Design Arena

Design Arena is the world's first crowdsourced benchmark platform dedicated to evaluating AI-generated design quality through real human preference testing. Built by Y Combinator S25 company Arcada Labs, it uses head-to-head comparisons where users vote on anonymous AI outputs across categories like websites, UI components, images, video, audio, logos, and data visualizations. The platform applies a Bradley-Terry rating system (Elo-style scoring) to aggregate thousands of votes into transparent public leaderboards that reveal which AI models produce designs people actually prefer.

How Design Arena Works

Design Arena presents two AI-generated outputs side-by-side from identical prompts. Users vote on which design they prefer, and these votes feed into an Elo-based ranking system that updates in real time. Bot protection via captcha ensures only human preferences count toward the benchmark.

Design Arena Categories

The platform evaluates AI outputs across 13 design categories including website generation, UI components, image generation, video creation, audio synthesis, 3D design, game development, data visualization, logos, graphic design, slides, and text-to-speech.

Design Arena Model Coverage

Design Arena tracks 50+ LLM models, 12+ image models, 4+ video models, and 22+ audio models. It also benchmarks vibe-coding tools like Lovable, Bolt, v0, Firebase Studio, and Devin on identical prompts to reveal which produces the best visual results.

Design Arena Features

• Elo-Based Rankings - Uses the Bradley-Terry model to calculate win rates and Elo scores from pairwise comparisons, providing statistically robust rankings
• Micro Evals - Automated code evaluations that test agent-generated apps for specific technical criteria like Next.js routing, Tailwind implementation, and Vercel deployment
• Transparent Methodology - Publishes all system prompts, evaluation methods, and ranking formulas openly so users can verify rankings reflect genuine community preferences
• Private Enterprise Evaluations - Offers companies secure version-over-version testing to track model improvements and accelerate R&D cycles with human preference data

Getting Started with Design Arena

Visit the arena to vote on design matchups and explore leaderboards to discover which AI models excel at specific design tasks.