Three-part series
Claude Code for Designers
The foundational onboarding, followed by a deep dive on generating and shipping UI variations. The first in a series of designer-focused guides, with more workflows to follow.
Before you start
What this series actually covers
Why this series exists
Designers on the team have asked what Claude Code can actually do, and, just as often, whether the output can be trusted. This series answers both with real work, not slideware.
What you will learn
How to brief, branch, prompt, review, and ship design variations. By the end of Part 3 you will have walked through one real component from blank repo to production.
Who it is for
Designers who are curious, skeptical, or both. No existing Git knowledge assumed. Screenshots included for every step so you know what the output actually looks like.
In this series
Three parts and a cheat sheet
- Part 112 min read
Git, Claude Code, and why a designer should care
The mental model, the tooling, the first session. No commands to memorize - just a clean way to think about branches, a free app to review changes, and the shape of a good prompt.
- How Git actually works (in four boxes, no jargon)
- GitHub Desktop as your window into every change
- The five-step rhythm of a Claude Code session
- The three-part prompt pattern that actually works
- Part 2~18 min
Generating design variations - the TJUG case study
One countdown card, fourteen variations, real feedback loops. The exact prompts, the first-pass mistakes, the moment the crop bug appeared, and how it got fixed.
- The first prompt and the five variants that came back
- "Not great, do a better job" - interpreting feedback productively
- Scaling to 10 more on-brand variants without drift
- Catching crop bugs, off-brand palettes, and dead-weight variants
- Part 315 min read
From 14 variants to a shipped component
Narrowing down, wiring the winner into production, and shipping with the same discipline any dev team would expect - branches, pull requests, review.
- Picking a direction (and why you do not have to pick just one)
- The hand-off: PR description, screenshots, test plan
- A two-list checklist for reviewing AI-generated code
- What to expect when a developer opens the diff
- Companion reference22 prompts, commands, and links
The Claude Code cheat sheet for designers
The reference half of the series, on one page you can keep open in a tab. Copy a prompt, check a command, get back to work. Nothing here needs reading in order, so come back to it whenever a session stalls.
- The three-part prompt pattern, with a builder that assembles it for you
- Seven copy-ready prompts for the tasks designers hit most
- Eleven commands and shortcuts worth memorizing
- Four skill libraries worth bookmarking, official and community
Coming up
More workflows, same Part 1 foundation
If there is a specific workflow you want covered next, drop it in the #design channel.
- 01
From Figma to a real page
Point Claude at a Figma frame and let it build the page for you, wired to your design system.
- 02
Building a brand new page from scratch
Spinning up a new route, laying out sections, pulling in real content, all via prompts.
- 03
Debugging visual bugs without touching code
When something looks wrong in production, how to diagnose with Claude Code instead of filing a ticket.
- 04
Working with Claude to draft copy + visuals together
Using Claude as a content and design collaborator, not just an implementer.
Want your design team working like this?
We walk design and product teams through this workflow on a call, using the tools they already have. Book 30 minutes and tell us where the hand-off breaks down today.