A Notebook Website

I finally decided to revamp my personal website now that it is possible to build websites so quickly. I used Claude design to build a design that looks like a notebook with warm colors and the Gruvbox material theme. I have to say it was an amazing tool for quick prototyping designs and trying out different things, tweaks, etc. Then I used Claude code to turn the design into a functioning website.

What AI did

Given I am a software engineer specializing in Frontend, does it scare me? Not really. Claude designed what I wanted when I already specified everything I wanted and how exactly I wanted it to be designed. It did make quite a few mistakes along the way, so it wasn’t just me giving a single prompt and getting a full design out the other end. I had to guide Claude to build the final design.

Once the design was ready, I also had to properly specify how I wanted the app to be built. The high-level design, however simple, was all me. I used Claude to create a detailed plan, but the details were specified by me.

The key here is that I knew what I wanted down to the minute details. And it was me who designed at the high level what the website should be like, how the content should be stored and mapped.

This cannot be done by any random person. Try asking a random person who has no knowledge of software engineering to build this website. Spoiler - they’ll do it eventually and with enough Claude credits. It might even look production-grade from the outside. But it would just be a cardboard box that would collapse as soon as you start doing something serious.

Now imagine a large application with a huge set of ambiguous requirements. Can any random person make such an application given enough Claude credits?

However, it was still a very important tool. Pre-AI era, I would’ve taken a week to build something like this. With Claude, I did it in a single night.

In my opinion AI is powerful in the hands of someone who already knows how to do their job.

The choice of theme

I used Gruvbox material for this website. And no, the reason is not that I wanted to copy the latest trends. I have been a fan of Gruvbox before. The evidence: this file was last changed in Feb 2022 - https://gitlab.com/aneeshsharma/dotfiles/-/blob/main/.config/nvim/init.vim#L19

The reason I love this theme is simple - it’s easy on the eyes and feels like a warm, soothing, natural color (even though it’s on a screen). I want anyone who visits this website to get that same feeling, so I chose this.

I also pretty much use the same theme in my editor, my notes app and my terminal. I’ve tried various things but I just keep coming back to it.

If you don’t already use Gruvbox, start using it. Use the material gruvbox flavor for best results.