Zero Experience, One AI, a Complete Website
I'm a lighting designer who knows some code but has never built a website. This is how I went from zero web dev experience to a full bilingual portfolio, with Claude Code as my collaborator.
I Know a Little, But Not Enough
I’m a lighting designer. I do know a bit about coding and can follow along with technical conversations. But knowing a bit of code and actually building a website are completely different things. Web development means understanding the full workflow: choosing a framework, connecting a domain, deploying to production, making it all work together. I knew these things existed. I’d just never actually done any of them.
But I wanted a website. Not a WordPress template, not a Wix drag-and-drop page. I wanted something that actually felt like me. A space where my work, my research, and my writing could all live together.
So I tried something: what if I worked with an AI to build it together?
How It Started
I created a folder on my computer and gathered everything I wanted on the website: descriptions of each project, photos, videos, all the raw materials.
Then I opened a terminal inside that folder, launched Claude Code, and said:
“This folder contains the projects I want on my website. I want to build a personal portfolio site. Can you help me?”
Claude started planning and suggested frameworks I’d never heard of. I didn’t just nod along. I asked why. It explained: for a portfolio site, this framework fits; for e-commerce, you’d pick something else. Different needs, different tools.
Within minutes, I had a website running in my browser. I stared at the screen thinking: I just made a website. And I knew why it chose these tools, what each one does, and what I needed to do next.
That’s when I realized: I wasn’t just letting AI build what I had in mind. I was learning through the process of making.
So I decided to document it all and started a blog: what is Astro, what is GitHub, what is a Terminal. Things you might never have encountered, but that start making sense once you’re actually building something. Build and write at the same time, and the knowledge quietly accumulates.
It’s Not “Coding.” It’s Communication
You might think you need to know web development jargon before you can start. You don’t. AI gives you suggestions and options for you to judge. If you don’t understand the options, just ask why, and what each one does.
It’s like talking to a web developer. The point isn’t technical knowledge, it’s knowing what you want. However you’d talk to a development agency, that’s how you talk to Claude. Except it’s available 24/7, answers every question, and never gets impatient.
Here’s what my actual prompts look like:
- “This page feels too crowded. Can you add more space between sections?”
- “I want the photos to zoom on hover, like browsing an online gallery.”
- “The blog page should show articles sorted by date, newest first.”
- “Make this work on phones too.”
- “Can you check if all the cross-links between articles are in place?”
That last one is interesting. If you asked a person to do it, they’d have to read every article, figure out which ones are related, and decide where to place the links. I just say one sentence, and Claude reads all the content, finds the connections, and adds the links. (In fact, the links you see throughout this article are an example of exactly that.)
No code, no technical terms. Claude writes the code, I look at the result in my browser. If something’s off, I say what’s off. Back and forth until it looks right.
The Workflow That Changed Everything
The real breakthrough wasn’t any single feature. It was establishing a daily rhythm.
I created a file called CLAUDE.md that defines how we work together:
| I say | What happens |
|---|---|
| ”Good morning” (check in) | Claude pulls the latest code, starts the dev server, creates a daily report, shows my to-do list |
| ”Done for the day” (check out) | Claude commits everything, pushes to GitHub, updates the report |
This sounds simple, but it changed everything. Every morning I sit down and the state is clear. Every evening the work is saved. I never lose progress. I never wonder “where was I?”
GitHub plays a crucial role here too. I work across three devices: a Windows PC, a Mac, and my iPhone. Check-in pulls the latest version down; check-out pushes everything back up. So no matter which device I pick up next, the project is always current.
Sometimes I’m just walking somewhere and I open Claude on my phone to discuss an article idea. It saves the draft to the project. Later I review it on my computer and publish it to the site.
What Surprised Me
The Speed of Thinking
What surprised me wasn’t how fast Claude works. It was how fast I had to think.
Before, if I had an idea or a need, I’d spend a week or two researching: reading articles, watching YouTube tutorials, figuring out the tools. A slow, gradual process before I even started building.
Now it’s different. Claude builds so fast that the bottleneck becomes me. I need to know what I want, quickly. And when I see the result, I need to react just as quickly: what’s off, what to change, what to try next. The iteration cycle went from weeks to minutes, and that pushed my own thinking to keep up.
The Hard Part Isn’t Technical
The hardest moment wasn’t a bug or a broken layout. It was rewriting my About page.
Claude can generate an About page in seconds. It’s grammatically correct, well-structured, and completely generic. It could be anyone’s.
I spent an entire day on this. Three drafts. The breakthrough came when I stopped listing credentials and started writing about what I actually care about.
The final version opens with: “A person moving between design, art, and technology…”
AI writes fast. But finding your voice takes time. That’s the part no tool can shortcut.
Documenting 10 Years of Work
I’ve been designing lights for a decade. Paris Cultural Olympiad, national theater tours across Taiwan, experimental installations. These projects lived only in my memory and scattered files.
With the friction of web development removed, I suddenly wanted to document everything. I spent two days adding light plots, previz renders, production photos, design concepts. Giving these projects the home they deserved.
Without AI, I wouldn’t have done it. Not because writing is hard, but because the overhead (image grids, responsive layouts, bilingual versions) killed the motivation. Remove the overhead, and the desire to share your work comes flooding back.
How I Think About It
I’m not an AI evangelist. I’m a person who wanted to make something and found a tool that let me.
Here’s what I’ve learned:
You don’t need to understand code. You need to understand what you want. The clearer you describe what you’re after, the better the result. This is the same skill as briefing a team. You already have it.
AI is a mirror, not a replacement. Every time Claude drafted something, I’d read it and think: that’s not wrong, but it’s not me. Through accepting and rejecting AI’s suggestions, I found what actually resonated. The AI showed me options. I chose which one was true.
The real value is removing friction. AI takes away the technical barriers and time costs that used to stand between me and the work I actually care about. Now I can focus on what I want to communicate and what I want to document. That shift feels exciting. Honestly, it’s a little addictive.
What the Site Looks Like Now
Two weeks in, the site has:
- 15+ published articles (bilingual EN/ZH)
- 14 portfolio works spanning a decade of lighting design
- Interactive components (3D viewer, draggable galleries, comparison sliders)
- A thesis documentation section
- Full SEO optimization
And it keeps evolving. Every day I sit down, say “good morning,” and we pick up where we left off.
If You’re Thinking About It
You don’t need to learn to code first. You don’t need to take a bootcamp. You don’t need to understand React or CSS or what a “static site generator” is.
You need one thing: something you want to share with the world.
The technical part? You can figure that out in conversation.
Want to learn how to use Claude Code, or start building your own website with it? Fill out this form and I’ll get in touch!
Detailed Records
Want to see the day-by-day breakdown?
- Building with Claude Code — Week 1 - Architecture, first articles, interactive components
- Building with Claude Code — Week 2 - Identity, portfolio, finding my voice
- Building with Claude Code — Week 3 - 3D hero, visual design, voice-driven coding