I Spent $100 Planning a Website Before Writing the Code 💸
So, I started a non-profit startup called GiveWithTrust. It's a platform that connects NGOs to donors through in-kind donations, making the process more transparent and trustworthy. You can check it out here: givewithtrust.org . But before we could get people to use it, we needed a website. Not just something that technically worked, but something that represented our idea, raised awareness, and…
A non-profit startup called GiveWithTrust was created to connect NGOs with donors through in-kind donations, making the process more transparent and trustworthy. The website for the platform needed to be created, not just any website but one that represented the idea, raised awareness, and gave people a reason to care.
Before diving into coding, the developer spent an entire day planning the website and used an entire $100 worth of Claude Code session usage solely for planning. They worked through the structure, features, design direction, and implementation plan, ensuring that a first-time visitor could quickly understand the idea, trust the cause, and know where to go next. Having a detailed plan also served as a reference if the implementation started to deviate from the original vision.
While the initial website was functional, it lacked personality and appeal. The UI was uninteresting, graphics were not appealing, and the colors did not make the desired impact. To improve the design, the developer installed several UI/UX design plugins and skills, providing Claude Code with detailed prompts. However, the results were still not ideal.
The developer then took a different approach by asking ChatGPT to generate the actual graphics for the website. Once a design was liked, ChatGPT was asked to write a detailed prompt explaining how Claude Code should recreate it using SVGs, colors, and styling to fit the website. This resulted in a design that looked the way the developer had envisioned.
Instead of deploying the website immediately, the developer made sure to test it for security threats, broken links, unresolved bugs, and unexpected failures. They used additional plugins and tools like Claude security and security-guidance to inspect the website, check for issues, and review areas that might have been overlooked.
The developer realized that being an effective developer depends not only on coding skills but also on understanding the available tools and resources, planning the project, providing context, choosing the right tools, and guiding the output.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
