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> Build a one-page site for a neighbourhood coffee shop: opening hours, the address, a short menu and a photo. Nothing on it changes unless I edit it myself. I

> Build a one-page site for a neighbourhood coffee shop: opening hours, the address, a short menu and a photo. Nothing on it changes unless I edit it myself. If that's the entire prompt, it's quite depressing how much alike these all look. I appreciate some of the details from the Opus 5 version, but I can't help but strongly feel the AI vibes emanating from that design.

hombre_fatal 1mo ago
Without more knowledge about the technical aspect, it could be a good thing that they're all so similar. If you tell humans to go from their kitchen to their bedroom, they all stand up and walk the same way. Nobody decides to crab walk. Maybe you'd have to cripple the model in some way to do that. On the other hand, if you want something different with LLMs, all it takes is a few more words of creative flair in the prompt.
- skinfaxi 1mo ago
  This is an interesting point. But even then everyone has their own style. Some might walk with a bit of a swagger, some with a limp, some might have to get in a wheelchair to go over. Would model temperature be another knob to turn beyond a more creative prompt?
  - mym1990 1mo ago
    The models are giving you very average, middle of the road responses. The average human gait doesn't have swagger, limps, or extensive accessibility needs. If you want the swagger, you need to steer it that way.
  - hombre_fatal 1mo ago
    > with a limp > wheelchair You really took "cripple the model" to heart!
    - skinfaxi 1mo ago
      That wasn't my intention and I sincerely did not mean any offense.
      - skeledrew 1mo ago
        I don't think they took offense; more likely what they meant was "limping" and "wheelchair" aren't considered normal ways to get around, because there's an abnormal condition that led to said ways of movement. Similarly LLMs with similar capabilities operating in a normal way should produce relatively similar output.
andy99 1mo ago
It’s always been interesting to see how similar output is across ostensibly very different models. I remember testing short story writing in the early days and having the models all choose the same niche topic across e.g GPT, Llama, Phi, Claude, etc
tantalor 1mo ago
It's also kind of pointless. Why does a coffee shop need a website anyway? Nobody is saying, "man I would love to go to this coffee shop but I can't find their website". If all you want is "opening hours, the address, a short menu and a photo" there are easier and cheaper ways to do that.
- miyoji 1mo ago
  > Nobody is saying, "man I would love to go to this coffee shop but I can't find their website". Me, I'm saying that, and I've skipped going to coffee shops and restaurants because they don't have a website, just a fucking Facebook page. I don't use Meta products and can't see their page if I'm not logged into an account I don't have, so I do what the business owner intended: I go fuck myself and get coffee somewhere else.
  - altmanaltman 1mo ago
    But... why do you want to look up a coffee shop online before going there? Honestly have never heard anyone say this in my life before
    - skinfaxi 1mo ago
      To see the hours, get a sense of the menu. There are many matcha shops by me for instance and my wife likes to check the specials before choosing which one to go to.
      - altmanaltman 1mo ago
        Doesn't most of this show up on google anyway?
        mym1990 1mo ago
        It sounds like you know everything about the internet and people's preferences, why ask?
jamiedumont 1mo ago
I trialed Claude for a sorely needed redesign on my website. I was quite impressed with the results, but decided to hang fire on deploying it. Cue my surprise when I just found the same design applied to a coffee shop! The similarities are beyond coincidence, to the point I'll be scrapping Claude's version of the redesign.
- regexorcist 1mo ago
  When I set up my local AI server I tried different harnesses and one prompt was to build a site for a consultancy in my domain. Not long after an actual agency I know had a website redesign and it was the exact same thing I got from my local model and the Hermes agent with the web design skill.
Schlagbohrer 1mo ago
A user, even without much design background, could ask the AI in a follow up prompt to change a few key parameters like overall color and differentiate it more. Even taking a sample image from a design magazine or blog and saying "incorporate some of the design elements here" would probably work great to diverge it.
thatmf 1mo ago
I found it pretty interesting. To me, the GPT Sol and Luna ones are the nicest, which is not what I was expecting. Font choice goes a long way. The Opus ones are acceptable, but still disappointing. The rest are hideous.
giarc 1mo ago
I was thinking the same thing, but I suspect there was something more to it. Check out this sentence from the page. >Our default skills also include some UI design guidance, mainly to avoid known gotchas (e.g., the now-dreaded purple AI slop) and get the model to reason about the visual identity appropriate for the user’s ask. But beyond that, each model is free to go build what it thinks we’ll want.
fasterik 1mo ago
I think this is exactly what we should expect. LLMs are engineered to produce the most likely output given the training data. When you give it a generic design task, you're going to get a distillation of design cliches and tropes from the past decade.
forgotTheLast 1mo ago
Don't blame LLMs if the zeitgeist for coffee shop websites is sepia tones and a Papyrus-like font. My university's Principles of WebDev course 10 years ago had a similar assignment and the results all ended up looking like that too.
NichoPaolucci 1mo ago
Reminds me of the Bootstrap era. I can't count the amount of websites with a centered header navigation, slightly rounded accent color buttons, hero section that was mostly text, and some "fun quirk" in the background, either geometric shapes or squiggles or something. I think websites have always looked mostly alike. It's sorta always been a thing. Reminds me of "Corporate Memphis" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Memphis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Memphis) It's alright though, because some people are OK with middle of the road (Wordpress, Boostrap, Squarespace templates, now AI). And others are willing to either pay a developer to get involved or put in the extra effort to differentiate themselves.

