Why do we actually care about AI Frontend Dev right now?
With AI becoming part of almost every tool we use — Figma, Canva, Adobe, and beyond — the urgency to understand where it adds real value (and where it doesn’t) has never been greater.
And instead of leaving it at theory, we did what engineers do best: we tested it.
Two of our engineers, Anton Herasymenko and Ivan Datsunov, set up an internal experiment. The goal was clear: assess how far AI can go in converting static designs into functioning code without much manual input.
The setup was intentionally simple. We took a set of Figma screens — representing the client’s idea for a new application — and gave them to a coding assistant. No database, no APIs, no fully mapped-out logic. Just the design and the challenge: Can we generate meaningful front-end code with minimal developer effort using AI tools?
The intention wasn’t to build a production-ready app. Instead, we wanted to understand the boundaries. Where does AI help? Where does it fail? And more importantly — how can we use this insight to work smarter?
IIt didn’t take long to see where AI tools like Cursor and similar developer assistants could genuinely accelerate progress.
The models handled basic layout structure well. Things like forms, buttons, standard input flows, and container components were generated with a fair degree of accuracy. In terms of raw speed, this was impressive. What would normally take half a day of repetitive coding now took a few minutes.
This is where AI frontend dev shows real promise — accelerating routine UI generation and giving teams a faster starting point. More importantly, these auto-generated components served as a working base for further development. Developers could quickly modify or refine what was generated instead of starting from scratch. That kind of head start is valuable in MVP stages or fast iterations.
As Ivan Datsunov explained during the debrief, “If it’s a straightforward UI, AI can absolutely help you move faster. It won’t get it perfect, but it’ll get you 70–80% of the way. And that’s already a win.”
The moment we moved beyond the visual layer, things became more complicated.
Any time the application needed to reflect non-standard behavior, custom workflows, or domain-specific logic, the AI struggled. It lacked the context to interpret what the business actually needed. And the effort it took to prompt and re-prompt the model into doing the right thing quickly outweighed the benefit of using it at all.
As Ivan pointed out, "You start spending more time trying to explain what you want than if you just wrote the code manually."
This aligned perfectly with our corporate statement: AI doesn’t magically increase productivity just because it’s there. It only helps if you’re solving the right problem in the right way.
This experiment wasn’t just about exploring a cool feature. It was a direct response to an open question within our team. It was also a proof of how we approach new technologies at Opinov8, not with blind enthusiasm, but with curiosity, structure, and a focus on real outcomes.
Christian Aaen, our co-founder, framed it well: “AI won’t solve everything. But if we learn where it fits, it will absolutely change the way we work.”
He also raised an idea that might shape our next experiment: Can we improve AI output by training it on our existing codebase? If a model could learn our architecture and coding conventions, would its suggestions become more useful? That’s a conversation we plan to continue.
We’re now preparing a similar experiment on the backend side — where logic, performance, and structure are even more critical. Following our AI Frontend Dev test, where we focused on generating UI components, the next step is to see how AI performs when it comes to state management, authentication, API handling, and more.
This is part of a larger, ongoing effort across Opinov8 to understand how AI should fit into our delivery pipeline — at every stage, from discovery and design to deployment and scale.
And as always, we believe the best insights come not from reading whitepapers, but from building things ourselves.
AI Frontend Dev refers to the use of AI-powered tools to automate parts of frontend development — like generating layout, components, or boilerplate code from design files.
AI tools can generate basic UI components and structure from Figma designs. However, they often fall short when it comes to complex logic, data flow, or domain-specific requirements.
No, the goal wasn’t to launch a production-ready app. The experiment focused on understanding where AI adds value in the early stages of frontend development.
AI tools are helpful for speeding up repetitive tasks and scaffolding UIs. But they struggle with custom logic and need close developer supervision.
When it comes to generating a new project, service, product, or feature, you need to know that in today’s world, a good idea and execution aren’t enough. Your idea needs to rest on a solid foundation and is desirable for users, technically feasible, and commercially viable to help companies reduce any problems that might be occurring down the road.
