I know what my app needs to do, but I don't know what it should look like.
When we build a new app, we often know exactly what it needs to do. We know what information users need and which actions they need to take. But those requirements don't tell us how to organize the interface or choose a clear visual direction.
Without an existing foundation, almost every direction can seem reasonable. We may explore layouts in Figma, adjust the interface directly in code, or ask Claude or Codex to generate alternatives. Hours later, we may have several versions of the screen but no confidence in any of them.
I have faced this situation while building new products and redesigning existing ones. Sometimes the team had no designer. In other cases, a designer could only work with us for a limited number of hours and did not participate in our day-to-day work. In both situations, we still needed to move quickly and build something that looked good and was easy to use.
The approach that has worked best for me is to adopt an existing, mature design system and use it as the foundation for the application.
