You tried Claude.It felt generic.That's a setup problem.
Claude doesn't know you design for first-time mobile users on low-end Android in a price-sensitive market. It knows you're a person with a question. These guides fix that.
On the web
Nothing to install.
Open claude.ai in any browser. A Project keeps your working agreement next to Figma. Start here.
In the desktop app
Claude reads your files.
The Claude app for Mac or Windows. Point it at a folder of briefs and Figma exports so you stop pasting.
Want Claude to build working prototypes? Two guides use the Code tab of the desktop app. See them
Same Claude. Two places to use it.
The difference is where your files live. On the web you paste them in. In the desktop app Claude reads them from a folder.
"The Thinking Partner"
Designer who never leaves the browser. Claude lives in a Project on claude.ai, open next to Figma. Nothing to install.
Entry path
Brief work
Re-explain your users, constraints, and preferences at the start of every session.
A Project holds your working context. Every session starts already knowing your work.
Evaluation
Gut-check your designs and hope obvious issues surface in review.
Structured critique against all 10 heuristics, severity-rated and ready for sprint planning.
Research
8 hours of affinity mapping. Post-its everywhere. Themes that shift when someone new joins.
45 minutes. Paste raw notes, run the synthesis, review and challenge the themes.
The structural shift
Claude sees only what you paste or upload, and everything happens in conversation. Getting challenged in dialogue is a different experience from getting challenged in a review meeting.
Applies to these guides
"The Active Collaborator"
Designer using the Claude app on Mac or Windows. Claude reads a folder of their briefs, notes and exports, and pushes back while the work is still in progress.
Entry path
Research
Manually copy-paste interview notes into a chat window, session by session.
Save notes as all-notes.md. Claude reads the file directly and runs synthesis on the full set.
Figma handoff
Export specs, open a chat, paste everything, explain the context again.
Save exports to your project folder. Claude reads tokens, layer names, and annotations in place.
Brief decoding
Explain the brief from scratch. Paste it. Add background. Re-explain the users.
brief.md is already in the folder. Claude reads it, asks the 20 questions before you open Figma.
The structural shift
The critique loop moves from post-design (review meetings) to in-design (working sessions). You stop defending decisions you already made.
Applies to these guides
What each one covers
The desktop app covers everything the web does, and adds Direction and Handoff because it can read your files. Build and Ship need Claude Code, which runs in the Code tab of the desktop app.
Web claude.ai
Everything in conversation. Interrogates briefs, synthesizes research, critiques designs. Claude sees what you paste or upload.
Desktop app Mac or Windows
Reads files from a folder on your computer. Challenges direction before you commit to frames. Reads Figma exports for handoff prep.
A designer's day with Claude
Interrogate the brief before touching Figma
Synthesize competitors and user quotes into patterns
Get a second opinion on your wireframes
Write the developer specs in minutes
Anticipate tomorrow's client feedback
One habit at a time. See the full workflow with prompts you can copy
Pick your path
Two places to work with Claude. Pick yours to see the 8 guides that work there.
The Claude desktop app. It can read a folder of your files.
Point Claude at a folder of briefs, interview notes and Figma exports, and it reads them directly instead of waiting for you to paste.
Brief work
Evaluation
When you want to ship code
These two build real code, so they run in the Code tab of the Claude desktop app (Claude Code), not in a regular conversation. Start with Git if you have not used it.
Getting started
Three steps, and the first one takes 10 minutes.
Pick where you work
claude.ai in any browser, with nothing to install. Or the Claude desktop app for Mac or Windows, if you want Claude reading a folder of your files. Both follow the same guides.
Write your working agreement
Guide 1 walks you through it in 10 minutes. One block of text that tells Claude who you are, who you design for, and how you want output delivered. Every session starts from there.
Start Guide 1→Pick any guide that matches today
Got a brief kickoff tomorrow? Guide 2. Running a heuristic eval next week? Guide 5. Each one is self-contained. No order required after the first.
Browse all guides→Made for the work designers actually do
Most Claude guides are written for developers. They assume you want to write code, run tests, or build infrastructure. Useful if that is your job. Frustrating if it is not.
Designers use Claude every day: summarising research, wrestling with briefs, trying to get feedback that is not just “looks good.” But the default output is generic because Claude does not know you design for first-time mobile users on low-end Android in a price-sensitive market. It knows you are a person with a question.
These guides fix that. They are built around what UX and UI designers actually do at work: the brief that arrives too vague, the evaluation that needs to happen before the sprint, the research synthesis that is due Friday, the Figma file that needs to survive a handoff.
Start with Guide 1 to write your working agreement. After that, pick whichever guide matches today.
Want the method behind these guides? Read the framework for designers
New guides, when they ship
One email, roughly weekly. CLAUDE.md templates, workflows I actually use, and the cut-for-length stuff that does not make the public guides. One-click unsubscribe.
Or read Product Field Notes, the Substack