Vibe Coding is the New Prototyping
Rick Rubin calls it the new 'Punk Rock'
Before I go any further, I should clarify. I’m really talking about ‘Vibe Designing’ here. Designers now have the ability to create functional prototypes with only natural language instructions. It will be a little easier if you’ve taken an intro to computer science class because you’re literally giving the machine instructions in the simplest way possible. It will also be easier if you’ve worked as a project manager or product owner and you know how to take responsibility for a team in order to ship something. While real ‘Vibe Coding’ should be practiced by accomplished software developers, there is a whole new universe opening up for the curious, the creative, and the hustlers.
I’ve spent the last week with a variety of tools building a small application or website every day and it feels a lot like when I was in art school in the 1980s or just starting in Web Design in the 1990s. There are no gatekeepers and there’s a huge sense of possibility and the satisfaction of making thing’s quickly. Even famed music producer Rick Rubin has gotten onboard, likening it to the Punk Rock movement, and writing a living book with Anthropic called ‘The Way of Code’ Check it out. or Read more
“In the past for music, you had to go to the conservatory and study for years and years, and then someday you could play in a symphony, then, when punk rock came along, you could perhaps learn three chords in a day. Suddenly, there were all these bands, and it became accessible to everybody. That was how I started in music – punk rock.”
If you are already working in UX design this is a great fit and a great opportunity. If you just need to test your assumptions or get some user feedback, you can build something in an hour without spending days in Figma. It’s like the exhilaration of paper prototyping with the robustness of living in the browser. It also forces you to think and step back and solve the larger problem, such as usability, or affordance, or whatever is driving the project. While I am still teaching teaching traditional UX fundamentals in the fall, ‘Vibe Coding’ techniques will be front and center for my students because I see it as the new defining skill in their path to being employed.
Go Deeper: Vibe Coding True Stories
Vibe Coding 101: I Built A Research Assistant Start-up With v0, Supabase + Grok AI Check it out
Software 3.0 is powered by LLMs, prompts, and vibe coding - what you need know Check it out
I make websites and apps from simple prompts using AI — and it's really easy to do
Check it out
‘Vibe coding’ your own apps with AI is easy! 7 tools and tricks to get started Check it out
Leadership Inspiration
If you’re already in some sort of Design leadership role, this excellent article from Andy Budd will help you Seize the Narrative Before It’s Too Late Check it out.
That’s it for today. As always, if you have a question, or would like me to do a deeper dive, just send me a message!