Instadate App
Say Hello to Instadate! Instadate is a date idea discovery app for couples. It is a simple website where you can pick fun and interesting date ideas from a variety of categories. The site features experiences ranging from food-truck crawls to bookstore shopping dates, all in an easy-to-use interface.
Instadate was inspired by a challenge at work to learn the new Figma Make AI prototyping tool. I had the idea to make a date idea suggestion app for some time, and this felt like now was a good time to bring it to the world. I wanted to see how well the new tool could use an existing design system to create a full web interface. I created a design system that I call "Midori" for the AI to reference in creating the prototype.
The initial web app made with Figma Make achieved the design intent and functionality that I specified (with a lot of prompting); however, the resulting React code and HTML were neither minimal nor semantic. To make something that I felt could go live, I went back to the AI drawing board.
For a production-ready version of Instadate, I turned to my favorite JS framework, Svelte, and to Claude AI. I tasked Claude to create a SvelteKit version of the app, referencing my design system and wireframes. While moving between Figma and Claude was not as seamless as using Figma Make, the resulting SvelteKit prototype was more robust and semantic.
My conversation with Claude
Claude implemented the interactions as I directed with less prompting. Eventually, when I got the app close to my desired fidelity from prompts, I made manual edits and revisions to the code. This sped up the development of Instadate from weeks to just a few days. Claude also helped generate content for the date ideas, with human oversight for all suggestions. Working with Claude, I was able to deploy a quality digital product quickly and seamlessly. The result was a faithful reproduction of my design intent written in readable, maintainable code.
Developing Instadate with AI assistance was an interesting learning experience. Being a designer-developer was very helpful in guiding Claude's output. Defining a design system made the resulting code consistent and made it easy to see the AI's misinterpretations of my intent. As the technology rapidly advances, it's very tempting to let AI take the lead in crafting digital products. Generative AI gives people more access to productive and creative endeavors. However, to create and to design is human, first and foremost. Generative AI is a tool, and I find the idea of outsourcing all creativity and cognition to a machine distressing. That being said, AI helped speed up the implementation of Instadate, and I learned a lot about the capabilities of LLMs for my work.
Instadate pages
While there is no shortage of date suggestion websites, books, and card games, I feel Instadate will be a welcome addition to the market. It offers a curated set of ideas for the discerning couple with a simple interface to browse them. In the near future, I plan to add additional features like searching and filtering ideas. But for now, the Instadate MVP is live! Feel free to check it out and set up a date for you and your partner. Now, I need to do the same with my partner...