Hi, I’m Kayla. I build apps, themes, and odd little toys on my desk. Lately, I’ve been using something folks call “vibe coding.” It sounds silly. It’s not. It helped me ship cleaner work, faster, with less stress.
Industry watchers have weighed in too—TechRadar describes vibe coding as an AI-assisted way to generate and iterate on code rapidly while warning about the debugging and security trade-offs involved (TechRadar).
Need the formal definition? What Is Vibe Coding? gives the quick rundown.
You know what? It also made my code feel like music. Weird, right? Let me explain.
Producer Rick Rubin’s own creativity rituals even nudged me into a 30-day vibe-coding sprint—so yes, the music metaphor runs deep.
So… what is vibe coding?
Vibe coding is feel-first coding. You shape the mood first, then the logic. It’s like picking the playlist before you start a road trip. The code still has rules. But the flow sets the rules in a way your eyes, ears, and brain enjoy.
The name itself only took off recently—Andrej Karpathy popularized the term in early 2025, a bit of history captured neatly on Wikipedia.
In practice, I watch how the app breathes. I look at rhythm in the UI. I match colors to the task. I tune animation timing like drum hits. I keep naming simple so my mind can hum along. It’s still engineering. It just keeps human energy in the loop.
I used:
- VS Code with a calm theme (One Light, most days)
- Prettier for steady code rhythm
- Tailwind CSS for quick style changes
- Framer Motion for soft motion
- Figma for color tests
- p5.js and Tone.js for tiny visual and audio cues
- Sonic Pi for live music sketches
- Node-RED for home office signals
For a deeper, code-heavy walkthrough, check out the Vibe Coding Guide with real snippets.
How I used it this week (real examples)
1) A Pomodoro timer that breathes with me
I built a small web timer for 25/5 work sprints. I added a slow “inhale/exhale” ring using Framer Motion. The ring grows for 4 seconds and falls for 4. Color shifts from a foggy blue to a mellow green near the end. No harsh red. My heart rate (from my Apple Watch) even felt steadier.
Did it help? I wrote a blog post draft in two sprints, with no doom-scrolling in between. That’s a win.
Tech mix: React, Framer Motion, Tailwind. I set easing curves to easeInOut for a soft feel. Hex picks: #8FBFE0 (start), #8CE1A8 (finish). Simple names like ringGrow and ringFade kept me sane.
2) A Shopify product page that feels like a shop, not a spreadsheet
I tweaked a client’s product page. The copy went friendlier. The images got a slight delay on hover, so they don’t jump at you. I added a shimmer loader that looks like light on fabric.
Numbers after two weeks:
- LCP fell to 1.8s (from 2.4s)
- Bounce rate down 12%
- Add-to-cart up 8%
Was it only the vibe? No. I also cut an extra script and trimmed images. But the feel changes kept folks around long enough to load the good stuff.
3) My desk lights now tell me if I should talk or not
I work from home. I wired a tiny LED strip under my shelf with a Raspberry Pi. Node-RED checks my Google Calendar. If I’m in a meeting, lights go warm amber. Heads-down mode? Deep blue. Break time? Soft coral. It sounds cute. It is. But it stopped the “are you free?” taps from my partner.
Small thing, big calm.
4) A live sketch: code, beats, and shapes
At a local meetup, I ran Sonic Pi for a simple lofi beat. Then I linked p5.js visuals to the beat count. Circles pulsed to the kick. Lines swayed to the hi-hat. Folks smiled. No big stage. Just a laptop and a projector. And yes, I pushed the code to GitHub later with tidy names and notes.
Vibe here wasn’t fluff. It was timing plus clarity.
Where vibe coding shines
- Focus sticks. My brain doesn’t fight the UI. It glides.
- Naming gets cleaner. If the mood is calm, names get short and clear.
- Onboarding feels gentle. Users stay longer.
- Debugging gets faster. Rhythm makes odd spikes stand out.
- Team talks improve. We can point to “pace,” not just pixels.
When you push vibe coding into real-time or intimacy-focused chat products, subtle consent cues and privacy hints become even more critical. Designers of adult-friendly conversation platforms often study how users negotiate tone, emoji use, and anonymity norms—the deep-dive over at Sexting Forums guide illustrates these community patterns and shares moderation strategies and interface tips you can borrow to keep your own chat UI respectful and engaging.
For instance, if you’re prototyping a location-based matchmaking or casual-meetup feature, spend five minutes studying how a live classifieds board structures its calls to action—Doublelist’s Bonita Springs section provides a real-world template of minimal UI, clear consent cues, and quick post creation that can inspire your vibe-coding decisions.
Where it trips up
- You can polish past the goal. Pretty is not the goal. Useful is the goal.
- Some teams may roll their eyes. Show small wins. Keep it real.
- Motion can hurt folks. Use “prefers-reduced-motion.” Keep color contrast high.
- Hard stops still matter. Time-box the vibe pass. Then ship.
My small recipe
Here’s how I run a vibe pass without getting lost:
- Pick one mood word. Calm, crisp, or bold.
- Set a 30-minute timer.
- Tune three things only: color, spacing, and motion.
- Name things like you talk. Not like a robot.
- Cut one feature or line. Lightness is part of the vibe.
- Ask two users one question: “How does this feel to use?”
If I have more time, I check sound cues, empty states, and microcopy.
Tools I leaned on (simple stack)
- VS Code + Prettier
- Tailwind CSS
- Framer Motion
- Figma
- p5.js / Tone.js
- Sonic Pi
- Node-RED + Raspberry Pi
- Lighthouse for speed checks
- Axe for accessibility checks
Need a gear checklist? Here are the best vibe-coding tools I actually use.
I also put the approach through its paces inside Cursor—here’s exactly what happened when I tried.
Bonus tip: I sometimes browse inspiration pieces on Intranets Today to see how larger teams weave these vibe principles into their internal tools.
Is it just design fluff?
No. I used vibe coding in back-end code too. I shaped logs like short, clear sentences. I grouped tasks in tidy bursts. I wrote cron jobs that batch on calm hours, so alerts don’t ping at 9 a.m. Mondays. The “feel” here is mental load. If my future self smiles when reading the logs, I did it right.
Who should try it?
- Front-end folks who ship UI all day
- Product teams who want less churn and more flow
- Teachers showing code to kids (they get this fast)
- Streamers who build live and want a show that breathes
If you’d rather follow a structured path, I spent eight weeks in the official course; this recap shows the highs and lows: I took the Vibe Coding course for 8 weeks—here’s what happened.
Maybe avoid it if you’re in a strict, audited app and your team hates motion. You can still bring calm names and clear logs, though.
Tiny gotchas I hit
I once used soft gray on gray. It looked elegant on my monitor. On my friend’s old laptop? Mush. I fixed it with stronger contrast and a manual “High Contrast” toggle.
Another time, I added a cute pop when a form saved. It made a screen reader talk over itself. I pulled that sound and added a clean toast with ARIA labels. Lesson learned.
Final take
Vibe coding made my work kinder. To me. To users. It’s not