How to Use Claude Opus 5.5 for Website Design

Claude Opus 5.5, released September 22, 2026, is Anthropic’s flagship model for coding and complex work. For website design, Claude can:

• Turn a brief into a structure and copy
• Create interactive prototypes
• Write production-ready front-end code
• Build a consistent design system
• Check layouts from screenshots
• Improve accessibility and performance
• Iterate from your feedback in minutes

Claude can design fast. Your taste and your brief decide whether it is good.

Claude Design

Prompt-to-prototype design, launched April 17, 2026, and brought into Claude chat in September 2026.

Artifacts

Interactive web pages and apps created and previewed inside Claude.

Claude Code

Builds and edits the real website in your project folder.

frontend-design skill

Anthropic’s skill for distinctive, production-quality interfaces.

• Who the site is for
• What visitors should do
• Pages you need
• Brand colors, fonts, and logo
• Tone and personality
• Sites you admire and why
• Content you already have
• Must-have features
• Accessibility and performance goals

A website without a brief becomes a template. A brief makes it yours.

Prompt:

Using this brief, propose a sitemap, the sections of each page in order, the main call to action, and the purpose of each section. Do not design yet.

Agree on structure before visuals. Most redesigns fail on structure, not color.

Ask Claude to draft headlines, section copy, and calls to action from your brief. Then edit them in your own voice.

• One clear message per section
• Benefits before features
• Specific, verifiable claims only
• Short sentences and scannable headings

Real copy produces better design than placeholder text.

Describe the page and let Claude create a prototype. Then refine with specific feedback:

• “Make the hero headline the clear focus.”
• “Increase spacing between sections.”
• “Use our brand blue only for buttons and links.”
• “Show a version with more white space.”

Ask for two or three directions before choosing one.

Ask Claude to write the rules every page follows:

• Color tokens with exact hex values
• Type scale and font weights
• Spacing scale
• Border radius and shadows
• Button and link styles
• Form styles
• Icon style

Consistency is what makes a site look designed rather than assembled.

Claude Design can package a design as a handoff bundle for Claude Code, which turns it into real code.

In Claude Code, set Opus 5.5 at high effort for complex builds:

claude --model opus --effort high

Save the design system and project rules in CLAUDE.md so every session follows them.

Anthropic’s frontend-design skill guides Claude toward distinctive interfaces and away from a generic look. Install Anthropic’s skills in Claude Code with:

/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills

• Design the phone layout first
• Keep tap targets large
• Avoid horizontal scrolling
• Check text size on small screens
• Test tablet and desktop next

Ask Claude to screenshot each breakpoint and review the images for problems.

• Text contrast of at least 4.5:1 for normal text (WCAG AA)
• Real headings in a logical order
• Alt text for meaningful images
• Visible focus states for keyboard users
• Labels on every form field
• Respect reduced-motion settings

An accessible site is a better site for everyone.

• Compress and size images correctly
• Use modern image formats
• Load only the fonts you use
• Avoid unnecessary JavaScript
• Lazy-load images below the fold
• Measure with Lighthouse

• A unique title and description per page
• One clear H1 per page
• Descriptive URLs
• A sitemap
• Fast loading on mobile
• Helpful, original content

Ask Claude to critique the finished design:

Review this page as a senior web designer. List the ten most important problems with hierarchy, spacing, consistency, accessibility, and conversion, in order of impact.

Then decide which changes are worth making.

• Test every link and form
• Check on real phones
• Proofread all copy
• Confirm analytics and privacy notices if used
• Set up redirects for old URLs
• Keep a backup of the previous site

• Structure proposals
• Copy drafts
• Prototypes and variations
• Code
• Design system rules
• Accessibility and performance checks

• The brief
• Taste and final direction
• Brand approval
• Accuracy of claims
• Testing with real people
• Launch decisions

Act as my senior web designer and front-end developer. Using this brief: [brief], first propose a sitemap and section plan, and wait for approval. Then create two distinct design directions with a design system: colors, type scale, spacing, and components. Build the approved direction mobile first, accessible to WCAG AA, and fast to load. Screenshot each breakpoint, review the images for problems, and fix them. Finally, list anything that needs my decision.