

## DO
- Use default colors and fonts
- Keep corners square
- Maintain simple layouts
- Ensure text contrast is high
- Use underline for links

## DON'T
- Add unnecessary colors
- Introduce rounded corners
- Add shadows
- Override system fonts

9. Summary

TL;DR — Allaboutcookies.org is the definition of minimal. No colors, no fonts, no shadows in the extracted system. It’s pure content-first design, leaning on browser defaults for speed and trust.

Brand Keywords:

• content-first
• browser-default
• privacy-trust
• flat-minimal
• utility-driven