The Hardest Thing to Put Into Words
Pages and features are easy to list. The look is harder. How do you explain a feeling?
Most people give up and say “make it look nice.” And Claude, with nothing else to go on, makes it look… average.
This note gives you four tools for describing a look, from the weakest to the strongest.
Tool 1: Mood Words
Pick three to five words for how the site should feel:
| Instead of | Try |
|---|---|
| “nice” | “calm, airy, gentle” |
| “cool” | “bold, bright, energetic” |
| “professional” | “clean, confident, minimal” |
| “cute” | “playful, soft, rounded, cozy” |
A great trick is to borrow from the real world: “like a cozy café”, “like an art gallery”, “like a hand-written letter”. Claude knows what those feel like.
Tool 2: Colors and Fonts
Be specific about color. Even rough names help a lot:
- “Blush pink and deep forest green, with lots of cream.”
- “Mostly black and white, with one bright yellow for buttons.”
Fonts (the style of the letters) come in a few big families. You don’t need names, just the vibe:
| Font style | Feels |
|---|---|
| Rounded | Friendly, playful, soft |
| Serif (little feet on the letters, like a book) | Classic, elegant, literary |
| Clean sans-serif (no little feet) | Modern, simple, clear |
| Handwritten | Personal, casual, warm |
Not sure? Ask: “Suggest three color palettes that feel playful and warm, and show me what each would look like.”
Tool 3: Examples
The most powerful tool by far. Show, don’t tell.
Words leave room for guessing. A picture doesn’t.
- Find two or three websites you love. Take screenshots of them.
- Put the screenshots in your project folder, or paste them straight into Claude’s chat.
- Say what you like about each one. Not “make it like this”, but “I love the big photo at the top of this one, and the soft colors of that one.”
A screenshot beats a paragraph. Every time.
Tool 4: Feedback on What It Made
After Claude builds something, your reaction is a description too. Make it specific:
| Vague feedback | Specific feedback |
|---|---|
| “I don’t like it.” | “The colors feel too dark and serious. Lighter and warmer, please.” |
| “Make it better.” | “The headings are too small. Make them twice as big.” |
| “Something’s off.” | “There’s too much packed together. Give everything more space.” |
Can’t tell what’s off? Take a screenshot of your preview, paste it in, and ask: “What would you improve about how this looks, and why?” Then pick the suggestions you agree with.
Put the Look in Writing
Once you’ve settled on the look, add it to your notebook so every future chat knows it:
Add a "Look and feel" section to CLAUDE.md: playful and warm, blush pink and deep green with lots of cream, rounded fonts for headings, and use the screenshots in the inspiration folder as reference.Mood words set the direction. Colors and fonts sharpen it. Examples nail it.
Try it
Find two or three websites whose look you love. Screenshot them, and drop the screenshots into an inspiration folder inside your project. Then have Claude describe back to you what they have in common.
See an example prompt
Look at the screenshots in the inspiration folder. Describe the style they share: the mood, colors, fonts and layout. Then suggest how my site could use that style, and add a "Look and feel" section to CLAUDE.md once I agree.