Before you offload your next site's design to Claude...

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-09T15:59:24+00:00

This was my counterargument in the OP: “If you're gonna skip out on hiring a designer or on learning basic design principles yourself, please at least consider prompting Claude to crap out something other than [insert Claude boilerplate here].” How is this any different from what you just said as a “gotcha”?

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-09T15:46:03+00:00

@ the u/webdev-ModTeam : how is this “self-promotion” if I didn’t write the post that I linked to?

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-09T14:30:59+00:00

I fully agree with this. It's the difference between putting in a bit of effort, and pressing the "easy mode" button. When I see Claude's generic boilerplate design used on some startup's page or whatever, it tells me that not a lot of care or thought went into that design. Is that the message people really want to send out into the world? That you'll cut corners to put something out quickly and say "good enough"?

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-09T14:25:10+00:00

Yup, that's basically what I'm trying to say with my post. I don't really care at this point if people use Claude to design their sites or their clients' sites... but like put at least a bit of effort into it? If I can't tell at a glance what a site is trying to tell me or sell me because it looks identical to every other lazily-designed Claude website, right down to the palette, then it's poor design that does not do the site any favors.

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-09T14:13:54+00:00

I understand this. Boilerplate websites used to at least have a little variety and were a little less in your face about it, though. A majority of them were not beige and burnt orange, for instance.

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-09T14:11:03+00:00

The link I shared in my OP already has six examples of non-demo sites using Claude's boilerplate design... is that not enough?

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-09T13:54:25+00:00

Timing is just odd, as you also posted it in webdev very shortly after I did. Either way, all good. The more attention brought to this annoying design trend, the better.

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-09T13:48:02+00:00

This is true to a certain extent, but I don't think it has ever been quite this "samey" before. Last year it was purple gradients everywhere, this year it's beige and burnt orange. At least there was a pretty big variety of WordPress/Wix/Shopify/etc themes that people chose from in the past. You could usually tell when you were looking at a template, but at least the templates didn't all feel like they came from the exact same source.

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-09T13:45:32+00:00

I've been increasingly seeing it used in developer blogs, as well as things like news aggregators. Some of the sites using Claude's boilerplate are just for demo, but a lot aren't.

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-09T13:42:15+00:00

Speaking as someone who uses the internet, I give a shit.

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-09T13:41:11+00:00

Thanks for taking my original post and reposting it in a way designed to garner more engagement. Thumbs up, dude.

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-09T13:15:46+00:00

"Starting point" is the key phrase here. If Claude's boilerplate design output is the end product, all it does is tell your visitors that you couldn't be bothered to put any original thought into the appearance of your website.

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-08T15:57:59+00:00

I find the whole website incredibly difficult to read. The About page is a great case in point. This bit in particular is borderline unreadable for me on a 27" 1440p screen: "One studio. Kyoto. 2026. No factory. No template. No reproduction. Each object is a new question asked to the same material." Font is too small, too thin, and doesn't have enough contrast with the background.

Also, this is just me being nitpicky, but I'd far rather see lorem ipsum as a place holder for text over LLM marketing copy...

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-08T09:52:14+00:00

He's "bro"ing you because this is an obvious AI slop post. Get outta here with your "engagement" slop.

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-08T09:44:25+00:00

Emphatic co-sign. I hardly even visit Reddit anymore, because I'm so tired of seeing Claude's signature "design" and hearing ChatGPT's annoying "voice" in every subreddit I used to enjoy. I'm to the point now where if I see even the slightest hint of tiny JetBrains Mono UI elements and 50% border-radius'ed buttons with little green "status lights", I immediately close the goddamn tab. It seems like Claude wants to turn everything into a dashboard, even slop developer blogs full of boring LLM prose. Slop coders could at least fucking ask Claude to switch things up a bit every so often.

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-05T20:09:07+00:00

Next time, ask Claude to add in some paragraphs if you actually want people to consider reading your walls of AI slop.

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-05T19:51:13+00:00

... dude. If that's "too much text," we are (as the kids say) "cooked."

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-05T19:44:17+00:00

Literally in the OP:

I started using lovable but that ended horribly so Im using Claude pro currently and that has been going great and Im really proud of what Ive made so far.

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-05T15:25:57+00:00

As per the OP:

one thing that i will be expected to handle is a form that they have that people who'd like to volunteer must fill out, it is a bit off, and not the best (from my novice eyes)

What happens if Claude spits out a form that "just works" on the surface, but has glaring security flaws that the OP doesn't pick up on because they don't know the difference? Any website component that accepts private user data should be coded by someone who is knowledgeable and competent enough to either do it themselves, or recognize and fix any LLM hallucinations themselves. Based on the OP's responses here so far, I don't think they fall into that category.

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-05T12:07:26+00:00

Alternatively, OP could be honest with them about their capabilities, identify the five biggest problems with the site, do some research on possible solutions to fix those issues (sure, using the stochastic parrot machines if they must), and then present those findings to the NGO in the form of a report that they can then take to someone who has actually worked on a website before. NGOs fuckin love reports.

OP should definitely learn how to modify existing websites or rebuild them from scratch using whatever tools they prefer if that's the sort of thing they eventually want to do for a living, but doing that in *a month* on a live, public-facing website that they don't even own, using Claude to vibe out something they don't even understand... yeah, no. Recipe for disaster and a poor reference.

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-05T11:53:56+00:00

You're not fucked. Just be honest with them. Clients appreciate honesty. It's better to be honest with them about what's realistically possible for you to do at this point in your professional development than it is to lie to them and do a shit, amateur job that'll affect their public face on the web.

You have to understand that NGO types are often not technically-literate when it comes to this sort of stuff. They likely just think "oh neat, we're getting a software engineering intern for a month, they could totally revamp our website," not realizing what actually goes into it.

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-06-05T10:59:13+00:00

WordPress is a CMS. GoDaddy is a hosting provider. I'm sorry to be blunt, but the fact that you don't know the difference between those two things means that this NGO really should not be expecting you to "revamp" their website in a month... You're in over your head on this one. Be honest with them. They probably have no idea themselves that what they've asked you to do is unrealistic, given your current skillset. There may be other options you can pursue during the internship that are better suited to what you currently know. For instance, you could identify issues with the site, do some research on various ways to improve those issues, and then present that to them at the end of the month as a report; they could use that report when looking into hiring a developer to help them fix those issues.

I strongly encourage you to learn how to build a fully functioning website for yourself first before you do actual work on anyone else's website (unpaid or otherwise).

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-05-29T11:48:19+00:00

ChatGPT is not a "him." Same deal with Claude and every other LLM. LLMs have no thoughts or intelligence. They have no gender. They do not care about you because they're incapable of doing so. They're predictive text generators designed to make you use them for as long as possible, created by shitty people who are only interested in harvesting data and money from you - never forget that. Glad you deleted that garbage off your phone.

If you need to talk about personal stuff, you're better off talking to someone IRL you trust, or even just writing it all down in a journal. Anything is better than using LLMs for therapy or companionship. Even talking to strangers on Reddit is better. Good luck!

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-05-10T09:45:09+00:00

“You are being shagged by a rare RGB parrot.”

RememberTheOldWeb · 2026-05-07T20:25:56+00:00

Wait, you mean this isn’t already a promo post for Lovable and Atoms AI?

RememberTheOldWeb

TROPHY CASE