I've wanted to redo the look of this site for a while. The old version worked fine, but it didn't feel like me. What finally pushed me to do it is how easy it has become to get something genuinely nice, quickly. AI is really good at doing things now, so instead of putting it off until I had a free weekend, I just sat down and described what I wanted.
The result is what you're looking at: a comic-and-sketchbook look with notebook paper, tape, sticky-note dates and a few little details I'd never have bothered to hand-build.
Experimenting Is Cheap Now
The best part was how easy it was to try things. A lot of the design came from small, conversational nudges like "that's a bit busy", "make it more obvious" or "more like a pushpin, but angled". The tape on the note cards went to a pushpin, then corner tape, and then back to a single strip in the middle. Trying an idea used to cost enough effort that I'd only try a couple. Now I can try five, throw four away, and keep the one that feels right.
It Still Needs a Human
It wasn't all smooth. Along the way I hit a handful of real issues:
- Things that looked fine on desktop but fell apart on a phone
- Visual details that were technically correct but didn't feel right
- Navigation and naming that didn't make sense once I actually used it
- A messy tag list, caused by my own typos, that I'd never noticed
None of them were hard to sort out, but I only found them because I looked. AI will happily give you something that works, and it won't always tell you when something is off. Validating the result, trusting my own taste, and holding it to a quality bar I'm happy with is still my job.
Takeaway
AI made getting from "I wish the site looked better" to something I'm proud of take a fraction of the time. The speed is great, but the part that makes it feel like mine is still the checking and the taste.
Until next time, keep on building!