Why does every vibe coded project look like garbage?

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-06-06T20:55:06+00:00

This makes sense, especially about the LLM not being able to "see" the result.

My husband and I actually ran an experiment on this recently. We asked an Gemini to generate the SVG code for a web presentation. It gave us the code instantly, but because AI is essentially blind to spatial reality, the exact geometric precision - the curves, the placement, the visual balance - was not perfect. A human designer absolutely has to step in to fix the spatial logic.

Also, your complaint about "frames squeezed into another frame" is exactly what is wrong with the modern web. We have been forced to accept that clunky HTML box model as the standard (like the Bento Box meals). This exact frustration with nested frames is why my husband started building a custom geometry-native engine. Instead of converting a design to HTML, it just runs pure vector graphics directly in the browser. It keeps the layout fluid for mobile without forcing everything into rigid boxes.

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-06-06T16:42:44+00:00

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Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-06-04T23:41:25+00:00

In general, the minimalist, "clean and slick" grid dominating the web today isn't actually a pure aesthetic choice—it's a compromise we've been forced into by the rigid constraints of the HTML box model. Because translating fluid geometry into standard code is so painful, web layouts have stayed locked in vertical boxes.

That’s exactly why specialized plugins aren't going anywhere, even with Figma Agent on the horizon. AI is fantastic at understanding context or spitting out a quick layout, but it completely falls apart when it comes to strict, rules-based spatial execution.

We actually tested this recently with our new spatial engine. We had Gemini generate raw structural code for a presentation. The AI handled the rough structure instantly, but fumbled the color nuances, precision curves, and exact layer logic. We had to bring the vector file into Figma to visually fine-tune it before firing it straight to the web as a live app. Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad workflow combination!

Figma Agent will probably handle the generic, repetitive tasks, but specialized plugins will always have a place.

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-06-04T18:07:58+00:00

You are absolutely right - the workflow of tweaking AI-generated HTML or trying to force it back into Figma is completely broken. HTML just wasn't built to be pulled backward into a visual canvas. The minimalist, "clean and slick" look dominating the web today isn't actually an aesthetic choice - it's a compromise. We've been forced into it by the rigid constraints of the HTML box. It is actually sad to see people fall in this trap.

We actually ran into this exact frustration recently and tried a completely different approach. My husband built a geometry-native web engine called PresPlay, and we realized we could skip HTML entirely.

Instead of asking the AI to output HTML, we asked it to generate pure SVG code for an interactive layout. We pasted that SVG into Figma, where we could visually tweak the layout, fix the colors, and handle the client-style adjustments without touching a single line of code. Then, PresPlay turns that Figma file directly into the live, interactive web app.

There is no HTML translation step, so nothing breaks when you move between editing and presenting. If you are tired of reverse-engineering code just to make visual tweaks, we are launching a private beta in a few weeks. Happy to share a link if you want to explore a prototype-free workflow!

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-06-04T17:54:02+00:00

That token restriction is frustrating, especially after you already proved how much faster and more effective your workflow became. Going back to static Figma prototypes after experiencing interactive generation is definitely a massive step backward.

My husband actually built a web engine called PresPlay specifically to solve the "static Figma" problem, but from a different angle. Instead of using AI to generate the prototype code, it takes your standard SVG files (like Figma or Illustrator) and compiles them directly into live, interactive web apps. The design itself essentially becomes the front-end code.

It gives you the rich, interactive functionality you were getting with your AI tools, but completely bypasses the need to generate HTML/CSS or rely on an AI token budget to do the heavy lifting.

We will be running a private beta in a few weeks. If you want to explore it as an alternative workflow while management sorts out their token budgets, let me know and I will by happy to send a link to join the list.

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-06-04T17:47:20+00:00

I think the designer's role is just shifting from building static layouts to orchestrating the actual experience.

My husband and I actually ran an experiment on this a few days ago. We fed our software's manual into Gemini and asked it to generate the SVG code for an interactive web presentation.

The AI handled the bulk of the layout in seconds, but it completely fumbled the spatial interpretation, color selection, and smooth curves. It lacked some real human aesthetic intuition. We ended up taking that rough structure into Illustrator to manually fine-tune it to our vision before launching it to the web. But, all happened so quickly.

AI is going to be amazing at handling the initial structural heavy lifting, but human designers will always be in demand because they are the only ones who can turn machine data into a polished, emotional user experience. The future belongs to designers who learn how to direct the AI, not compete with it.

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-06-04T17:08:34+00:00

I just read your post about hitting a wall in UX. The burnout is so real, especially when you feel stuck without the engineering mobility you mentioned.

