AI made it cheap to go from an idea to a working screen. It didn't make it cheap to go from a working screen to something people trust. This guide covers both halves, in the order I work.
Start with one sentence
Before opening any tool, write what the product does, for whom, and the one thing they need to get done. If it doesn't fit in a sentence, the prototype won't either.
Then list everything the product could do and cut the list in two: what the first journey can't work without, and everything else. The AI will happily build both halves. Only give it the first.
Prototype several journeys, not one
Ask for two or three different ways through the same task, not three versions of one screen. A step-by-step flow, a single long form, a conversation. Build each one far enough to click through end to end.
Nothing should look finished yet. Grey boxes and default type keep everyone's attention on the journey.
Let people pick the winner
Put the prototypes in front of people who match your one-sentence user. Give them the task, not a tour, and watch where they hesitate, go back, or ask a question.
The winner is rarely the one that looked best in the file. It's the one people finished without help.
Redesign from the winning journey
Start a clean file from the journey that worked. Keep its steps and their order; throw away its screens. This is where the design system comes in: real components, real tokens, real content.
What actually makes it premium
This is the part most AI-built products skip, and the part people notice first.
- A type scale with few sizes and one or two weights, used the same way everywhere.
- Spacing on a fixed rhythm, so every section breathes by the same amount.
- Colour that carries meaning, not decoration.
- Every state designed: empty, loading, error, success.
- Motion only where something changes, and fast.
None of these is visible on its own. Together, they're the difference between a screen that works and one people trust.
Tools at each step
[To write]Your actual stack at each step, and what each tool is good and bad at.