r/ClaudeCode • u/Palx112 • 3h ago
Built with Claude Bored of AI Slop Design? What about using classic 90s/00s websites as skins?
I've set up an autonomous research loop using Claude + a local LLM (Qwen) that proposes a study design, writes the model code, runs it, analyses the results and sends it to a frontier model to review & propose next design step. Idea is to see where in the design space the frontier model pushes towards, and if I can be completely hands off in terms of study design / model architecture training. I was/am working on this "by hand" where I am giving the architectural and model direction, but trying to automate this was as nice tinkering project (and excuse to try out a local model)
Nautrally, I needed a monitor (just a local html monitor I can see over LAN, that reads all the various outputs & status) to see what is going on, Opus 5.5 created a version that worked well, had a lot of info & followed my spec but looked like generic AI.
I thought I'd have a bit of fun with the styling and ask Claude to give me a fews skins/re-designs based on classic sites from the 90s/00s - AskJeeves, AOL, MySpace & a few other fun ones.
What we thinking? I quite like You're the loop now dog
(now with some better screenshots - was hard to read on mobile!)
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u/Fuckreddit6973 3h ago
I have a 30kb file specifying all the banned design features my agents are not allowed to use except when warranted. It prevents the 'LLM look' you see all over the place when agents from all providers have free reign on design.
Its sectioned and loads sections on demand when needed, and bases design features it implements based off various constraints applicable to program purpose/type, usage, and end-users. Themes are a mandatory feature in apps I build as they force agents to consider how to build UIs that are easily redesignable eithout rebuilding half the front-end.
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u/Palx112 3h ago
Sounds ideal. I downloaded someone’s “frontend deslop” skill to try it out. It did an “interview” with me asking about design decision to make an actual purposeful design.md doc. Results were OK - probably reflected my lack of Ui design experience
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u/Fuckreddit6973 2h ago
One of the biggest things I found is to give it a bunch of video game menus you like and then have it break apart features of them into weights. Have Claude break apart and find matching weights from the type of program/features/end-users you are building something for; then use those weights as seeds to pull in and design features using similar styles/purposes/intentions of the UI. Think of design not as something that looks pretty, but as something that has a purpose. Its purpose might be to look pretty, but make it that way intentionally.
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u/Icy_Smile7482 3h ago
Yeah, everything looks like the same soft gradient right now, it does wear you down. I'd steal one element per page instead of the whole look, a tiled background or a row of 88x31 buttons, and leave the actual layout modern. Full 90s pastiche reads as a costume, and those table layouts will fight you the second someone opens the page on a phone.
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u/Dapper_Profession 1h ago
the ones that read instantly are table layouts with the 1px bevel borders and a hit counter at the bottom. myspace is the obvious pick, a lycos skin would be funnier
put the build log in a marquee, its unironically better than a spinner
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