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Why AI Sucks at Front End

nerdy.dev

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Re: Why AI Sucks at Front End

#161

Post by tyleo »

khasan222 wrote: post #151
0x3f wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to interpret comments like this because we all have different standards and use cases. So it would really help if you could link to it. Even in a roundabout way if you want to avoid the impression of self-promotion.

I built a few websites, most of them it wouldn’t be wise to place on here. But someone emailed me about this, so I’ll do my best to help I did build https://hartwork.life for a friend with a design from open ai (pre google stitch which is my current preferred tool) Here is the line from my Claude code to get something like this. Keep in mind I didnt use mcp for playwright with this particular implementation but it is…

I feel like 2 days to build this is a bit much given the simplicity. I think the point stands.

I will grant you that this is more tasteful than most of the AI sites I see. It’s a good looking little site but nothing here screams, “AI really accelerated this.”

Re: Why AI Sucks at Front End

#162

Post by NewsaHackO »

jeixjejdjwjx wrote: post #146
NewsaHackO wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely disagree. Making a average website is the goal of most businesses that are selling an actual product. His website looks modern and welcoming and does not distract or take away from the actual content. This exactly what most people should aim for. Some actual constructive criticism is some o the icons in the example log mood look weird on my phone, with really small emojis overlapping the face emoji

No one should aim for average, that’s an incredibly defeatist way of looking at it. Besides, design matters. I know HN is frequented mostly by people with very little interest in such topics, but design absolutely matters. And yes, while the author’s website is perfectly passable, it is by no means “good”. People pick up on that, they might not know they do, but they do. Design wouldn’t be an industry and a school by…

A lot of people don't make websites for a living. If they are a small business and have other things to worry about in terms of actual work, being able to prompt for a clean, professional website frees up their time and means they don't have to use additional funds to hire a developer.

Re: Why AI Sucks at Front End

#163

Post by grtteee »

NewsaHackO wrote: post #162
jeixjejdjwjx wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one should aim for average, that’s an incredibly defeatist way of looking at it. Besides, design matters. I know HN is frequented mostly by people with very little interest in such topics, but design absolutely matters. And yes, while the author’s website is perfectly passable, it is by no means “good”. People pick up on that, they might not know they do, but they do. Design wouldn’t be an industry and a school by…

A lot of people don't make websites for a living. If they are a small business and have other things to worry about in terms of actual work, being able to prompt for a clean, professional website frees up their time and means they don't have to use additional funds to hire a developer.

But you can use squarespace/shopify etc for that…

Re: Why AI Sucks at Front End

#164

Post by prettyblocks »

khasan222 wrote: post #36

Ngl I’m reading this article after having used ai to build a beautiful front end that is pixel perfect. Yes ai can’t see, it only understands numbers. So tell it to use image magick to compare the screenshot to the actual mockup, tell it to get less than 5% difference and don’t use more than 20% blur. Thank me later. I built a whole website in like 2 days with this technique. Everyone seems to have trouble telling ai…

> Yes ai can’t see, it only understands numbers.

I've also used AI to build frontends that I'm more than satisfied with, and I think it can "see" perfectly fine. The frontier models are multi-modal and pretty good at vision. You can hook up your coding harness to your browser which will take screenshots of your rendered frontend and modify the code accordingly.

Re: Why AI Sucks at Front End

#165

Post by khasan222 »

tyleo wrote: post #161
khasan222 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built a few websites, most of them it wouldn’t be wise to place on here. But someone emailed me about this, so I’ll do my best to help I did build https://hartwork.life for a friend with a design from open ai (pre google stitch which is my current preferred tool) Here is the line from my Claude code to get something like this. Keep in mind I didnt use mcp for playwright with this particular implementation but it is…

I feel like 2 days to build this is a bit much given the simplicity. I think the point stands. I will grant you that this is more tasteful than most of the AI sites I see. It’s a good looking little site but nothing here screams, “AI really accelerated this.”

Thank you. Yes took a bit but still way faster than by hand. There are other store pages that are also implemented. This 1 page took me like an hour lol.

Re: Why AI Sucks at Front End

#166

Post by the_gipsy »

squidbeak wrote: post #140
the_gipsy wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's the economy that is shifting and the reason developers are getting fired. This causes wage lowering. AI is the excuse that let's companies corporate-speak around the economy.

Work lost by freelancers and contractors to AI can't be brushed out of sight with a 'No' and an unrelated vague assertion that the economy is shifting.

You're equally handwaving and vague asserting AI replacement. It's super obvious that existing layoffs are absolutely not justified by actual AI replacements.

Re: Why AI Sucks at Front End

#167

Post by Escafati »

khasan222 wrote: post #165
tyleo wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like 2 days to build this is a bit much given the simplicity. I think the point stands. I will grant you that this is more tasteful than most of the AI sites I see. It’s a good looking little site but nothing here screams, “AI really accelerated this.”

Thank you. Yes took a bit but still way faster than by hand. There are other store pages that are also implemented. This 1 page took me like an hour lol.

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Re: Why AI Sucks at Front End

#168

Post by khasan222 »

enejej wrote: post #75
khasan222 wrote: post #36

Ngl I’m reading this article after having used ai to build a beautiful front end that is pixel perfect. Yes ai can’t see, it only understands numbers. So tell it to use image magick to compare the screenshot to the actual mockup, tell it to get less than 5% difference and don’t use more than 20% blur. Thank me later. I built a whole website in like 2 days with this technique. Everyone seems to have trouble telling ai…

What’s the point in saying you built something beautiful and not showing it? Share it. I used Claude earlier to test out its design capabilities and what I got as output was flat and tasteless.

Eh, for many reasons I am not posting it here. It is a passion project for something and would lead to problems if I post it here. That being said I was trying to share the technique.

The reason for the post is that even without the actual website one should be able to envision the technique and how it may or may not work. Also if you look above recently I added links to the Claude.md for another thing I was working on for a friend that also had to solve this problem.

Just want to give people the tools to use ai well from my own findings

Re: Why AI Sucks at Front End

#169

Post by ValentineC »

jeixjejdjwjx wrote: post #92
thejazzman wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://poolometer.com I built this frontend with Sonnet 4.5 last Fall and I’m about to “launch” it I used only prompts, but those prompts included ChatGPT’s research on Memphis design ;) Using codex for front end design is like asking the valedictorian mega nerd to paint your portrait. Gemini and Claude are both artists.

Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but no, you did not design a website just fine with AI. It’s not even just “good”. It’s average. Painfully average, to the point of it being easily mistaken for a scam. Very bad results—as expected from an AI. Nothing to brag about here.

[dead]

Re: Why AI Sucks at Front End

#170

Post by mock-possum »

feverzsj wrote: post #6

If you are really good at something, you'll find AI sucks at everything.

I’ve had the opposite experience.

At the things I’m good at, AI is a huge boon. At the things I’m bad at, AI has little to offer.

For me, for Frontend, AI is great, because I know exactly what to do, so it’s very easy to talk it into doing it for me. I know what the problem is, I know what the solution is, and I have the language to communicate both. All that’s left is the trivialities of the implementation, I’ve already done all the hard work in my head.

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