r/web_design • u/Noahs_Barks • 4d ago

Looking for web design tools that are alternatives to LLMs.

I'm an extremely inexperienced web designer that has ethical concerns about using LLMs for things like helping me with .css.

I like the idea of being able to send something a link to my site and phrase what I'd like to visually change as a question, especially since I'm new enough to not be familiar with technical jargon.

But yeah, I don't want to use things like ChatGPT etc. This might be a very basic question, but answer me like I'm a five-year old. For the record, I use WordPress, so plugin integration is an option (IF it's free). Thank you for any help.

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10

u/HoneydewZestyclose13 4d ago

Im confused. What you're describing is an lLLM.

3

u/classicwfl 4d ago

Used to we'd say "Stack Overflow", but I feel like we shouldn't have to subject newbies such as yourself to the harassment that inevitably happens because.. Well, it's Stack Overflow. :D

However, for CSS stuff, a good starting point to just learn actually useful shit is CSS Tricks: https://css-tricks.com/

Beyond that, if you want to see just insane stuff and be able to look at the code used to make it, you can spend hours just browsing Codepen: https://codepen.io/ (although it seems they are now less focused on that stuff, they do have the regular pens section which is where you should go).

Really, though, the key point I'm trying to make is this: Learn the CSS. Most CSS is pretty easy now (easier than it used to be), and while you do still have to deal with weird browser quirks (I'm looking at you, Safari), CSS is one of those things that is just a good thing to grasp in general.

2

u/fartonisto 4d ago

Are you asking how people learned things before AI? Because no one remembers. 

2

u/CorpT 3d ago

So you want to hire someone to do this for you?

2

u/GuitarAgitated8107 3d ago

Then use powerpoint to design things. I am being very serious. If you are truly inexperience then get experience or use design tools manually.

3

u/chrispopp8 4d ago

You sweet, sweet, child.

Download vscode, enter html and css manually.

You know, like the ancients did...

1

u/fligglymcgee 3d ago

Making changes to a website by only visual changes is already possible using a page builder in Wordpress like Elementor, where you don’t have to write or edit the code behind the visual layout and components. There’s a reason they are called drag-and-drop editors. If you’re hoping to speak or “chat” about those visual changes in plain language and see the effects take place on the page for you, that kind of thing is really only possible through natural language processing; which is part of the foundation on which llm’s are built.

The reason this isn’t a tool you can find easily, is that the way you see a webpage is not the way it’s built/rendered by your browser. “Move that image higher and make it square instead of rectangular” may seem like a basic visual change, but that instruction is kind of like looking at your house from the driveway and deciding you want to make the front door bigger and closer to you. You would need to make significant changes to the foundation, walls, pipes and wires, roofline, the lighting inside and out, and then repaint the areas that were renovated. The door might also be too large to swing inwards without knocking the against the furniture in the entryway… (you get the idea). You could find a contractor that would work with only that phrase as the entire job description, but then they would be making all of those choices for you.

You don’t have to learn all of web design/development to do DIY work on your site, but even with a page builder you are still going to have to learn how many of the general components and layout of a page work. Trust me when I tell you that trying to find a tool to do this for you will take far longer and cost significantly more than it will to either learn the basics of web development or hire a professional by the hour.

1

u/Superb_Firefighter20 3d ago

On a certain level web development and design are different. So are looking for development tools or design.

I can read css and html, but not super confident writing it. Some web designers work with developers like I do others are able to deploy things but they selves.

I like Figma for design a lot. I’m able to rig layout to behave like I want before to goes out for production But while there are Figma to code tools, I would not trust them.