AI Web Design: From Generic to Stunning Explained in 10 Minutes |

As artificial intelligence becomes more accessible, it's setting a new baseline for design. The result? A flood of websites and products that feel generic and uninspired. This is precisely what you want to avoid. The key isn't to let AI do all the work, but to use it as a powerful tool that augments your own creativity. Think of it as a partnership: AI handles 90% of the heavy lifting, while you provide the crucial 10% of human touch and direction.

This article will walk you through a complete design workflow, sharing best practices and prompt strategies to create stunning, unique designs with AI. In the near future, creating beautiful websites on par with high-end examples like the DIA browser or the Comet landing page will be within reach for everyone.

The Problem with Basic AI Prompts

Let's start by understanding what a typical, first-attempt AI-generated website looks like. When you give a simple, one-line prompt like "Create a beautiful landing page for a new AI browser" to various AI tools, a clear pattern emerges.

You'll often get designs with: - Super bold titles - The "Inter" font - A heavy use of the color purple - Generic white backgrounds with uninspired text and styling

There's nothing inherently wrong with this starting point. It's a functional baseline. However, as millions of people begin generating websites, these designs become repetitive. To stand out, you need to break away from this generic look.

High-quality designs, like those of Comet, focus on uniqueness. They achieve this through carefully selected fonts, engaging interactions, smooth animations, beautiful custom buttons, and captivating backgrounds generated by AI. While reaching this level of polish might seem daunting, you can certainly incorporate many of these high-quality components into your own projects using AI.

Step 1: Find Your Inspiration

A single prompt is rarely enough. The first step to creating a great design is to gather resources, examples, and references. Instead of starting from scratch, you can mention successful designs from companies like Apple, Perplexity, or Linear in your prompts. AI models have been trained on these examples, and referencing them can significantly improve the output.

Another effective strategy is to remix existing templates. Many platforms offer extensive libraries of pre-designed components, from login screens to full hero sections. Browsing these templates is far more effective than starting with a blank slate.

Pro Tip: You can also adapt code from existing websites. Platforms like CodePen are treasure troves of experiments. Find a component you like, copy its HTML, and feed it to an AI tool with instructions to adapt it to your project's style.

Step 2: Master the Art of Prompting with a Prompt Builder

If you want to create something truly custom, you need to learn the language of AI design. A prompt builder is an invaluable tool for this, providing a vocabulary or "lexicon" of design elements you can combine.

A good prompt builder will guide you through several layers of design choices:

Component Type: Are you building a hero section, a feature list, a blog post, or a settings page?
Layout Configuration: Do you want a standard layout, a sidebar, or a modern bento grid?
Presentation Style: Should the component be full-screen, a contained card, or framed within a browser window?
Visual Style: Are you aiming for a flat design, a glassy effect (like Apple's liquid glass), light mode, or dark mode? You can also specify primary and background colors.
Typography: This is critical for a unique feel. Instead of the default "Inter" font, explore serif fonts like "Instrument Serif." You can also control font weight, letter spacing, and size to create a more dynamic look.

By combining these elements, you can construct a detailed prompt that gives the AI much clearer direction. For example:

A feature section with a bento layout, presented as a card with a glass style in light mode, featuring large, beautiful drop shadows and using the Instrument Serif typeface.

Step 3: The Magic of Manual Customization

AI is a fantastic starting point, but it's not perfect. Relying on it for everything can be slow and lead to inconsistencies. The real magic happens when you pair AI generation with manual controls.

After generating your base design, use built-in customization tools to refine it. This is where you apply your taste and experience.

Fonts: Quickly switch between different fonts like Manrope or Playfair Display to see what fits best.
Colors: Experiment with different color palettes for light and dark modes.
Images: Replace placeholder images. Use high-quality stock photos from services like Unsplash, or better yet, generate unique images with a tool like Midjourney. AI-generated portraits, for instance, are often more unique than the commonly used faces from stock sites.
Spacing & Sizing: Adjust padding, margins, and font sizes to perfect the visual hierarchy and balance of your design.

This iterative process of generating with AI and then refining with direct controls is the fastest way to achieve a polished, custom look.

Step 4: Integrate Advanced Components and Animations

To elevate your design further, incorporate advanced elements from specialized tools.

Dynamic 3D Backgrounds with Spline

Tools like Spline, Rive, and Lottie allow you to create and embed stunning animations. Spline, in particular, has a vibrant community where creators share 3D animations that you can remix and use in your projects.

The process is simple: 1. Find a 3D animation you like in the Spline community. 2. Remix it and export it to get a shareable link. 3. Paste the URL into your website's background settings.

This can add a layer of depth and professionalism that is difficult to achieve otherwise.

Unique Buttons and UI Elements

For smaller components like buttons, look to libraries like UI-verse. It offers a vast collection of button styles with ready-to-use CSS. You can find a style you like, copy the code, and use an AI prompter to apply that style to a specific button in your design.

The Workflow: Component-Based Design

Instead of trying to build an entire website in one go, focus on creating one section or component at a time.

Generate & Refine: Use AI and customization tools to perfect a single component, like a testimonial section with a scrolling animation.
Export the Code: Copy the HTML and CSS for your finished component.
Integrate: Paste the code into a larger web development environment (like Lovable, Vercel, or Cursor) and instruct the AI to integrate it, maintaining the overall style of the page.

This modular approach allows you to focus on quality at each step and build a complex, beautiful website piece by piece.

Final Advice for Designers and Builders

The world is now flooded with AI tools. The key to success is not just using them, but developing a strong sense of taste.

Know What's Good: Study great designs to understand why they work. What makes Comet's landing page better than a generic template?
Know Your Tools: Understand the strengths and weaknesses of different platforms. One tool might be great for initial generation, while another excels at customization and final integration.
Build an Arsenal: Create a collection of your favorite resources—for UI components, for animations, for icons. Knowing where to find the right asset quickly is a superpower.
Embrace the 10%: Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. Learning to make those final 10% of tweaks yourself is what will separate your work from the generic majority.

The future of design is a collaboration between human creativity and artificial intelligence. By mastering this partnership, you can build incredible products and live a life of creative freedom.