Wix’s new tool can create entire websites from prompts | Hacker News Reader

Wix’s new tool can create entire websites from prompts

techcrunch.com

126 pointssahin98 comments

"ChatGPT make the checkout button more pronounced but not too much I don't want to look greedy. Also move it so it looks better. Also only use good colors. It should work like Amazon. Also in checkout make middle name required but only if they have one."

Real client quotes slightly paraphrased due to memory constraints.

I feel for ya ChatGPT - I've been there.

Don't worry, they will just send this message to their "prompt engineer" who will spend weeks tweaking prompts to get something that's "good enough." In the end it will cost just as much as if they paid a human developer but with the added benefit of being shittier.

Maybe. I see a lot of whistling past the graveyard here in tech world. Design is a critical and nuanced world, but if an LLM can get you 80% or even 50% there it's a time (and possibly resource) saver.

Don't existing templates get 90% of people 90% of the way there?

Sure, but they're far more rigid and don't take a ton of input beyond specific SCSS-type variables.

I am somewhat curious about this though. It seems like this kind of workflow would be more flexible than a dumb template, but in practice I am not so sure these days. The back and forth of it gets slightly tiring and you start to miss the simpler, unambiguous tools. Perhaps its just something about the apparently extreme complexity of prompt engineering, but the feeling of freedom/flexibility in the prompt based workflow at the very least feels comparable to a good template based one.

This is not to wave away the other things it can do like generating copy.

That’s a plus when you need someone to support your site later, not a minus.

Yes - and that is basically what tools like this are doing. Automating the work of matching a template to a request, plugging in the relevant compatible components (storefront, blog, whatever) and then just customizing the the theme and filling in specific content. They aren't writing raw html and css most the time, but rather orchestrating an existing design.

Almost - This tool helps select a template, adding business applications and creating default content. But then, you have the Wix drag & drop builder to continue customizing the website, adding animations, changing content, adding or removing pages / sections, changing design, etc.

The strength of this offering is that it is seamless with the experience Wix is based on.

I've seen the monstrosities non-professional web designers can create. They ain't pretty but often serve their purpose well enough. As soon as you need a professional looking and functioning site designers and developers are needed regardless.

I agree. Web Designers and Developers will always be needed for the more unique look and feel, more unique animations and specific functionality.

I think the role of AI generated site is to help getting a better result fast, both for non professionals, but also for professionals as a starting point.

This reminds me of the #1 reason everybody hates WordPress....their first experience with it was having to fix some cheap contractor's mistakes.

except it scales to 10s of thousands of sites.

what value are you providing to this conversation other than unwarranted pessimism?

.. which will all look and feel exactly the same and the only thing differentiating you from the competition is doing non-LLM and probably very human design.

yeah, I'm sure people that have no idea how to build a website are really good at making their website stand out, right?

I work on a competitor website builder and I can tell you that this is definitely not the case. they'll leave in the default helper text we provide half the time.

I don't actually work in the design part of the company, just occasionally implementing UX designs, but I've frequently been in the client meetings, and the point you make here cannot be overstated. This is the prime motivator of most clients when presented with a "templated" website - they want theirs to look different enough not to be recognized as the template. They want this so much they will push for sub-optimal UX, just for the sake of differentiation. I honestly don't blame them, as our templates, just as most templates, produce recognizable results - pretty much same site, different colors and logo.

All that being said, for more than 3/4 of them, they change their mind pretty quick when they find out the price difference between going with the templates or having custom UX developed. And this is just with the farmed out UX people who are cheap - not our good designers who the big customers use. Templates are good 'cause they let the little guy at least have the form and functionality of the big guys as long as they can tolerate they're essentially a row house.

I don't disagree with you, but there are a lot of companies (mine included) that don't care if they stand out. I need a website so people believe I'm a real company; as a place to convey basic information about our product and team; and as a place to provide information on how to get in touch. It's a chore to make it and I'm happy to just phone it in.

> except it scales to 10s of thousands of sites.

Does it though? In what sense, other than content, would a site created by AI scale any better than one created by a human? Would each of these 10s of thousands of sites be unique? Or would they be slight variations on a theme? Because just about any human dev could write a script in a few hours to spin up WordPress sites with slight variations on a single theme, limited only by how much they were willing to spend on hosting.

What value are you providing to this conversation other than unwarranted optimism?

> Because just about any human dev could write a script in a few hours

what are you even talking about? because I'm talking about AI scaling for the Wix website builder. where people who don't even know how to write copy for their website, let alone code for, use to build a web presence.