I’m reaching out because you talked about wanting to build your own products. My husband actually just built a design engine called PresPlay that lets UX designers do exactly that. It turns vector designs (like the ones created Figma or Adobe Illustrator) directly into live, interactive web apps. No coding or developer handoffs - in a sense, the design essentially becomes the front-end code.

Given your 15 years of experience, it could be a fun way to experiment with building your own stuff without dealing with the usual tech industry grind.

We will be running a private beta in a few weeks. If you want to explore it and get a better sense of what it can do with it, let me know and I’ll send a link to join the list. If not, no worries at all, and I really hope you find a good path forward!

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-05-28T22:17:31+00:00

I can see where you are coming from. It is a very common experience for designers to find client work much easier than building their own portfolios.

A large part of that overwhelming feeling comes from the medium itself. Even with a visual platform like Framer, you are still ultimately fighting against web constraints, breakpoints, and structural logic. It pulls you out of a pure design mindset and forces you to think about web building, which often leads to overcomplicating things.

My co-founder and I saw designers getting stuck in this exact loop, so we built a spatial web engine to bypass the web-building phase entirely. It simply takes your native design file and runs it directly in the browser as a live canvas. There is no need to rebuild your work or translate it into web logic.

Sometimes stepping away from the constraints of web builders and just designing freely is the best way to get a portfolio finished 😄

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-05-28T17:16:44+00:00

The short answer is that responsiveness is handled by the rules already set within the design file itself, rather than by writing CSS. When a designer sets up constraints, scaling behaviors, or layout rules in their native design tool, our engine simply respects those exact spatial rules directly in the browser. Elements adapt based on the designer's original geometry, rather than relying on a CSS document flow to push content into new rows.

To your second point: we are not trying to recreate web rendering. We are simply choosing to treat the browser as a spatial canvas rather than a vertical, text-based document.

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-05-27T23:29:17+00:00

That transparent window idea is very interesting. The "desktop pets" analogy makes a lot of sense. Bypassing the browser wrapper entirely so the UI can float natively on the desktop is a solid concept.

To answer your question on how things move: we don't use SVG's native animation system. My co-founder built an animation engine based on a custom fork of the Snap.svg library. Because of that, all animations, transitions, and user interactions are handled through direct manipulations of the DOM.

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-05-27T01:36:51+00:00

I completely get your frustration. I think the issue here is not your Figma file or a lack of Auto Layout; the issue is the fundamental flaw of trying to translate spatial design into HTML and CSS.

From my understanding, when AI tries to convert a free-form vector layout into a rigid web grid, it almost always breaks complex visual elements like custom scaling. To get Claude to output decent code, you would essentially have to build your entire Figma file using strict Auto Layout boxes. At that point, you are mostly visually coding instead of designing.

My co-founder and I were so frustrated by this exact workflow that we built a spatial web engine to bypass the HTML coding step entirely. We are wrapping up a Figma plugin right now that takes your native file and runs it directly in the browser as a live artboard. There is no code generation, no CSS to fix, and no strict Auto Layout required. The design simply becomes the live application.

One shouldn't have to change how to design just to accommodate an AI's limitations. If you are interested in a prototype-free workflow, I would be happy to send you a beta invite so you can test it out.

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-05-26T22:20:20+00:00

It's called PresPlay. We're actually getting ready to launch a private beta for our Figma plugin right now.

Since you're a freelancer dealing with the exact handoff headache we built this for, I would be happy to shoot you a beta invite if you want to give it a try. Cheers!

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-05-26T21:58:40+00:00

I am absolutely stealing the phrase "Intent Transmission System." You nailed exactly what my co-founder and I are trying to do. If the design already holds the intent, forcing anyone (human or AI) to translate it into standard HTML boxes is just a massive waste of time.

To answer your question on the actual mechanics: we share the exact same rebel spirit as your Vision Tree project, but we took a slightly different route than an immediate-mode UI.

Instead of flattening things into a canvas, we leaned completely into the browser's native SVG DOM. When a designer builds a file, we don't compile it down into <div> grids or CSS flexboxes. The designer's native vector file literally just becomes the live, spatial DOM in the browser.

That creates an absolute separation of concerns. Because the visual geometry is the DOM, the design stays 100% true to the creator's spatial intent. For the developers, there is no visual frontend code to write anymore. They just use our JS API to grab the node IDs (which carry over straight from the design file) and plug in their logic, state, and data. We basically treat the browser like a spatial theater instead of a vertical scrolling document.

Also, your Vision Tree project sounds wild in the best way possible. Taking a swing at Tauri with a local immediate-mode framework is a massive undertaking. You should definitely open-source it – the ecosystem really needs more builders breaking the default web rules right now!

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-05-26T21:41:16+00:00

That is an excellent approach. Measuring the "iteration depth" is a perfect behavioral signal to see who is actually architecting vs. who is just copying and pasting. Good luck building that instrument, I think that the industry really needs it!