Almost any design cycle starts with a discovery phase, which is instrumental in setting the project off in the right direction. The UX discovery phase is a key factor in every project that involves product development.
This is a critical part of Opinov8’s UX/UI design services that helps us to provide a flawless user experience. In this article, we will share key details about the UX discovery phase and feature ideation during our development of an advanced electric scooter rental app for City Ride.
The key concept idea was to create an app for renting electric scooters, but with the additional condition that the app should be useful, interactive, and enjoyable. We decided to begin with a Discovery stage to fulfill an outstanding user experience and ideate a functionality to make the target audience users switch to our application.
To develop the optimal scooter rental app, our team first conducted market research and competitor analysis to determine this niche market’s general trends and features. Most apps in this space are focused exclusively on rental and payment tasks. None of the competitive apps offered additional features or innovations. This omission provided a golden opportunity for City Ride’s app to stand out functionally from the rest of the market by introducing advanced features while maintaining the app’s usefulness and simplicity. Another key theme was to encourage tourists to rent scooters. Cycling tourism is already well established, enabling renters to visit tourist attractions or become better acquainted with a city along their selected routes. Although still in the developmental stage, electric scooter tourism is growing.
After studying the market in greater detail, our team concluded that the tourism concept offered enough advantages to succeed. Every big city has notable sights, but it often takes a lot of time to travel between them. Taxis are not affordable for everyone, and bus tours operate on set schedules and can be crowded. Electric scooter rentals provide a perfect solution, empowering independent tourism by offering speed, freedom, and accessibility.
Keep reading: What is User Experience and why is it important
To develop this concept, we conducted user interviews to discover how potential customers use similar apps in real life. During the focus group interviews, we uncovered key pain points and brainstormed potential solutions to develop a unique set of functionalities that would enable the app to meet all the basic rental requirements as well as enhance the renter’s user experience.
“We must understand for whom we were creating this product to make it as relevant as possible to the audience’s needs and not create unnecessary difficulties for them.” — Olga Shepelenko, UX/UI designer.
Based on our interviews, we found that when using a rental application, many users switch away from the rental app to their phone’s map app for navigation purposes. We proposed embedding a navigator in the City Ride rental app that would guide users without this inconvenience. When a user selects a destination on the app’s map, the app determines the best route. The user can place the phone in a holder attached to the steering wheel. This novel feature enables users to follow their route on the app’s map.
But we did not stop there. We added an option to choose an audio sightseeing tour on the route, taking into consideration both distance and planned time. We also included a section with bonuses and promotional codes to enhance client retention and loyalty. Users can collect points for specific achievements, such as the number of kilometers traveled, reporting a malfunction, or recommending the application to friends.
“When working with functionality, it is important to clarify that we have a list of necessary functions that are inherent in all applications in this niche, without which the application could not fulfill its main goal, as well as a list of recommended functions that could improve and improve our application.” — Yuliya Guseva UX Designer.
We created a concept that would correspond to the conditions in which the user would access it. To deal with this task, we decided to use a light theme with contrasting colors. This decision is justified by the fact that when using the application outdoors in sunlight, the visibility of the screen can be significantly reduced, and due to the light background and the contrast of the elements, the user would not have problems with the visibility of the interface.
One of our innovations in the interface of the electric scooter rental application is the screen during the trip in 2 modes. One of them displays the user's position on the map and his movement. And the second mode is presented as a real-time trip, where the person can check the route by following the image and the guiding arrows on the screen. These solutions are, at the same time, quite perceptible and allow the user to explore different possibilities.
When designing the app, we included both essential rental and payment functionality and killer features to distinguish it from competitors in the electric scooter rental market. Our UX research identified weaknesses in competing applications, and we analyzed user experience to identify functional problems and opportunities to add novel features. Our solution makes it possible to attract new users to the application — both locals using scooters for daily transportation as well as tourists and other visitors. With this in mind, City Ride would stand out from the competition and be in high demand. We also ensured that the proposed ideas would be easy to implement, enhancing further development and speeding up time to market.
