AI tools are becoming an unwavering part of Everyman's reality. They are no longer used outside the consumer's consciousnesses as an internal part of traditional solutions. AI-powered tools are independent software commonly available. One of the most impressive examples of this shift in the AI market is the phenomenon of ChatGPT.
ChatGPT is a chatbot developed by OpenAI in late November 2022. It's a multimodal large language model trained to be able to have a meaningful, detailed conversation with the user. ChatGPT uses natural language and formulates its responses on the facts before 2021. Besides replying in a human-like conversational tone, it can also write computer programs, school essays, music, and poetry, compose music, or answer test questions from various disciplines.
The variety of how you can use ChatGPT is truly impressive, but let's not forget about its limitations. From time to time, ChatGPT can generate incorrect or nonsensical yet believable answers. Researchers also report that ChatGPT has tendencies to biased answers in terms of people and social issues.
Such limitations didn't stop ChatGPT from becoming a huge success and global phenomenon. On March 14, 2023, the latest version of the chatbot, ChatGPT-4, was released.
OpenAI distinguishes three main differences between GPT-4 and GPT-3.5. The new version:
is better at reasoning
gives more concise answers
takes longer to respond
They also described GPT4 as "more reliable, creative, and able to handle much more nuanced instructions than GPT-3.5". The improvement is reflected in the GPT-4's results on several standardized tests. It scored 1410 on SAT landing in the 94th percentile, while GPT-3.5 managed to reach the 82nd percentile. ChatGPT-4 can also take images along with the text as input, however, this feature is yet not available for Standard and Plus users.
I used both GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 -4 and I can confirm that the seamlessness of the conversation has noticeably increased. The chatbot provides answers that are much more in the context of the conversation and is in fact able to handle more complex prompts.
With all its amazing features, ChatGPT inspires more and more use cases. It can facilitate many creative processes. It strikes the question if it will be helpful in website design as well.
No, ChatGPT, as a text model, can't create a functioning website. I even asked this question to ChatGPT and it politely declined. However, it provided me with a 10-step guide on how I can create one myself. Here are the steps if you're interested:
Choose a website builder.
Select a domain name.
Choose a web hosting service.
Design our website.
Create your content.
Add important features.
Test your website.
Publish your website.
Promote your website.
Maintain and update your website.
It might be helpful if you have no experience in web design and have no idea where to start the process of creating your very first website. But it's not all that ChatGPT has for you to offer. Let's take a look at what more ChatGPT can do for you.
Instead of asking Google, try ChatGPT and ask it to teach you web design. You can approach it in multiple ways. First, you can type more generic prompts like "how to learn web design" and then proceeded to work with them as you ask the bot to elaborate on the singular answers it gives you.
You can also ask ChatGPT to write a plan for a web design course and then make it provide content for slides/presentations. This way you will get a brief overview of the most important topics with a simple explanation. It's a great start for further deep dive into the subject.
Another way how you can use ChatGPT to learn website design is by asking it for online resources or book recommendations. You will be surprised how quickly you will get a list of books with a brief description of what is it about. You don't have to go through tons of articles on Google hoping that you will find anything worth reading
You might be familiar with design principles, but you still need to figure out how to transfer them into a project. There's nothing wrong with asking ChatGPT for some help with creating a website outline. No matter if you are a freelance designer who creates a site for a client or you want to make a website for your own small business. CHatGPT can quickly suggest to you what web pages you should include in your project and what should be inside each of them. And you will be able to get to work quickly and efficiently, skipping the long process of doing research and filling up a blank page.
You can take as much as you want from the ideas that it will generate for you. Maybe you will reject all of them but will be inspired to come up with something outstanding by yourself. Or maybe you will get an amazing idea for a website that with just a few modifications will transform into a marvelous design.
Let's not forget about ChatGPT's powerful copywriting skills that can accelerate your work like nothing else. If you are one of the web designers that create templates, you probably know you can't fill your page with just lorem ipsum. It's not telling the story that a potential client needs to buy your design. Same thing with designers who work on custom projects. Before the final version, there are mockups and sketches, and visualizations.
ChatGPT can generate content that will be set in the context of the whole project. If it's a website for a hair stylist, you will get headlines, taglines, and body copy matched with the subject. You can also generate blog articles on relevant topics and provide your client with even more professional and compound services.
I used ChatGPT to build a website and a brand for a photography business - a case study
As soon as the new GPT was released, I decided to test it out in terms of website creation. The challenge was simple - I have a photography business and need to create a brand for it and a website, and ChatGPT will help me with that. You can watch the full video of my attempts here:
I started with the branding. ChatGPT generated name ideas for my business and then gave me logo suggestions for the one I eventually picked. I also asked ChatGPT to create brand fonts and colors that I will use throughout the entire website. Here's what I got:
I was happy with the names and logo suggestions and with how detailed the answers were with all the reasoning behind each pick included. I wasn't really sure if the color palette was the best fit for a photography business. Navy blue and coral are more associated with business websites rather than creativity which is extremely important in photography. When I was coming up with the idea of this challenge, I decided that I will rely on ChatGPT's responses as much as possible and will not treat them only as an inspiration.
And that's what I did. I didn't modify the answers or interfere with them to get a website as designed by the chatbot as possible.
Later ChatGPT created an outline for my website. Described each web page and gave me instructions on what type of elements should be on each of them. All the content, including blog articles, was generated by it as well. In the end, I put it all together into a website using WebWave drag and drop website builder.
The whole process of generating the materials and creating a functioning website took me around three hours.
ChatGPT Pros and Cons
Now that I tested ChatGPT all by myself I can tell you more about all the pros and cons.
The massive advantage of ChatGPT is how quick it is and how much it accelerates your work process. Creating custom body content for a website used to take hours of thinking, and now I can just generate it, and copy and paste it in just a few minutes. It's absolutely mindblowing. I think the same about the process of brainstorming the name, in my case, for a business. I got a list of 15 names in a minute and then I could just pick the one from them or keep going and looking for a better solution. I could do it by myself or keep talking with the chatbot. It's amazing and can serve a different role based on the purpose.
When it comes to the disadvantages, I mentioned before that I'm not very pleased with the color scheme that was suggested. I loved that I didn't just get a list of colors but with each of them came the reasoning why it was picked and a set of instructions on how can I use it in my design. But it doesn't change the fact that it wasn't the right color palette for my project. I think it shows the limitations of tools like ChatGPT in general. They need human supervision to be able to get the best results. ChatGPT is not as good at synthesizing knowledge, as a skilled designer. It's important that at the end it's you who's making a final call and deciding how many of AI's ideas will make it to the project.
Previously, I did create a website with ChatGPT-3.5 and MidJourney but took the role of more of a creative director of the whole project. The result was much more impressive with a better-looking website. I still think that AI tools are very helpful and let you work more effectively and I can see myself using them on a regular basis to find inspiration and generate content. And I advise you to do the same.