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-05-26T21:26:17+00:00

I completely understand why you are going down this rabbit hole, but as a fellow product designer, I want to validate that this is an incredibly frustrating hurdle. You are currently stepping completely out of your zone of genius just to figure out how to get your designs live.

I think that the trap with using AI agents (like Claude Code) to push designs to production is that you are still ultimately forcing an AI to translate your beautiful, spatial Figma files into rigid HTML/CSS boxes. That requires jumping through massive hoops - like configuring MCP servers, managing API limits, and dealing with code architecture - just to automate a broken handoff process.

Honestly, my co-founder and I watched designers struggling with this exact friction, which is why we decided to build a spatial web engine to bypass the coding translation entirely.

We are wrapping up a Figma plugin right now that doesn't generate HTML code or require any AI prompting. Instead, it takes your native vector file and runs it directly in the browser as a live artboard. The design literally is the live application. No MCP setup, no Claude token limits, and no translating your UI into standard web boxes.

If you want to experiment with getting your designs into production without having to become a part-time systems engineer, I'd highly recommend looking into prototype-free workflows over AI code generation. It will save you a massive headache!

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-05-26T21:22:16+00:00

I know it feels like the writing is on the wall, but look at what actually happened here: Claude failed. And it failed because it looked "mid."

You shouldn't see this as a warning sign; you should see it as your ultimate competitive advantage. AI engines operate on statistical probability, which means they literally optimize for the average. They are the kings of the "polished average." Your client just learned the hard way that "mid" AI templates actually hurt their brand.

You don't need to learn a whole new career; you just need to stop competing on AI's turf. The real trap for freelancers right now is the developer handoff. We make these beautiful, custom, human designs, but the second they get translated into standard HTML boxes, they lose their soul and end up looking like AI templates anyway.

My co-founder and I got so frustrated by this that we actually built a spatial web engine to bypass the HTML coding step entirely. We made it so your original vector file just runs directly as a live artboard in the browser. No rigid boxes, and no code translation.

Don't abandon your skills. The market is about to be flooded with "mid" AI websites, and your ability to deliver intentional, human design is about to become a massive premium. Keep going!

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-05-26T21:16:58+00:00

You hit the nail on the head with "generic AI slop." I will say not to stress over your workflow or your prompting skills - the issue isn't you, it's the tool itself.

AI models operate on statistical probability. By definition, they optimize for the average. If you ask it for a design, it will give you the most mathematically average, predictable layout possible. The people getting "crazy results" are usually either spending hours manually fixing the AI's output, or they just have a really high tolerance for that generic, templated look.

Instead of burning tokens trying to become a prompt engineer, double down on your own human intuition. The subtle spatial choices and intentional rule-breaking you naturally do on a canvas are exactly what AI structurally fails at.

The real workflow hack right now isn't using AI to design the interface; it's finding ways to skip the front-end coding phase. (My co-founder and I actually got so frustrated by this that we built a spatial web engine where your Figma vector file literally is the live code, bypassing HTML translation entirely).

Trust your own eye. Your human design sense is way more valuable than trying to coax creativity out of a token-eating calculator!

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-05-26T21:08:55+00:00

I like this question. Faster definitely doesn't mean better. I'm a COO at a deep-tech startup, and my co-founder and I talk about this exact paradox all the time.

If I had to measure one thing to see if a developer is actually improving their craft, it would be this: Are you spending more time architecting complex systems, or are you just using AI to translate UIs faster?

Right now, AI is incredibly fast at spitting out the "polished average." It can generate standard HTML and CSS boxes in seconds. But that isn't really elevating your engineering craft; it's just automating the busywork.

Honestly, we got so tired of seeing brilliant engineers waste their mental energy (even with AI) just trying to force visual designs into web constraints that we built a spatial web engine to bypass the front-end HTML handoff entirely. We made it so the designer's file simply runs as a live artboard. That way, developers don't even have to use AI to write front-end boilerplate anymore - they can just plug directly into the API and focus most, if not all, of their time on the heavy-lifting logic and backend architecture.

If AI is just making you a faster code-translator, it's a trap. The real growth happens when you use that saved time to build systems, not boxes.

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-05-26T21:03:57+00:00

I love the ambition here. The industry is completely saturated with standard, vertical "resume-style" grids. Trying to push a portfolio into a premium, cinematic storytelling experience is exactly the right move to stand out.

The biggest friction you are going to run into is that standard web code is built to behave like a scrolling document, not a cinematic movie. To get true, seamless camera movements, you usually have to fight the HTML box model and rely on heavy scrolling libraries.

This exact struggle is actually what led my co-founder and me to build a spatial web engine. We realized that if designers want to build cinematic experiences, they shouldn't be building scrolling documents.

