Part 3: Design-First - From Vision to Code with AI

"Make it Pretty, Then Make it Work"

For many founders, the product is the interface. If you can't see it, you can't build it. This is the Design-First approach.

In Part 2, we looked at coding tools. Here, we focus on generating the visuals first, then handing them off to AI to code.

Step 1: Visualization (The Tools)

You used to need a designer to make Figma mockups. Now? You just need to describe what you want.

Google Stitch (stitch.withgoogle.com)

A breakthrough tool for generating production-ready UI designs from text.

• Prompt: "Main screen for a dog walking app, warm earth tones, card layout for walkers."
• Action: Generate variations, pick the best elements, and save the assets.

v0.dev (by Vercel)

A hybrid design/code tool.

• Prompt: "A pricing page with a toggle for monthly/yearly billing."
• Result: It gives you the actual React/Tailwind code immediately, rendering it in real-time.

Galileo AI

Specialized in high-fidelity mobile and web UI generation that exports directly to Figma.

Step 2: The Handoff (Design to Code)

Once you have your visuals (screenshot or generated image):

1. Open Google AI Studio (using Gemini 2.0 Flash) or ChatGPT-4o.
2. Upload your design.
3. The Golden Prompt:

   "Act as a senior frontend developer. I am attaching a design for a [App Name].

   Write the React code using Tailwind CSS to implement this design pixel-perfectly.

   • Use functional components.
   • Ensure it is responsive (mobile-friendly).
   • Use placeholders for images."

Step 3: Iteration

The AI will output code. It might look 90% right but miss 10% (alignment, specific colors).

• Don't fix the code manually.
• Take a screenshot of the result, paste it back to the AI, and say: "The button logic is wrong, and the padding on the left is too small. Fix these."

This visual feedback loop is incredibly fast.

Next Steps

Great, it looks good. But does it do anything? In the final part, we tackle the brain of your application.

Read Next: Part 4: Logic-First AI Development Back to: Part 2: Low-Code Route