Hands-on guide

Build your prototype with AI

A step-by-step guide to turning your idea into a clickable prototype with the AI of your choice — we recommend Claude. Ready-to-copy prompts included: in about an hour, you'll have something to show.

Let's set the frame from the start: this prototype is the first half of the journey. The second half — turning it into a real, lasting, professional product — is a craft of its own. It happens to be ours, and we'll tell you about it at the end of this guide.
What you'll get

A prototype people can try

By the end of this guide, you'll have an interactive prototype of your idea: a single HTML file you can open in your browser and share around.

A single HTML file

Your prototype fits in one file. It opens in any browser, travels by email and works without installing anything.

Your idea made tangible

An idea told in words stays abstract. A screen people can click triggers real reactions: it's the fastest way to test your intuition.

A basis for conversation

With a prototype in hand, every conversation gets sharper — with your partners, your first users, and with the team that will take it to production.

The tutorial

Four steps to your prototype

No technical skills required. You'll need an idea you care about, the conversational AI of your choice — we recommend Claude — and about an hour.

Clarify your idea

01

Before writing a single prompt, lay the groundwork. The clearer your idea, the more accurate the prototype. Take five minutes to answer these four questions:

  • Who it's for — who is your main user?
  • The problem it solves — what becomes easier thanks to you?
  • The core action — what does the user actually do (book, compare, publish…)?
  • The key screen — what is the most important view of your product?
Concrete examples
  • Who it's for: people looking for unique handcrafted jewelry, bought directly from the maker.
  • The problem it solves: the brand gets lost on big marketplaces — it needs a home that matches its image.
  • The core action: browse the collection and buy a piece.
  • The key screen: the collection page, with quick access to each product.
  • Who it's for: the salon's clients who want to book a treatment without calling.
  • The problem it solves: phone bookings waste time, and sometimes lose appointments.
  • The core action: pick a treatment, pick a time slot, then confirm the booking.
  • The key screen: the treatment and time-slot selection screen.

Generate your prototype

02

Open your AI, then send it the prompt below, replacing the bracketed part with your answers from step 1. It generates a complete HTML file and shows you a preview.

No account yet? Create one for free at claude.ai — the AI we recommend for this exercise.

Prompt 1 — First prototype

I want to create [describe your idea in 2-3 sentences: who it's for, the problem it solves, the user's main action]. Generate an interactive prototype as a single HTML file, with a clean, modern design, that I can open directly in my browser. Focus on the main screen and the key user flow, and use realistic sample data.

On Claude, the result appears as an artifact: an interactive preview window right next to the conversation. On another AI, you'll get a similar preview or the full code to save.
Concrete examples
Prompt 1 — First prototype

I want to create an online store for my handcrafted jewelry brand. It's for people looking for unique pieces bought directly from the maker, and lets them browse the collection and buy a piece. Generate an interactive prototype as a single HTML file, with a clean, modern design, that I can open directly in my browser. Focus on the collection page and the purchase flow, and use realistic sample data.

Prompt 1 — First prototype

I want to create a booking site for my beauty salon. It's for my clients who want to book a treatment without calling: they pick a treatment, choose a time slot and confirm their appointment. Generate an interactive prototype as a single HTML file, with a clean, modern design, that I can open directly in my browser. Focus on the treatment and time-slot selection screen, and use realistic sample data.

Iterate and refine

03

The first result is rarely right on the first try — that's the whole point of the exercise. Ask for adjustments step by step and watch the prototype get closer to your vision with every exchange.

Prompt 2 — Iterate

Here's what I want to change: [list your adjustments]. Keep everything else identical and give me back the complete file, ready to open.

Prompt 3 — Enrich and polish the design

Add [a page / a screen / a visual feature]. Polish the design: [mood, color palette, references you like]. Make everything responsive on mobile.

Concrete examples
Prompt 2 — Iterate

Here's what I want to change: feature the collection right on arrival, add a filter by jewelry type (rings, necklaces, earrings) and soften the palette towards cream and gold tones. Keep everything else identical and give me back the complete file, ready to open.

Prompt 3 — Enrich and polish the design

Add an "Our treatments" page with the duration and a short description of each treatment. Polish the design: spa mood, powdery tones, elegant typography. Make everything responsive on mobile.

Get your prototype

04

Your prototype belongs to you. To save and share it:

  • 1In your AI's artifact or preview, use the download button or copy the full code.
  • 2Save the file with the .html extension — for example "my-prototype.html".
  • 3Double-click it: it opens in your browser, ready to be shown and shared.
What comes next

What a prototype isn't yet

Your prototype makes your idea tangible — that's exactly its job, and it does it well. But before putting it in the hands of real users, here's what remains to be built. And that's normal: no prototype is designed for this, and yours remains an excellent starting point.

01

Security

No data protection, no input validation: a prototype isn't equipped for real-world use, let alone malicious use.

02

Real data

The data on screen is fictional and vanishes on every reload. A product relies on a properly designed, backed-up, managed database.

03

Authentication

Accounts, login, passwords, sessions: all of it remains to be built — and it's one of the trickiest things to get right.

04

Reliability

A prototype works as long as everything goes as planned. A product must absorb errors, edge cases and unexpected usage without losing the user.

05

Performance & scale

Ten visitors or ten thousand: a product must stay fast as the audience grows. That's decided in the architecture, from the foundations.

06

Maintenance

Browsers, dependencies, security flaws: a product's environment never stops moving. Without care, it degrades.

07

Real integrations

Payments, emails, calendars, business tools: the prototype simulates them. The product must connect to them for real, with their constraints and failure cases.

08

Finished features

Beyond the demo screen, every feature must be fully built, tested and validated in all its variants.

09

Polish & identity

Typography, motion, micro-interactions, consistency across every screen: the signature that sets a premium product apart from a demo.

10

Code ownership & control

Generated code without architecture quickly becomes hard to evolve. A product rests on structured, documented code — code that belongs to you.

The natural next step

From prototype to product

You have the prototype; turning that starting point into a real, lasting, professional product is exactly our craft. We audit it together, keep what holds up and architect the rest for production: security, data, reliability, polish. Bring it to us — we'll tell you concretely how we'd turn it into a product.