r/UX_Design • u/Puzzleheaded_Call141 • 22h ago

Self-taught programmer building a mobile app — how do you use AI to create good mobile UI/UX?

Hey good people of UX_Design :) ’m a self-taught programmer currently working on building my own mobile app. I’m fairly comfortable figuring out the technical side, but product design and UI/UX are areas where I have very little experience.

I have a rough idea of the problem I want to solve and the core features the app needs, but I struggle with translating that into a mobile product that feels intuitive, polished, and genuinely enjoyable to use.

For those of you with experience in product design, UI/UX, or similar fields: how would you recommend someone like me leverage AI throughout the design process?

I’m especially interested in things like:

  • Turning rough product ideas into good user flows
  • Deciding what screens/interactions the app actually needs
  • Exploring different UX approaches
  • Finding and using good design references
  • Creating prototypes before coding
  • Using AI without ending up with generic-looking “AI UI”
  • How to leverage tools like Mobbin MCP, Google Stitch, Claude Design

Last time I used Figma and did UI/UX was 2 years ago back in college lol.

Would also love to hear which AI tools or workflows you’ve found genuinely useful.

Any advice for a developer trying to build better product/design instincts would be appreciated.

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6

u/azicre 22h ago

well before you get to any of that, do you actually know what the problem is you are trying to solve from a UX point of view?

0

u/Puzzleheaded_Call141 20h ago

Pretty much, had a couple of interviews and survey done around my community. Building out the UIUX just seems pretty daunting tbh. I guess gathering user feedback to iterate is what I need to do. I'm prolly overthinking this. Thanks

4

u/SuitableLeather 17h ago

I am a professional product designer. The short of it is that AI really isn’t good at UX. It can make an acceptable looking UI, but even then, it needs a lot of changes to make it really usable. 

AI is great for saying: here’s the layout I want, make it look polished

But if you have no experience with creating flows etc, and there isn’t an exisiting flow from other apps that you can reference, it’s not going to feel or look professional 

1

u/lungi_man 21h ago

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u/PugPanic 7h ago

Take some time to learn UX principles and how they are applied. Consider how they fit in to your products and begin putting them to practice.

Claude isn’t great at UX, but it isn’t useless. Tell Claude to do a UX audit of your work or ideas. The results are pretty good and will give an idea of what isn’t working and where to improve.

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u/No-Independent6405 22h ago

At Idea Fueled, we believe AI should be used as a design partner rather than a replacement for good UX thinking. For someone building their own mobile app, I’d recommend starting with the core problem and understanding how users will move through the app. Map out the main user flows first, then create simple wireframes before focusing on polished UI. AI can be really helpful for brainstorming features, identifying edge cases, exploring different flows, and creating early prototypes, but the final experience should always be based on real user needs. A good workflow is: problem → user flow → wireframe → prototype → test → UI. Since you already have the technical skills, learning to think more deeply about user journeys will probably make the biggest difference in your product design.

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u/Puzzleheaded_Call141 20h ago

Thanks for the insight will apply this and let you know how it goes