This isn’t going to replace Figma. It’s going to replace the people who use Figma. My 76yo Dad just used Claude Design to make a simple commercial tenancy/lease management CRUD app. We handed what he built to Claude Code to implement within my existing business tech stack. It perfectly followed my coding & testing playbooks (basically a multi-file CLAUDE.md with prompt & command hooks to evaluate conformance). It wor…
Claude Design
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Re: Claude Design
#802Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed, many if not most bugs are intellectually dull. They're just lodged within a layered morass of cruft and require a lot of effort to unearth. It is rarely intellectually stimulating, and when it is as a matter of methodology, it is often uninteresting as a matter of acquired knowledge. The real fun of programming is when it becomes a vector for modeling something, communicating that model to others, and talking…
I agree with your definition of programming (and I’ve been saying the same thing here), but > It's annoying when a distracting and unessential detail derails this conversation there is no such details. The model (the program) and the simulation (the process) are intrinsically linked as the latter is what gives the former its semantic. The simulation apparatus may be noisy (when it’s own model blends into our own), bu…
Qua formal system, yes, but this is a pedantic point as the aim - the what - of a system is more important than the how. This distinction makes the distinction between domain-relevant features and implementation details more conspicuous. If I wish to predict the relative positions of the objects of our solar system, then in relation to that end and that domain concern, it matters not whether the underlying model assumes a geocentric or heliocentric stance in its model (that tacitly is the deeper value of Copernicus's work; he didn't vindicate heliocentrism, he showed that a heliocentric model is just as explanatory and preserves appearances equally well, and I would say that this mathematical and even philosophical stance toward scientific modeling is the real Copernican revolution, not all the later pamphleteer mythology).
Of course, in relation to other ends and contexts, what were implementation details in one case become the domain in the other. If you are, say, aiming for model simplicity, then you might prefer heliocentrism over geocentrism with all its baroque explanatory or predictive devices.
The underlying implementation is, from a design point-of-view, virtually within the composite. The implementation model is not of equal rank and importance as the domain model, even if the former constrains the latter. (It's also why we talk about rabbit-holing; we can get distracted from our domain-specific aim, but distraction presupposes a distinction between domain-specific aim and something that isn't.) When woodworking, we aren't talking about quantum mechanical phenomena in the wood, because while you cannot separate the wood from the quantum mechanical phenomena as a factual matter - distinction is not separation - the quantum is virtual, not actual with respect to the wood, and it is irrelevant within the domain concerning the woodworker.
So, if there is a bug in a library, that is, in some sense, a distraction from our domain. LLMs can help keep us on task, because our abstractions don't care how they're implemented as long as they work and work the way we want. This can actually encourage clearer thinking. Category mistakes occur in part because of a failure to maintain clear domain distinctions.
> That’s not a good comparison. Type checking [...]
It reduces cognitive load vis-a-vis understanding code. When I want to understand a function in a dynamic language, I often have to drill down into composing functions, or look at callers, e.g., in test cases to build up a bunch of constraints in my mind about what the domain and codomain is. (This can become increasingly difficult when the dynamic language has some form of generics, because if you care about the concrete type/class in some case, you need even more information.)
This cognitive load distracts us from the domain. The domain is effectively blurred without types. Usually, modeling something using types first actually liberates us, because it encourages clearer thinking upfront about the what instead of jumping right into how. (I don't pretend that types never increase certain kinds of burdens, at least in the short term, but I am talking about a specific affordance. In any case, LLMs play very nicely with statically-typed languages, and so this actually reduces one of the argued benefits of dynamic languages as ostensibly better at prototyping.)
> As long as you can pattern match to get a solution [...]
Indeed, and that's the point. LLMs work so well precisely, because our abstractions suck. We have lot of boilerplate and repetitive plumbing that is time-consuming and tedious and pulls us away from the domain. Years of programming research and programming practice has not resolved this problem, which suggests that such abstractions are either impractical or unattainable. (The problem is related to the philosophical question whether you can formalize all of reality, which you cannot, and certainly not under one formal system.)
I don't claim that LLMs don't have drawbacks or tradeoffs, or require new methodologies to operate. My stance is a moderate one.
Re: Claude Design
#803It really feels like Anthropic's product area is extremely overextended at this point. If they want to extend themselves horizontally in an unlimited fashion, they will need unlimited focus, and agents can't supply that. Things will fall through the cracks. Why should I believe that Anthropic will care about this product in 2, 3 years? Whereas I firmly believe that Figma will care greatly about its product in that ti…
Re: Claude Design
#804This isn’t going to replace Figma. It’s going to replace the people who use Figma. My 76yo Dad just used Claude Design to make a simple commercial tenancy/lease management CRUD app. We handed what he built to Claude Code to implement within my existing business tech stack. It perfectly followed my coding & testing playbooks (basically a multi-file CLAUDE.md with prompt & command hooks to evaluate conformance). It wor…
simple question, I didn't found out that tiny point in the claude design UI: how do you "hand over" to claude code exactly? just created my design system and would like to drop into my CC managed repo so CC can flesh out all the react components to the design system. only a folder with files like SKILL.md so far that I spotted ort some JSX stuff. wonder if there is some blessed way instead
I’ve been trying to find a good way to let my Dad keep tweaking the new version but haven’t so far. For now he continues to work (using CD) on the jsx prototype. I can do another export later and CC could use git diff to see what changed and realise those same changes in the “real” version. But there has to be a better way.
