Build in Public Day 5: UI/UX Prototype — Designing the Product Experience
From solution design to interactive prototype in a single day. Here's how I used Claude and Lovable to build a demo-ready product experience.
With our landing page ready, it's time to shift from selling to showing. The goal today: design and build an interactive prototype of the core product workflow — something real enough to demo to prospects.
The Claude-to-Lovable Pipeline
The process follows the same two-step pipeline as the landing page, but now we're building an application, not a marketing site.
Step 1: Solution design with Claude. I prompted Claude with what the V1 application needs to include: account management, billing management (handling payments), credential storage for integrations (email platforms and notetakers), and the core time-capture workflow. I specified the two integration sources I plan to start with — Microsoft Outlook and Fathom — since I've confirmed API access for both.
Claude produced a comprehensive markdown document with dashboard layouts, report page designs, sample data, navigation structure, and detailed instructions for Lovable.
Step 2: Build with Lovable. I added a custom prompt telling Lovable what I wanted: a sign-in button and page (not functional yet), all CTAs wired to a signup page (also not functional), and a temporary dashboard link that skips authentication so I can go straight into the app for demos. Then I pasted Claude's entire output.
What Lovable Produced
The result was remarkable. A full application with a dashboard showing key metrics, a reports section with individual report views, an activity log, a client list, integration settings for Outlook and Fathom (with connect/disconnect/test functionality), application settings with scheduling controls, account management, and billing.
Lovable even added things I didn't explicitly ask for — search functionality, a billing rate field (which I realized enables us to show monetary value recovered, not just time), and a "mark as reviewed" feature on reports. The billing rate addition was particularly smart: now the dashboard can show users exactly how much money the product is recovering for them.
The Speed Is the Point
In a single day, I went from solution design instructions to a prototype that looks and feels like a fully functional application. It's full of sample data, but to a prospect in a demo, it looks real. This is easily ten times faster than the previous generation of tools.
The key design philosophy: don't add all the bells and whistles yet. Stick to fundamental requirements. Show prospects the core workflow and see how they react. Let their feedback guide what gets added next. Don't fill in gaps or make too many assumptions — that can be a critical mistake.
Your Takeaway
Use Claude to generate detailed solution design instructions for the ONE core workflow your product does. Feed those instructions into Lovable. Focus on making it look and feel real, not technically functional. Add a temporary dashboard link for easy demos. The goal isn't technical perfection — it's having something compelling enough to put in front of prospects and get genuine feedback.
The UI/UX Optimization Playbook
Solution design prompts and templates to build a compelling product prototype in a single day.
Next in the series: Day 6 — Landing Page Launch. We polish and go live on a custom domain.
Ready to Build Your Own SaaS?
Learn how to go from idea to launch in my free 5-day email course — no coding or big budget required.
Start the Free Course