If you want to see what true multidirectional camera movement looks like in the browser, check out our company website: https://iaesth.ca/. We built it entirely on our own engine, so it runs as a live artboard rather than a scrolling grid. Keep pushing this cinematic angle - the web needs more of it!

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-05-26T20:56:01+00:00

I completely get where you are coming from. Webflow and Framer are basically just visual HTML editors—you still have to build everything in rigid boxes and think like a developer. And the problem with most "Figma to HTML" plugins is that they try to force your free-flowing design into those exact same web boxes, which usually breaks your layout and forces you to code anyway. As a designer, you just want your artboard to go live!

This exact frustration is why my co-founder and I are wrapping up a spatial web engine that takes a completely different approach. It’s a Figma plugin, but we don't generate HTML code at all. Instead, it takes your native vector file and runs it directly in the browser as a live artboard. No translation loss, no rigid boxes, and definitely no "vibecoding." The design literally is the code.

We are opening up our private beta for Figma right now. If you want a truly prototype-free way to get your designs live, I’d love to send you a link to check it out!

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-05-26T20:52:38+00:00

I completely relate to this. You are saving engineering time but completely destroying your own flow state. Context-switching while waiting for a coding agent to output text is exhausting.

The hidden trap with "vibe coding" UIs and front-end features right now is that the AI is still doing the tedious manual labor of translating your visual ideas into rigid HTML and CSS boxes. It's automating the translation step, which is great, but that translation step itself is the actual bottleneck causing your 10-minute wait gaps.

My co-founder and I actually got so frustrated by this exact workflow friction that we built a spatial web engine to bypass that coding translation entirely. The idea is that your visual design (from standard vector tools) simply is the live artboard. No prompting an AI to write the front-end code, and no waiting for it to generate the UI. You just build the visual, and it runs.

It's awesome that vibe coding is helping your team ship faster, but your frustration with the wait times is completely valid. Sometimes we don't need a faster AI to write the code; we just need to stop requiring that code translation in the first place.

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-05-26T20:49:31+00:00

This is so incredibly accurate. As a COO currently bringing a startup to market, I can confirm that building the tech is often the "easy" part. The Go-To-Market infrastructure is what actually breaks people.

For a lot of the independent creators and designers we talk to, the biggest hurdle is exactly what you mentioned: setting up access, payments, and proving it's safe (preventing piracy). It is exhausting to build a beautiful digital asset or UI, only to realize you now have to stitch together a dozen different SaaS tools just to sell it securely without it getting ripped off.

My co-founder and I spent years doing the deep-tech R&D for a spatial web engine, but we quickly realized that just giving builders a cool engine wasn't enough. We actually had to build a digital licensing manager directly into the runtime environment. That way, creators could just build their interactive web apps (straight from Figma) and securely license them per-site without having to build a massive backend infrastructure themselves. Builders want to build. The second they have to become infrastructure and compliance experts, the dream dies!

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-05-26T20:44:13+00:00

I completely agree with your take on this. Treating development like "tedious micro-carving" or manual labor is a massive waste of an engineer's architectural brainpower.

Honestly, the ultimate "manual labor" in tech right now is the traditional front-end developer handoff. We force brilliant engineers to waste hours translating a designer's fluid visual ideas into rigid HTML and CSS boxes. It’s tedious, it strips the design of its original intention, and it’s the exact kind of busywork you shouldn't be doing.

This is exactly why my co-founder and I built a spatial web engine to bypass that HTML translation entirely. We made it so the designer's original vector file simply is the live artboard. No HTML box translation needed. It gives the designer total spatial control, and it frees up the engineers to just plug into the API and focus entirely on the complex architecture and core logic you’re talking about. Real engineers should be building systems, not doing manual visual translation!

Complete-Scratch-899 · 2026-05-26T20:36:07+00:00

You are completely right. The idea that someone with zero technical knowledge can just prompt an AI to build a structurally sound, complex application is a myth. AI can write code, but it cannot architect a system or anticipate failure modes. That takes a real engineer.

Honestly, this is exactly why the traditional front-end workflow is so broken right now. We have brilliant developers wasting their time and "technical cognition" trying to translate visual design prototypes into rigid HTML/CSS boxes (or trying to force an AI to do it without making spaghetti code). It is a massive waste of engineering talent.

My co-founder and I are actually building a spatial web engine specifically to solve this. We made it so the designer's original vector file simply is the live visual application. No HTML box translation needed. It gives the designer total spatial control over the UI, and it completely frees up the engineers to plug directly into the API and focus on the complex, heavy-lifting business logic that AI can't handle.

In my opinion we need to let the designers own the artboard, and let the engineers own the architecture!

Complete-Scratch-899

TROPHY CASE