> Asked for frontend work without design direction, Claude Opus 5.5 falls back on a few default styles, and a general instruction such as "avoid a generic AI look" mostly swaps one default for another. It responds well to instructions that name specific patterns to avoid, as in the following example. Work iteratively: check which styles the first result used instead, and extend the list if needed.
I hardly ever read tips for prompting etc. because things change too quickly, the writeups are kindof big. Glad I read this one, because I often did exactly what they assume users would do. I write "don't make it look like generic ai slop" and that seemed to work nicely. Now I know why there was still a chance of seeing similar styles across apps. I reckon doing some manual work in terms of scouting dribbble/behance for nice layouts will yield better results.
I really find it strange though. How does an AI know what "AI slop" is? Is it reasonable to tell a child not to do "wrong" if you haven't told them what things are wrong?
> How does an AI know what "AI slop" is?
The point is, it doesn't. As the prompt says, there are a few default styles, and without design guidance the model just chooses one at random:
Asked for frontend work without design direction, Claude Opus 5.5 falls back on a few default styles, and a general instruction such as "avoid a generic AI look" mostly swaps one default for another.
In other words, in response to "avoid a generic AI look", enforce the exact opposite of that user prompt and literally choose a generic AI look. Which I must admit, I kinda love. Meet low effort prompting with low effort results. "Oh, you didn't like this generic style? Try this other generic style on for size. You're gonna love it!"
(But why only "mostly swaps"? Is Anthropic letting an occasional lucky user hit novel AI design gold?)
Bishonen88 · · focus · HN ↗
> Asked for frontend work without design direction, Claude Opus 5.5 falls back on a few default styles, and a general instruction such as "avoid a generic AI look" mostly swaps one default for another. It responds well to instructions that name specific patterns to avoid, as in the following example. Work iteratively: check which styles the first result used instead, and extend the list if needed.
I hardly ever read tips for prompting etc. because things change too quickly, the writeups are kindof big. Glad I read this one, because I often did exactly what they assume users would do. I write "don't make it look like generic ai slop" and that seemed to work nicely. Now I know why there was still a chance of seeing similar styles across apps. I reckon doing some manual work in terms of scouting dribbble/behance for nice layouts will yield better results.
skeledrew · · focus · HN ↗
byzantinegene · · focus · HN ↗
Sharlin · · focus · HN ↗
epihelix · · focus · HN ↗
The point is, it doesn't. As the prompt says, there are a few default styles, and without design guidance the model just chooses one at random:
Asked for frontend work without design direction, Claude Opus 5.5 falls back on a few default styles, and a general instruction such as "avoid a generic AI look" mostly swaps one default for another.
In other words, in response to "avoid a generic AI look", enforce the exact opposite of that user prompt and literally choose a generic AI look. Which I must admit, I kinda love. Meet low effort prompting with low effort results. "Oh, you didn't like this generic style? Try this other generic style on for size. You're gonna love it!"
(But why only "mostly swaps"? Is Anthropic letting an occasional lucky user hit novel AI design gold?)