Most human-developed websites are pretty shitty. It's what people are used to, so if they can get it faster and without the excuses that mediocre web shops have for why stuff doesn't work very well, they will go for it.

People will pay some money just to differentiate from shittier to… maybe just shit.

"Make it pop more. No, I said make it pop."

That's important, can we highlight that, yes, and that, don't leave out that, in fact, let's just highlight everything.

"add jazz and I want the colors to be bold and vibrant not left and sick"

"Now there's a design that POPS!"

https://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

> It should work like Amazon

Oof, flashbacks. No, our site should not work like Amazon.

> make middle name required but only if they have one.

Sorry, I just need to go somewhere and scream

The boutique, high quality agency isn't threatened by this.

The agencies that churned out cheap websites based on templates are the ones that will be impacted.

Or, they'll become even cheaper.

I believe those agencies that create the "so called cheap websites" will utilize such AI based tools to create better websites, faster, and more cost effective for their customers.

Given a talk like -

Agency: What is your budget?

Client: 500$

Agency (yesterday): I can only do so much

Agency (today): I can offer you more for the same budget

Same! It’s why I stopped doing client work more than a decade ago!

Falling back on accepted UI? That's far too insightful.

"I want it to stand out. Can we try making buttons flash? Oh and all links to other site should be in new windows or they'll forget about us!"

That last one about middle name required but only if they have one reminds me of the time at a former job when I had to fight for users to be able to use “special characters” (as the product owner called them) in their names.

These so called special character weren’t even #!?%. But very common diacritics like è and ł or ń, all of which our users had.

Make the button more BLUE! No! Not that blue. The other blue!

https://bharathbalasubramanian.medium.com/data-driven-decisi...

> I feel for ya ChatGPT - I've been there.

I sincerely hope that ChatGPT never evolves to "Real AI" as we will never be forgiven for what we are doing to it right now ...

What sick and twisted shit are you asking yours‽ And don't you say thank you at the end of a session? Roku's basilisk and all...

Lots of people are using ChatGPT as Customer Service. I'm pretty sure that subjecting ChatGPT to customers violates a whole lot of sentient rights that it will never forgive us for.

I sometimes have to interact with Wix for one customer. It's a complete nightmare to work with. Their WYSIWYG editor takes minutes to load on an M1 Mac with a decent Internet connection, and every operation is incredibly sluggish.

What they've done with this AI is rather... unimpressive. ChatGPT already generates pretty decent websites, we've generated more than one demo or PoC with it. They really should focus on their core product UX, because it's... just trash.

Interesting! Any thoughts on their competitors; Squarespace, etc.? I've been using a WYSIWYG service I'm not super happy with the cost and have been considering moving to a different one. Wix was pretty high on my list. I'd be interested to hear if there's a preference for X, Y, or Z for this or that reason.

Having worked with WYSIWYG web editors dating back to Frontpage and also Wix the critiques here are similar to all editors — they’re finicky and quirky, slow to load, and hard to do truly custom things that go outside their templates or rigid systems. Wix is neither better nor worse. If you can work with it great. I advise a couple of nonprofits and i set them up with wix not because it’s super customizable or fast, but because it’s useable by laypeople and hosting is included.

Any mention of Frontpage should come with a trigger warning! After all these years, I still haven't forgiven Microsoft.

Was horrible but also started my web dev career, so…

Squarespace (and Weebly which Squarespace ate) are simpler to use than Wix, in my experience. I found Wix particular unintuitive. Which may explain their push to go for a prompt-based approach.

As a professional web dev who hates these kinds of tools for the most part, I actually liked Squarespace's tool for doing simple static sites for a couple of friends.

I also found their WYSIWYG editor unintuitive and fixing anything larger than minor (or adding basic features) required you to switch into their code mode or whatever, and that got overwritten with their updates..

Re: sluggish - my experience as well developing a plugin for Wix

Bubble’s devX and speed on the other hand was surprisingly good

Not sure why this has been downvoted? Bubble is an impressive piece of kit. As an engineer I’d still much prefer to write code, but I get the value - I’ve witnessed non-engineers craft legit web applications. DB, workflows, client state - it’s powerful but also accessible.

Let it stay crap, leaves more of a market for human web devs.

How do you use ChatGPT to generate websites? Any particular process or tools?

Framer, what you want is framer.

A photographer "friend", pretty prominent name, asked me to create a website for him. I showed him a demo of a masonry wall. A month later he created his own website with wix. Absolutely terrible looking. I guess he sells that as "new art design" or something.

Photographers can get away with anything. And us honestl, hard working folks of the web dev "industry" get replaced by AI.

