How I use AI in my design process

I use AI to get to a working draft quickly, then spend my own time on the judgment calls: whether it connects with the people it's for, whether it's safe, and whether it's accurate. Each case study shows where AI helped and where it fell short.

Convivir Fund · Where it helpedFast drafts, applied consistently

Claude Code built a working first version of the site quickly. Later, I gave it the designer's brand guide to apply the fonts and colors across every page and component, then reviewed the result page by page.

Convivir Fund · Where it fell shortA working site without an identity

The AI-generated draft didn't feel like it could connect with the community the fund serves. Giving it warmth and personality took a human designer, Mai Inoue.

DIY Girls · Where it helpedLaying out my content

I wrote all of the instructor packet's text and chose a style, and Claude Design produced the layout. Instead of editing the layout by hand, I iterated on the prompt until each section type (slide text, handouts, instructor-only notes) was clearly defined.

DIY Girls · Where it fell shortDesigning around AI's failures

The chatbots students build can sound confident and still be wrong, and they drift toward agreeing with the user. The curriculum makes that the lesson: an Agreement Test in Session 2, and peer testing for confidently wrong answers in Session 4.

meetscribe · Where it helpedDirecting an agent, evaluating the output

I directed Claude Code through the build and focused on judging the results, including a way to rerun notes on the same past meetings so each model could be compared fairly.

meetscribe · Where it fell shortA working build isn't a finished design

The first version ran without errors but only recorded the other side of virtual meetings. I caught that by using it myself, and a month in I'm still finding gaps, like the need for an automatic stop.

This website · Where it helpedBuilding and checking

I used Claude Code to build this site. It carried over my earlier portfolio, captured the before-and-after screenshots of each Convivir version, and checks every page before it goes live, down to whether the text sits on the grid lines.

This website · Where it fell shortIt looked like every other AI site

The first design read like a document and looked like every other AI-made site. I redirected it with sites I admire and with things I care about, like knitting and engineering notebooks. I also caught factual mix-ups, like two of my roles merged into one, and set the privacy rules: students' faces and names blurred, and no phone number.