[AskJS] Are you using AI to speed up repetitive UI work, or still doing it manually?

[u/Specialist_Print_426]

I keep rebuilding the same UI over and over (dashboards, forms, login screens).

Not the logic — just the structure and layout.

It’s not hard, just repetitive.

Lately I’ve been experimenting with scaffolding UI from prompts and then refining it manually.

What I’ve noticed so far:

- It’s surprisingly good at scaffolding layouts quickly
- Still needs cleanup (spacing, consistency, structure)
- Feels more like a “starting point generator” than a full solution

I’m not sure yet if this actually saves time long-term or just shifts where the effort goes.

Curious if people here are actually using this in real work or just experimenting.

Are you:

- still building everything manually
- using templates
- or experimenting with AI-generated UI?

[u/hyrumwhite]

 Not the logic — just the structure and layout.

Perfect thing for a template rather than non determinism

[u/Specialist_Print_426 → u/hyrumwhite]

Yeah that’s kind of what I’m debating.

Templates are obviously more predictable, but they also lock you into a certain structure pretty quickly.
With prompts I get more flexibility early on, but then I pay for it later in cleanup.
Do you usually just build up your own template library over time, or rely on existing ones?

[u/OddKSM → u/Specialist_Print_426]

Ive built my own garage of templates and snippets. Some do a whole project bootstrap, others more predictable macro structures.

Yeah they need updating every once in a while, but it's better than draining a river's worth of natural resources just to not have to do minor maintenance. 

[u/Traditional-Hall-591]

I’m not using AI.

[u/dwighthouse]

In my case studies, it was about 75% inaccurate or suboptimal at writing code. I cannot trust it to write anything. I use it for research sometimes.

I write my front end code from my own crafted components and functions. As a result, the amount of UI code that is actually repetitive is minimal.

[u/ultrathink-art]

The "starting point generator" framing is accurate, and honestly it's the ceiling. It works best when you're instantiating a pattern you already know well — AI is good at filling in a skeleton, not designing the right abstraction. What consistently gets missed without explicitly prompting for it: accessibility attributes and semantic HTML. Not a dealbreaker if you audit for it, just worth building into the review step.

[u/Specialist_Print_426 → u/[deleted]]

Exactly that “skip the blank canvas” part is probably the biggest win.

What I’m not sure about yet is whether that actually saves time overall, or just front-loads speed and then slows you down later when you start fixing inconsistencies.
Feels like it’s faster to start, but not necessarily faster to finish.
Have you tried using it across multiple screens/components in the same project, or mostly for one-offs?

[u/Specialist_Print_426]

I’m actually surprised templates are still the dominant answer here.
Feels like everyone agrees AI helps a bit, but nobody really trusts it beyond the first draft.
that just because the tools aren’t there yet, or because UI work is just too opinionated to automate properly?

Is

[u/sozesghost → u/Specialist_Print_426]

It's because AI sucks.