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AI-Generated Prototypes

TL;DR

• AI can turn sketches, wireframes, or text descriptions into clickable prototypes. Fast. Not perfect.
• Use AI for rapid iteration and exploration. You verify layout, interaction, and accessibility.
• The bridge between design and code is your job. AI is a power tool, not a replacement.

Design-to-code tools have been around for years. AI makes them better — and more dangerous. You can go from "a rough sketch" to "something that looks like an app" in minutes. But "looks like" isn't "works like." Your job as a UX engineer is to close that gap.

What AI Does Well

Layout and structure:

• Given a sketch or description, AI can generate a reasonable component structure. Flexbox, grid, basic responsiveness.
• Good for first pass. You refine.

Styling:

• Colors, typography, spacing — AI can follow a design system if you give it tokens. It will also invent things. Verify.
• Use design tokens. Constrain the output.

Boilerplate interactions:

• Buttons, forms, basic navigation. AI knows common patterns. It'll produce something usable.
• Edge cases (loading states, errors, empty states) — AI often forgets. You add them.

What AI Misses

Accessibility:

• ARIA labels, focus order, keyboard nav, contrast — AI will sometimes get these. Often it won't.
• Always run an a11y check. Add what's missing. This is non-negotiable.

Design system coherence:

• AI might mix styles, use wrong components, or ignore your spacing scale. One-off prototypes are fine; production-ready needs your eye.
• Treat AI output as a draft. Apply design system rules in your edit pass.

Interaction details:

• Hover states, transitions, micro-interactions — AI can add some. It won't match your design system's motion language.
• You define and enforce consistency.

Edge cases and states:

• Empty, loading, error, success. AI tends toward the happy path. Your prototypes need the full set.
• Add them. Document them. Make them part of the handoff.

The Workflow

1. Generate — Sketch or describe. Get AI output. Don't expect perfection.
2. Audit — Layout, spacing, components. Does it match the design system?
3. Accessibility pass — Semantics, keyboard, screen reader. Fix what's broken.
4. Add states — Loading, error, empty. AI won't. You do.
5. Handoff — Clean, documented, ready for dev. Your name on it. Your standards.

When to Use AI, When to Build

Use AI for:

• Early exploration, "what if we tried X?"
• Speeding up first drafts for stakeholder review
• Learning a new pattern or component structure

Build by hand when:

• It's going to production
• Accessibility is critical (and it usually is)
• Design system compliance matters
• The design is complex or novel

Do This Next

1. Run one experiment — Sketch a simple screen. Generate with AI. List everything you had to fix. That's your QA checklist.
2. Create an accessibility checklist — Run every AI-generated prototype through it. Make it a habit.
3. Define "production-ready" — What must be true before you hand off? Document it. Apply it to AI output before it reaches dev.