Yesterday, Anthropic released the latest version of their LLM, Claude 3.7 Sonnet. Alongside the announcement was the release of a new tool: Claude Code, an agentic coding tool available in your CLI (I’ll have more to write on this later).

I wanted to test out both Claude 3.7 and the new CLI tool, so I used it to refactor the theme for the ‘ol bloggy blog. I had been playing around with some updated styles in the past (I considered moving things to a tool that generates static pages — but so. much. work.)

I used Claude Code to basically create a new WordPress theme from scratch, based on the CSS and HTML templates I had already written for my static site. The result is this updated interface! A few neat things I’m able to do:

• Respect user preference for system theme (light vs dark mode)
• Automatically add target=”_blank” to any external link
• Automatically add loading=”lazy” to any img tag.
• And just otherwise clean things up!

Overall, I’m pretty happy with it. Using Claude Code and my API key, it cost $5.83 over 2 hours.

So long, old theme! I hardly knew you. (Hah, that’s not true — I’ve been rocking that thing since 2017.) Posted below for posterity.

Looking up! The view from the lobby at SF MOMA. Photo by Dave Schumaker

Earlier today, team gdgt took a field trip over to the SF MOMA, to check out the Dieter Rams exhibit. Known for his minimalist design aesthetic, the exhibit showed off timeless looking products that he has designed and influenced over the past 50 years.

Numerous quotes from Dieter Rams were posted around SF MOMA. Photo by Dave Schumaker.

One part of the exhibit was dedicated to his 10 principles of good design.

1. Good design is innovative – The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.
2. Good design Makes a product useful – A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.
3. Good design is aesthetic – The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products are used every day and have an effect on people and their well-being. Only well-executed objects can be beautiful.
4. Good design Makes a product understandable – It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product clearly express its function by making use of the user’s intuition. At best, it is self-explanatory.
5. Good design is unobtrusive – Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.
6. Good design is honest – It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
7. Good design is long-lasting – It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society.
8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail – Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.
9. Good design is environmentally friendly – Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimises physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.
10. Good design is as little design as possible – Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.

It was pretty awesome and inspiring stuff. Check it out at the SF MOMA. The exhibit runs until February 20, 2012.

There are some pretty cool designs here!

[Via Evan]

A new documentary is out in theaters. It’s called “Objectified” and is all about design. It looks pretty interesting. I can’t wait to see it.