Over the past few months, I've been working on an app using Claude Code — no Figma, just Claude, my notes, and some basic flows. I designed everything there.
At work, we started testing the prototype with our clients. It's an enterprise app, so the prototype had to include a lot of interactions and real data to actually simulate how it works. We ran the sessions, and we found tons of opportunities to improve our solution — which was great, because we could test before building everything and spending a ton of time and resources on something that might not even solve our clients' needs.
Now we know our solution is much closer to what they actually need. And we know it's not a "final version" because products are always evolving.
So, here's why I wrote this post. Right after the testing session, my manager asked me: "How were you testing before Claude?"
And I was like… "Prototyping everything in Figma." I FELT SO OLD! 👵🏻 hahaha. She said it sounded like a lot of work — and honestly, it was.
I remember designing apps in Figma and Adobe XD and having to prototype every single flow, just in case the client clicked on something unexpected.
Why functional prototypes change everything
I really like this new way of working. It's not just about skipping the boring prototyping work — it's that with a functional prototype, you get way more useful results from your testing sessions.
This is just one of the many things I've discovered about product design through Claude Code.
If you're a designer and you haven't tried Claude Code yet, I really think it's worth it. Not because it replaces your design skills — it doesn't — but because it gives you a way to test real ideas with real people, faster than ever before.
And at the end of the day, that's what good design is about.