May interest you: City Ride | Nominated to UX Design Awards
Have you ever wondered how it is so easy to navigate between some websites while with others, it's challenging even to identify the provided action items? Just think about your experience with Amazon, Apple, or Google products. What makes these websites or products stand out?
The answer to all these questions is better User Experience (UX) Design. What they did was change the way we interact with these products, making them easy to use. Such first-rate companies invest millions of dollars in the user experience of their products, contributing to sales and revenue growth.
Most of us have heard about user experience, but some are still confused about what it is. The good news is that there's never been a better time to learn about it. In this article, you will learn what UX Design is and how to create a good UX strategy to make our digital products stand out.
User Experience (UX) refers to a person's overall experience when interacting with a digital product, such as a website, app, or software. UX design involves creating user-centered designs that meet the needs and goals of the users while also considering the technical and business requirements of the product. It encompasses all user interaction aspects, including visual design, ease of use, accessibility, functionality, and user satisfaction.
UX for websites and apps is critical to the overall design and development process. It can significantly impact the user's experience and overall satisfaction with the product having an incidence in metrics such as NPS (Net Promoter Score).
UX strategy is an integral part of product design. It involves defining and guiding the overall vision and approach to UX design within an organization through the following steps:
You can engage an expert vendor if your company seeks UX expertise to design from scratch or assess an existing digital product. Opinov8 specializes in designing user interfaces and user experiences for various products and has UX consultants to help organizations improve their product experiences by providing expert advice and recommendations.
Contact an Opinov8 Customer Experience & UX/UI expert to develop new ideas for your business together.
Creating products that convert, engage, and receive rave reviews in the digital world is no easy feat. That's why User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design have become the holy grail of digital success, bolstering your Net Promoter Score (NPS) and driving actual results. And if you're ready to take your UX/UI game to the next level, buckle up! We've got the top ten best practices that will take you from "meh" to magnificent in no time.
In today's highly competitive digital landscape, companies that invest in good UX design can differentiate themselves from their competitors and increase user base and engagement. And the least but not least – a thought-through UX design can help reduce development costs by identifying usability issues early in the design process, which can prevent costly rework later on.
Overall, these ten best UX practices are important because they help to create a positive user experience, which is crucial for the success of any product or service. By incorporating these practices into the design process, you can create a product or service that is easy to use, engaging, and meets the needs of your users, leading to increased user satisfaction, engagement, and, ultimately, business success.
At Opinov8, we will help your company to incorporate these practices into the design and development process, aiming that your company create products that are user-friendly, accessible, and provide a positive experience for the end-user. Ready to talk, or do you need help with a project? Contact our UX Experts.
Opinov8 is thrilled to have been named to the 2022 International Design Awards’ Honorable Mention and Official Selection list in the Web Application category.
Each year, the IDA recognizes legendary design visionaries globally. The recognition was for FinApp, one of the Opinov8 CX design team’s case studies created. Being recognized by such a reputable organization as the IDA DESIGN AWARDS motivates us to work harder and be even more creative.
Founded in 2007, the IDA DESIGN AWARDS’s mission is to celebrate smart and sustainable multidisciplinary designs from across the world. Today it’s a highly regarded organization that recognizes and promotes “exceptional design visionaries”. Celebrating its 16th year in 2022, the IDA announced winners in five disciplines: architecture, interior design, product design, graphic design, and fashion design. We’re honored that the IDA recognized our work and excited to walk you through our award-winning project.
To implement one of our case studies, we created a conceptual vision of FinApp, a smart financial companion for everyone. The app’s core concept is to provide users with a simple overview of their financial situation, using smart data algorithms to categorize earnings and spending and identify hidden costs in their spending habits. As a result, users gain insights into their financial health, enabling them to make better decisions and achieve more financial autonomy.
