It’s not just about a specific coding tool or technique. It’s a shift in how we think about building software. Designers are no longer confined to wireframes and handoffs. With the rise of AI and LLMs, there’s a new path for designers and creatives to easily enter into the world of code.

What we are talking about here is called vibe coding. A high level, conversational approach to software development that’s less about manual coding and more about collaborating with machines. Instead of wrestling with syntax or searching documentation, you describe what you want and let the AI start laying the ground work.

Vibe coding is quickly gaining traction among creatives who previously avoided development and coding. What’s remarkable isn’t just how accessible this is making coding experience for non-engineers. It’s how much it’s changing the role of the designer.

This isn’t a gimmick or a shortcut. It’s a redefinition of what it means to prototype, explore, and iterate. And it’s poised to shift the balance between web design and development for good.

What exactly is vibe coding?

Vibe coding is not a methodology, and it's not something you where you’ll need to learn a new language or master a bunch of coding tools. What it boils down to is the act of building software through conversational design.

You type what you want in plain language, and the AI responds with working code, ready to preview, test, and evolve. You say things like, "Make it pink" or "Can the button bounce in like a cartoon intro?" and it says, "Cool, here you go" and hands you HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or whatever your project needs to come to life.

The term originated from Andrej Karpathy, a co-founder of OpenAI and one of the rare individuals with a profoundly deep understanding of neural networks. To Andrej Karpathy, vibe coding is "where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists."

This idea Andrej described captures what many of us in design have felt for a while — that we don't want to rely on code. We want to create. And the tools are finally catching up.

Feels like cheating but it isn’t

Traditional development involves rigid structures, tricky programming languages, and exact syntax. You're either writing valid code, or you're breaking everything. There's no in-between. Every semicolon is a decision. Every missing bracket is a headache.

Now imagine you're designing a flashcard app about Nicolas Cage movies — just go with it — and instead of researching frameworks or pulling a template from GitHub, you tell an AI code assistant, "Make me a simple app with pink and white flashcards in a serif font."

You toss in a few bullet points about Cage's early career, ask for navigation between cards, and click through your app in the browser. All of this done in a matter of minutes, sometimes seconds.

That's vibe coding. And for designers, creatives, and amateur web developers, it's a revelation.

How does it compare to traditional coding methods?

A lot of the importance around vibe coding comes down to speed, fluidity, and accessibility throughout the development process. Traditional coding rewards people who spend years learning the rules. Vibe coding opens up the doors who are curious but don’t have the traditional training.

With traditional methods, you write, run, troubleshoot, rewrite, and repeat until code completion. With vibe coding, you say what you want, and the AI assistant tries to give it to you in real-time. You're not the one writing code or the syntax.

That doesn't mean vibe coding replaces developers. Not even close. Developers are the ones who understand the trade-offs, the performance concerns, and the architectural decisions that make products scale and survive. Vibe coding just gives designers and creative thinkers a way to join the conversation.

Not just a shortcut

There's no shortage of friction and pushing through hard moments when it comes to good design. That's where the good stuff lives. But there's good friction — the kind that pushes an idea further — and then there's the bad kind, like spending 45 minutes searching Stack Overflow for how to center a div. Vibe coding kills the bad friction.

It lets you treat software like a sketchbook where you can iterate and experiment. You don't worry if your grid system is perfect or your API call is efficient. You're building the thing, seeing it move, and tweaking it on the fly. You're prototyping at the speed of thought, not the speed of GitHub issues.

Why designers are falling in love with the vibes

Designers have long worked within the limits of engineering timelines, technical constraints, and the need for coding experience. Ideas often moved from sketches to mockups to tickets, where creative intent risked being lost in translation. Vibe coding shifts that balance. It lets designers move directly from concept to execution without writing a single line of code.

More importantly, it gives space to ideas that would never survive a backlog. Concepts that once required a development team and multiple sprints can now be tested with a single prompt. Whether it is a one-off tool, an interactive visual, or a personal experiment, designers can now build what they imagine without waiting for approval.

This approach transforms software into a living medium. It is no longer just something you launch. It becomes something you shape and reshape, quickly and intuitively. That freedom brings creative momentum back to the work.

What vibe coding isn't

Vibe coding is not a replacement for experienced developers or thoughtful engineering. It cannot build production-ready systems on its own and it does not eliminate the need for structured thinking.

The AI will make mistakes. It may misread your intent, deliver incomplete functionality, or generate code that looks polished but lacks real utility. These are not deal breakers. They are part of the process.

Vibe coding is not about perfection. It is about exploration. You are not engineering a system. You are experimenting with form and function in real time. For many, that is exactly what makes it powerful.

So, what's the best AI for vibing?

There are a few standout tools that make vibe coding not just possible but genuinely fun. Plus, these tools can all work together in a convenient workflow.

Claude from Anthropic is great for simple projects. If you want to make a small, standalone app that lives in a single HTML file and works right out of the box, Claude is your best friend. It's like the minimalism of coding tools. Clean, fast, and to the point.

V0.dev by Vercel is for when you want to get fancy. It lets you use modern components, Tailwind for styling, and frameworks like Next.js. You can upload wireframes, add interactivity, and iterate on the fly. It's a step up in complexity but still rooted in conversation.

Cursor is the deep end of the pool. It's a full-blown code editor with AI integrated right into the workflow. It's powerful but also more intimidating. Cursor is what you use when vibe coding evolves into full-stack development. It's for when your sketch becomes a product, and you need to start acting like a real software team.

The future is fuzzy, and we like it that way

We're entering a phase where technical barriers are starting to fade, and vibe coding is a window into this reality. It's not about eliminating code. It's about making the act of coding feel more like creativity and less like instruction.

Designers are embracing it because it speaks our language. It moves at our speed. And it gives us control without demanding perfection.

That's not a trend. That's a revolution. And it's already happening — one weird, wonderful, AI-powered prototype at a time.