Re: Claude Design
#805I reckon something like this has only been possible to develop because of how homogenous the internet has become in terms of design ever since the glass effect and drop-shadows took over in Web 2.0 and Twitter Bootstrap entered the scene. You'll get a competent UI with little effort but nothing truly unique or mind-blowing. Impressive technology, but that old skool artisanal weirdness of yore only becomes more valuab…
If you are an UI designer and want to create art then fine do that in your spare time. But at work be a professional and make the UI predictable and functional above all else.
Re: Claude Design
#806Earlier quoted context omitted.
You didn‘t talk to the hotel and asked why their coffee was so bad?
I'm guessing if they see McDonalds coffee as "okay and drinkable", this might be a different problem than the way the hotel makes the coffee. Or maybe the McDonalds we have here in Spain is just much more terrible than in the US, but I'll take random bar/pub coffee or even machine coffee over what they serve at McDonalds.
And yes: I talked to them.
Re: Claude Design
#807Earlier quoted context omitted.
The folks at Wall Street do not understand this does not replace Figma. Figma is targeted towards designers who create thoughtful design systems and cohesive UIs and who don't code, while this is targeted towards vibe coders who can't design. Two different circles that intersect to some level. But like you said, if anthropic adds the tools in Figma, only then they can can take customers from Figma IMO.
I think the target market for this is small businesses wanting to throw together quick concepts without needing to hire a contractor necessarily. This smells more like Squarespace and what they did for brochure websites / portfolios than anything else, but perhaps more general purpose.
Re: Claude Design
#808Earlier quoted context omitted.
simple question, I didn't found out that tiny point in the claude design UI: how do you "hand over" to claude code exactly? just created my design system and would like to drop into my CC managed repo so CC can flesh out all the react components to the design system. only a folder with files like SKILL.md so far that I spotted ort some JSX stuff. wonder if there is some blessed way instead
For us, Claude Design wrote one html file and a bunch of jsx files. What it built was quite functional. We used the “export” button to download the project as a zip file and I placed the contents into a directory in my monorepo. Then I wrote an about 5 paragraph prompt for Claude Code, sent it with bypass permissions (CC is running as a different, non-root user with no LAN network access), and went to bed. The next d…
Re: Claude Design
#809This isn’t going to replace Figma. It’s going to replace the people who use Figma. My 76yo Dad just used Claude Design to make a simple commercial tenancy/lease management CRUD app. We handed what he built to Claude Code to implement within my existing business tech stack. It perfectly followed my coding & testing playbooks (basically a multi-file CLAUDE.md with prompt & command hooks to evaluate conformance). It wor…
This is a success story I've been hearing more recently. Restaurants, contractors, plumbing, 1 person startups... I'm wondering if this is because the barrier to entry is now lower - or if these tools are actually moving work away from small software teams or individual devs.
IMO this is the crux of the "AI Eating SWE" scenario (along with other knowledge work...) I'm sure it's a little bit of both. If this was something you were going to pay a designer and a developer for, it changes the outlook.
From my perspective, it feels more likely that with cheaper software we'll see a rush of people building their own, but once it gets sufficiently complex it then needs to be maintained, or improved, and it becomes more work than the initial weekend POC.
Re: Claude Design
#810Earlier quoted context omitted.
Feeling some heat != in trouble. Just that the pressure cooker is turning to a higher temp. But, I'll gladly admit that I am bias: I'm tired of seeing blatant astroturfing by a company whose main marketing tactic is to play on societal fear, while simultaneously employing safety theatre to look like the "good guys". So take my opinion with a grain of salt :)
It could also be that this is an exciting new, fast changing technology that happens to directly overlap and significantly impact the core audience of the site. I don’t think any form of maliciousness or secret astroturfing is required at all. This stuff has changed a ton of what it means to exist in this whole “tech space”. The entire software development lifecycle got put into a stick blender and is in the process…
Of course the articles are going to get to the top. It's all anyone is thinking about, and has been for the last few years. I keep wondering if we're going to reach some sort of inflection point where the hype starts to die down, but then another "tool" is released and everyone is convinced that this is the one that will take the jobs. It's a bit tiring, but this is the brave new world.