The app helps users track their savings, investments, and bill payments, and it keeps them up to date on changes to their credit scores. The app also makes the experience feel as simple as possible, providing users the ability to make payments on the go and to freeze or unfreeze a credit card instantly.
Our design concept was driven by the goal of making a stand-out app with bold and vibrant design, but at the same time to avoid distracting users’ attention from its core function: tracking savings and investments. We paid special attention to UI trends, which we emphasized with slightly aggressive aesthetics, making sure the design would leave a lasting impression. To achieve this result, we used vibrant colors with large clickable areas and unified all pages with a common theme to encourage users to act.
Every day, our team is delighted to be able to do what we love, so it’s particularly gratifying for our work to be recognized. The IDA DESIGN AWARDS is an incredible milestone for us, but it’s definitely not our final destination. We have so much more to explore and create, and we couldn’t be more excited about what tomorrow will bring.
Here at Opinov8, Opinov8rs represent our culture. Cover Stories portray the richness within all of us, the differences that make us who we are.
In this edition, we will talk with Maria B., our UX/UI Designer. We talked about how it's never too late to start doing what you like, how to find ourselves and not be afraid to try something new.
Get to know Maria a little more through this Cover Story, and don’t miss the opportunity to join us and be part of this gr8 adventure too!
I joined the company as an intern, and I was the first and only designer at Opinov8! 😎 At that moment, the company existed on the market for over nine months. It’s hard to believe that we didn’t have such a large design team three years ago as we do now! 🥰 I was engaged in various internal processes, such as helping with presentation designs, banners, articles, etc.
The first project came to us about a few months later, where UX/UI designer work was needed. It was this kind of pen test for Opinov8 and me. 🤓 The company has previously approached external freelance designers for this kind of work, so it was pretty exciting for both of us. 🚀
In half a year, everything started!⚡️ I had several projects with clients, and besides, there was a lot of work on the internal requests of the company. I remember that it was December, and I didn't know where to start because there was a lot of work to do, and it was my most challenging moment in Opinov8. 🙈
The work became more and more, and we urgently began to look for one more designer. It was incredible because we found a designer who got to work and saved me on December 26th, right on the eve of the Christmas holidays. ✨
Since then, we have had more and more exciting projects, and, of course, our team is expanding and continues to grow. I am happy that everything worked out this way and that I had the opportunity to grow and develop together with Opinov8. 💙
Like many of us, I do not work in my specialty. I am a financier by education and have worked in this area for a long time. All this time, I understood that this is not what I want to do my whole life, and this is not my dream job. 👀
At one point, I realized that I couldn't do this anymore, I wasn't excited about my work, and it didn't bring me any pleasure. I saw how my husband works and how he loves what he does and enjoys it. I figured out that I needed to look for another business that would drive and inspire me. 🙌
I started looking for myself and started going to various courses. I tried myself in website layout and many other courses. Over time I eventually came into the design. It was funny because I didn't know how to draw by hand at all, as I thought that you have to draw to become a good designer. 🙃
Over time, I began to delve deeper into the design and found out that designers are different. I started to study many other design materials, and it all began to like me more and more. For me, it was like an entirely new world. I found out how to create websites, logos, draw icons, what is graphic design and motion design. Everything was so interesting and exciting. 😍
Around that moment, I was offered a promotion at work, which was quite a big one. But I understood that if I agreed now, I would be stuck in this unloved job forever. So, I decided to refuse and quit my financial job to change my profession and do what I really like. For about a year, I was engaged in self-education in web design, as it was the most interesting for me. 🤓 I continued studying a lot and took courses where I became friends with a course leader who helped hone my works and create a beautiful portfolio, which helped me get a job at Opinov8!
I like a lot of things at my work. One of the main aspects is that my work motivates me to develop and delve into different areas constantly. Even if you do not want to go deeper, you simply will not be able to do your work of high quality. You will need to know as much as possible about the activity for which you are doing the project. The second one is communication with people, so my job teaches me to approach other people. This is valuable to me, not every profession gives it. 😊
I think these four must-haves that every designer should do:
The most popular misconception is that many people, especially those not from the IT sphere, believe that designers are all artists and everyone can draw beautifully. Moreover, it does not matter at all what kind of designer you are, interior designer or web designer. 😂
Everyone considers that design is a very creative profession, and many don't know what to expect from us. 😉 But in reality, there is a lot of logic in creation in our work, especially in the work of a UX designer. We need to follow many aspects of construction, rules, and patterns.