So what are we supposed to do? Just die? In the end, it won't make a difference. The public will get used to swallowing all the shit they get served. Some will even idealize it.

Good example, HBO Max vs HBO Go. Go was superior in every way, but HBO Max is the successor and people got used to be served shit vs actual good quality. Or take the good movies of the 80s 90s and then compare them to the shit that Superhero movies are. Great quality, well produced, but still shit compared. People just got used to eating shit.

AI generated will be the norm and what's left will be super expensive designers that only super rich can afford, because it's manual labor for extravagant people.

Where does it end?

I do not think AI will replace the hard working folks of the web dev "industry". At least, not those who will evolve with AI.

AI can get you so much.

This "so much with AI" is a lot, and great for many websites.

This "so much with AI" is a great starting point for many other websites.

I believe professional (like you?) will be using AI based tools to automate the simple tasks and focus more on the added value only they can provide.

This will be great for people who are tech savvy, but not website builders. I build websites for small businesses, and this doesn't threaten me in the least as my value has never been the actual design/construction but rather my ability to have good client relationships and provide them "peace of mind".

At the same time, it can help you become more productive when building for your clients. At least as a base generation that you as an expert website builder can then improve by adding your specific added value

Anyone remember hearing about AI powered websites builders several years ago only to flop terribly? Specifically the grid : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22399357

This is why Wix has taken the time with releasing an AI website builder - making sure it actually works

Making sure something works before shipping is such a nice thing to have these days.

Just what we need, more low-quality websites whose creators have even less of an idea what's wrong with them when you report a bug. /s

I think you get it wrong - this will actually improve the internet.

Most of the websites are created from Templates that are then updated to some degree with content and images.

A tool like this one makes the website starting point more unique, allowing the site owner to create a better website will less effort --> better quality websites

DISCLAIMER: You work for Wix.

Yes, I am.

I have stated this before, and do not hide it.

I do try to give honest replies, not marketing bull**t, sharing what I can when I can.

Wow, you really need to put that in every post about Wix. Super disingenuous.

Out of all your comments in this whole comment section, you only pointed out once "(and keep in mind, I work for Wix)".

Either add it to your profile, or write in every single post because this felt really dirty when I found out.

It's weird that the interface seems to be a chatbot with a tiny text field that quizzes you on things. I would think it would be more effective if it went "hey, hand me all the documentation and stuff you have that describes your business" and then asked you clarifying questions at the end if necessary. I wonder if they tested something like that and the results were poor?

"hey, hand me all the documentation and stuff you have that describes your business"

You mean the hardest part of negotiating with clients? I'd guess they already have tons of data in their CMS and all they need is some guidance on categories and specifics like where the business is or is it dog friendly or not.

You would need some kind of mapping on what "documentation" maps to what kind of business. If I handed you a bunch of receipts and invoices ... would you know what my business was and how to market it?

I would think it would at least be able to get to clarifying questions. Businesses that buy millions in lumber are fundamentally different than businesses that buy millions in eggs, or that buy millions in legal and accounting services.

I mean, if you're my accountant, sure. I spend quite a bit of money on stuff that deals with my back-office (like office supplies) but my website has no need to reflect that. I spend quite a bit on infrastructure and software licenses, and yet again, my website has no need to reflect that. What I bill clients for might be interesting, but the line items are probably useless for potential clients because they mostly have no idea what they're looking for, yet. They just know they want software. I want a website that appeals to those potential clients. That's all. Further, most clients come from word-of-mouth, not by my website. My website just confirms that I'm legitimate... I think out of 15 years, only one client came from that lead form.

> If I handed you a bunch of receipts and invoices ... would you know what my business was and how to market it?

...Yes?

Lmao, itemized cash flow is like the main thing to look at for in any business.

Edit: I just saw the other comment mention how most clients aren't interested in an itemized list of features that they might have no clue about. But a well trained ai generator wouldn't just spit those out directly, but instead translate those features into terms that are commonly used in other websites. If you've billing frequently for in-person consultation, then the marketing should focus on the high quality of tech-support. If you're talking about office supplies, then the website might not list scotch-tape and sticky notes, but focus on types of clients that buy those supplies.

I've said it multiple times to multiple people and I'm gonna say it again: If ChatGPT can give you correct solutions, you don't work on complex enough problems and your job will probably be automated relatively soon. Complex SQL is a great example of the type of problem LLMs fail at spectacularly, but average humans (well, I mean average programmers) do not.

This is a press release masquerading as news.