hombre_fatal 1mo ago

Without more knowledge about the technical aspect, it could be a good thing that they're all so similar. If you tell humans to go from their kitchen to their bedroom, they all stand up and walk the same way. Nobody decides to crab walk. Maybe you'd have to cripple the model in some way to do that. On the other hand, if you want something different with LLMs, all it takes is a few more words of creative flair in the prompt.

skinfaxi 1mo ago
This is an interesting point. But even then everyone has their own style. Some might walk with a bit of a swagger, some with a limp, some might have to get in a wheelchair to go over. Would model temperature be another knob to turn beyond a more creative prompt?
- mym1990 1mo ago
  The models are giving you very average, middle of the road responses. The average human gait doesn't have swagger, limps, or extensive accessibility needs. If you want the swagger, you need to steer it that way.
- hombre_fatal 1mo ago
  > with a limp > wheelchair You really took "cripple the model" to heart!
  - skinfaxi 1mo ago
    That wasn't my intention and I sincerely did not mean any offense.
    - skeledrew 1mo ago
      I don't think they took offense; more likely what they meant was "limping" and "wheelchair" aren't considered normal ways to get around, because there's an abnormal condition that led to said ways of movement. Similarly LLMs with similar capabilities operating in a normal way should produce relatively similar output.

andy99 1mo ago

It’s always been interesting to see how similar output is across ostensibly very different models. I remember testing short story writing in the early days and having the models all choose the same niche topic across e.g GPT, Llama, Phi, Claude, etc

tantalor 1mo ago

It's also kind of pointless. Why does a coffee shop need a website anyway? Nobody is saying, "man I would love to go to this coffee shop but I can't find their website". If all you want is "opening hours, the address, a short menu and a photo" there are easier and cheaper ways to do that.

miyoji 1mo ago
> Nobody is saying, "man I would love to go to this coffee shop but I can't find their website". Me, I'm saying that, and I've skipped going to coffee shops and restaurants because they don't have a website, just a fucking Facebook page. I don't use Meta products and can't see their page if I'm not logged into an account I don't have, so I do what the business owner intended: I go fuck myself and get coffee somewhere else.
- altmanaltman 1mo ago
  But... why do you want to look up a coffee shop online before going there? Honestly have never heard anyone say this in my life before
  - skinfaxi 1mo ago
    To see the hours, get a sense of the menu. There are many matcha shops by me for instance and my wife likes to check the specials before choosing which one to go to.
    - altmanaltman 1mo ago
      Doesn't most of this show up on google anyway?
      - mym1990 1mo ago
        It sounds like you know everything about the internet and people's preferences, why ask?

jamiedumont 1mo ago

I trialed Claude for a sorely needed redesign on my website. I was quite impressed with the results, but decided to hang fire on deploying it. Cue my surprise when I just found the same design applied to a coffee shop! The similarities are beyond coincidence, to the point I'll be scrapping Claude's version of the redesign.

regexorcist 1mo ago
When I set up my local AI server I tried different harnesses and one prompt was to build a site for a consultancy in my domain. Not long after an actual agency I know had a website redesign and it was the exact same thing I got from my local model and the Hermes agent with the web design skill.

Schlagbohrer 1mo ago

A user, even without much design background, could ask the AI in a follow up prompt to change a few key parameters like overall color and differentiate it more. Even taking a sample image from a design magazine or blog and saying "incorporate some of the design elements here" would probably work great to diverge it.

thatmf 1mo ago

I found it pretty interesting. To me, the GPT Sol and Luna ones are the nicest, which is not what I was expecting. Font choice goes a long way. The Opus ones are acceptable, but still disappointing. The rest are hideous.

giarc 1mo ago

I was thinking the same thing, but I suspect there was something more to it. Check out this sentence from the page. >Our default skills also include some UI design guidance, mainly to avoid known gotchas (e.g., the now-dreaded purple AI slop) and get the model to reason about the visual identity appropriate for the user’s ask. But beyond that, each model is free to go build what it thinks we’ll want.

fasterik 1mo ago

I think this is exactly what we should expect. LLMs are engineered to produce the most likely output given the training data. When you give it a generic design task, you're going to get a distillation of design cliches and tropes from the past decade.

forgotTheLast 1mo ago

Don't blame LLMs if the zeitgeist for coffee shop websites is sepia tones and a Papyrus-like font. My university's Principles of WebDev course 10 years ago had a similar assignment and the results all ended up looking like that too.

NichoPaolucci 1mo ago

Reminds me of the Bootstrap era. I can't count the amount of websites with a centered header navigation, slightly rounded accent color buttons, hero section that was mostly text, and some "fun quirk" in the background, either geometric shapes or squiggles or something. I think websites have always looked mostly alike. It's sorta always been a thing. Reminds me of "Corporate Memphis" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Memphis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Memphis) It's alright though, because some people are OK with middle of the road (Wordpress, Boostrap, Squarespace templates, now AI). And others are willing to either pay a developer to get involved or put in the extra effort to differentiate themselves.