Instead, I can tell you what keeps me from living as a designer. I cannot calmly walk past any advertising. 😁 I pay attention to everything: colors, typography, indentation, what is written, and how it is written. 👀
I ask myself, where are all the designers who make our world more comfortable and nice? 😀
Here is my top list of service areas in Ukraine to fix: 🙈
I am motivated by what I do, and I really love what I do. My work inspires me and drives me. Of course, there are times when there are too many things to do, and you get tired, but this is extremely rare, and I try not to bring myself to such a state. 🙃
Therefore, I try to finish my work on time and not engage in any work processes after a working day. I close my laptop and go about my business to somehow switch. I like to read some books, not for work, go for a walk.
I came to this with experience, because before I did not know what time management is, it did not apply to me. 😀 Over time, I realized that I needed to set the frames and borders to avoid oversaturation.
Earlier I could wake up in the middle of the night and think about some task and what else I need to do, who to contact and not forget to say something to someone, and so on. 🙈 After that, you realize that you need more rest and it shouldn't work this way.
If I get exhausted, I try to pamper myself with something. For example, I like to go to lovely restaurants with white tablecloths and numerous glasses. I love to get a massage for stress from time to time, and it is especially good in a set with spa procedures. Lately, I have been getting more and more pleasure from walks in the open air, any park is an ideal place for me. 🍃
I am more and more attracted to different nature, so I try to choose places for travel accordingly. This year I have been several times in the Carpathians mountains, visited Greece and Montenegro.
About my favorite travel destinations, Italy will certainly be in the first place on my list. This country is rich historically, and it has delicious cuisine and incredible architecture. In short, it is beautiful, tasty, and warm. 😍
Next on my list will be Greece. I have been there many times and will definitely return again. And I think Denmark will also be on my list, it is certainly not as warm there as in previous countries, but there is wonderful nature and architecture. 😌
As for the best places where I would like to go, where I have not yet been, then I would like to visit the USA someday, there is certainly a lot to see, and possibly France. So yes, I have such a small plan for now. 😎
I love to cook, it gives me pleasure. But I cook only when I have some free time and desire. I can cook a lot of things, but I have my signature dishes. I love tiramisu and cheesecake, so I love to cook these desserts very much. 😋
Well, I have no hidden talents — everything is in noticeably! 😉
To be honest, I don't have passionate and unusual things as a hobby. I like to do a lot of things but without fanaticism. I love reading and spending some time with my cats, I have two of them. 🐾 I love rollerblading and cycling and often like to ride somewhere around. ⚡️
I would advise myself to go early to design and not waste my time on things I don't like. You need to feel yourself and follow the call of your heart. There are so many people in absolutely different areas doing what they do not like and badly doing their job. This is not good for all of us.
It's never too late to start doing something new and what you love.
Even if you have an education in a specific field, you are not obliged to work in it if you understand that this is not yours at all. It is better to do something else that brings you pleasure than to ruin your life and the lives of others.
Do not stop developing in personal and professional growth. If you're only interested in design, then you won't get very far. Try, we have a lot of interesting projects and the opportunity to grow. 🚀
I would like to meet Donald Norman. He is a researcher, professor, and author of "The Design of Everyday Things" book. Norman's work involves the advocacy of user-centered design. His books all have the underlying purpose of furthering the field of design, from doors to computers. I once met with him at a Design Conference in Kyiv in 2019, but it would be great to talk a little more. 😊
I would like to heal people. 🙌
To be happy! 💫
Be curious and driven to explore new horizons and technology areas with us. Let’s innov8 together!
#BEBOLD #BEHUMAN
