Cast by ryangtanaka
People have been asking the question - "How Do I Stand-Out in Web Design When AI Makes Everything Look the Same?" (HDISOWDWAMELS for short.) Good question. Quite simply, the easiest way is to be aware of what other people are doing, then do something else. It sounds simple in theory but awareness is actually a lot of work in itself. For me, I have a few pet peeves in response to recent design practices: • I *hate* rounded corners, which is overdone in basically every major app right now. It makes everything look like idiocracy and I feel like it's insulting the intelligence of the users out there. • I get that dark mode is cool right now but I'm getting tired of looking at it all day. There are other ways to stare into the abyss if you must.
3 replies
• Overexplaining every button, feature, or menu (see above: treating your users like they're dummies) So much wasted space! AI is actually very good at doing front-end work right now because most of the "problems" in UI/UX has been "solved" at this point. It won't solve your biggest (or even medium sized) problems but if you want a mockup done quickly, it's the best thing out there right now! Now for a non-native programmer (I know how to code...only badly) this is kind of cool because now all I have to do is complain about aesthetics and the robot will fix it for me. Sort of! You have to kick it around a bit before it gets acceptable but if you know what you're looking for, it eventually gets around to it. 😂
@ryangtanaka yes and… impeccable.style/ @zef turned me onto this one 🫡
It's a good start but if it's done through an algo it'll still be a template - don't think you can avoid making manual changes tailored directly to the topic itself. Designers should be doing this anyway but now it's more important than ever if you want to stand out.
Totally, I just had no idea a visual slop guard existed until I discovered this!
in another time when i wasn't so busy i was trying to build something to help non technical vibecoders create distinct looking websites with AI. the level of detail you have to get into can be rather surprising.
Even before AI, a lot of clients will reject anything out of the ordinary, even though they will say they're looking for something unique, lol With some folks, you just can't win.