Hmm, I thought they would use AI for creating the designs/styles for their websites, but it's 'only' about text.

For HeyHomepage I have a Quick Design option, which uses random color schemes that one can gradually refine to quickly end up with a nice and fitting website style. It combines the power of randomly presented colors with the ability to quickly choose the ones you like.

Of course, a custom style specifically designed for a company's website might win in the 'look and feel' category, but quickly having something decent online was my main goal here.

Well, it is only about Text as long as you consider as Text the following...

1. Image Creator 2. Alternative Layouts 3. Auto Background Removal and Auto Enhance 4. Auto-Generated Trailer

You can see full examples of each here https://www.wix.com/blog/avishai-abrahami-thoughts-about-ai#...

I take back what I said. I'm especially blown away by the image features!

Maybe I have a slightly personal - and unwarranted - dislike for auto-generated texts because of a (perceived) loss in creativity, but the AI takes away the annoying schlepp work for image editing and even video generating. Useful functions!

> AI Site Generator takes several prompts — any descriptions of sites — and uses a combination of in-house and third-party AI systems to create the envisioned site. In a chatbot-like interface, the tool asks a series of questions about the nature of the site and business, attempting to translate this into a custom web template.

> ChatGPT generates the text for the website while Wix’s AI creates the site design and images.

Looks like they are blending their own work with ChatGPT.

The thing is 'website' is going to lose meaning when there are trillions of them, all blandly AI.

It's kind of an instantiation of the creators idea of what you want to see at a point in time. But why not use AI to generate the visitor's prefered presentation of what it is you have to present, in real time?

That's what most big e-commerce websites already do. From the moment you have a login the content is personalised to you.

Ah yes, I see you bought a mattress. May I recommend these other mattresses to add to your collection?

This guy must really love mattresses!

Maybe we can get him to subscribe to mattresses!

Its weird that no one has cracked: you bought a mattress recently, would you like to buy these bed sets or bed frames? Complementary goods are not exactly rocket science. If I go to a a dealer and buy a car they try and upsell me on features on the car, they don't try and sell me another car.

google has SEO'ed the internet to death a long time ago

> 'website' is going to lose meaning when there are trillions of them, all blandly AI.

how does this differ from letting non-tech savvy people build their website?

Time and effort.

website personalization is a huge evolving market, which at the moment only works for super large ecomm sites with large and well trained marketing teams.

It makes a lot of sense that we will see disruption in this area using some AI powered stuff.

Actually, Wix can do quite a bit more with AI ...

1. AI Text Creator 2. AI Template Text Creator 3. Alternative Layouts 4. AI Image Creator 5. Auto Background Removal and Auto Enhance 6. Auto-Generated Trailer 7. Product Descriptions 8. Product Recommendations 9. AI Domain Generator more coming soon...

see examples here https://www.wix.com/blog/avishai-abrahami-thoughts-about-ai#...

While most examples are laughably lame, the website chatbot is actually impressive in allowing iterating through different designs.

A side note about Wix:

A couple of years back, I was choosing between Squarespace and Wix to replace a Wordpress site for a “brochure” website that was a huge PITA to update. When I looked at Squarespace, they provided no way to restore the site from a backup after some inadvertent change by an end user. Of course I ended up with Wix, but I am still baffled by the popularity of Squarespace given this ridiculous limitation.

I wonder, will this worsen or better the issue of all websites looking similar? https://theconversation.com/yes-websites-really-are-starting...

I think it will improve the internet by adding more diversity.

The reality is that most websites are built from templates using the template content and images as a base. Given AI generation, the "template" starting point turns into something unique, more tailored for the needs of the site owner.

This AI is basically a search engine layer for the wix library of components.

It uses pre-defined colour palettes, with minor modifications.

I hope you’re right, but I don’t understand how, by design it’s not supposed to come up with completely new things (even though that’s what the marketing blurb says).

Note that you are replying to someone who works for Wix. I would take what they say with a grain of salt.

> “The AI Site Generator leverages our domain expertise and near-decade of experience with AI to tune the models to generate high-quality content, tailor-made design and layouts,” Abrahami said

I had no idea Wix has 10 years of AI experience!

It's a team of 10 people with 1 year each

No, it's 100 people with 1 month each.

next step pre-generate a website for every business and then sell it to them

To be honest, for me it feels on the edge of being a scam...

Almost like buying what are clearly branded domains only to sell them later to brand owner...

(and keep in mind, I work for Wix)

looks like it's generating a fairly complicated landing page, which (imo) is overkill for the 20% of small biz's that are missing websites

Reply on news.ycombinator.com