21st.dev

Feed the AI 21st.dev code snippets instead of describing a design. Lazar Jovanovic attaches code snippets from component libraries such as 21st.dev to his prompts. This gives more pixel-perfect results than describing a design in words, and saves the tokens otherwise lost fine-tuning a wrong first design.

His reasoning is that AI tools communicate best in code, so an exact snippet is interpreted better than English or any other spoken language. He uses it when he wants a specific design or behavior. Quote: "If you want to get pixel perfect results, just give them code."

Lenny's Podcast▶ 24:05

Make a 21st.dev snippet one of four or five parallel prototypes. He starts every project by running several versions at once: a voice brain dump, a typed and thought-through prompt, a prompt with a reference screenshot from Mobbin or Dribbble, and a prompt with a code snippet or template from a library like 21st.dev. He compares the results and keeps the clear winner.

He has tested the framework with many people, and each reported it as an eye opener. He says it saves hundreds of credits and days compared with fixing a weak first build. Quote: "You're going to get three, four, five, six different concepts that you can compare. As you're comparing them, clarity just keeps coming."

Lenny's Podcast▶ 22:25