You have ideas but can't design them, I get it
Last week I wanted to build a landing page. I opened Figma, stared blankly for half an hour, and didn't move a single pixel.
Have you ever had one of those moments—you have a clear picture of the product in your head, but go blank the moment you open design software? That's me. Every time I needed a prototype, I either paid a designer or dragged things around in Canva until I doubted my life choices. I also got stuck at the "I have the idea but can't draw it" phase for a long time. I spent thousands of yuan hiring a designer, went back and forth for a week, and the result was completely different from what I imagined.
Turn AI coding tools into a design engine
Recently there's an approach called Open Design: using AI coding assistants as design engines. Instead of drawing in Figma, you open Cursor (an editor with AI chat features), describe the interface you want in plain language, and it generates the page for you.
My friend Ajie, who runs independent courses in Hangzhou, wanted to create a signup page for his new course last month. He doesn't know how to code, but he typed into Cursor in Chinese: "Help me make a dark-themed course signup page, with a countdown timer and a price table, sleek and premium style." In 30 seconds, he had a decent-looking page. It wasn't perfect, but he could send the link to his client, who immediately gave feedback. I messed this up at first—I wrote prompts that were too long and detailed, which actually produced worse results. Later I realized you only need to clearly state three things: what theme, what modules, and what style.
You can replicate this today
Money: Cursor's free version is enough to try; Pro is $20/month
Time: About 30-60 minutes for the first page (including back-and-forth tweaks)
Technical barrier: Just be able to type out your needs, no need to understand any code
First step: Go to cursor.com, click download and install, create a new file, and describe the page you want in the chat box
After generating, click the preview button in the top right corner to see the result. If you're not satisfied, just keep chatting with it, like "change the button to green" or "add a row to the price table".
Advice by stage
Just starting out: If you're still in the idea validation stage, I'd suggest not spending time tinkering with this yet. Use Canva or ready-made templates to get things running, and come back to try this method once the idea is confirmed.
Have 1-2 clients: If you need to quickly prototype for clients to show effects, this method saves the money of hiring a designer. Try the free version first; it's enough. The key is to screenshot the generated page and send it to the client to confirm the direction, don't rush to polish details.
Scaling up: If you're starting to build multiple product lines, I recommend upgrading to the Pro version. Save your common page styles as templates, and next time just say "use that previous style, change the content" to batch produce pages.
This method isn't for everyone. If you have very high requirements for design details, you still need a professional designer. It's fine if you don't try it now, just bookmark it and come back when you get stuck on design.