An Accidental Choice, a Butterfly Effect, and the Future of AI Aesthetics
Hey everyone,
I came across a fascinating story this week that I wanted to discuss. It started when @adamwathan , the co-founder of @Tailwind CSS , “joked” on X that his decision to make every button bg-indigo-500 five years ago seems to have caused every AI-generated UI on earth to default to a shade of purple.
It's a perfect example of a tiny butterfly effect creating a huge trend.
Of course, for this to become a real trend, it has to resonate with people on some level. I think the reason it stuck is that purple just feels right for AI to many people—it has a sense of technology and a mysterious beauty that fits the current vibe.
Personally, I'm finding that my own taste is shifting. I'm now more drawn to simpler, more abstract, and artistic UI layouts; those are the designs that feel fresh and eye-catching to me now.
There's that saying: "A thing stops being cool right when the majority of people think it is." :)
This makes me wonder what's next. As vibe coding continue to evolve, what do you think the next phase of AI-generated aesthetics will look like? What will be the new signature elements or layouts?
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I cannot predict what the trend will be, but I also spotted that when I ask AI to create a web, it is something between purple and blue, as well as when I want to generate some "AI picture" – the output will be a woman with some tech glasses :D
@busmark_w_nika Maybe in 10 years, AI will look back on this period as its purple and blue childhood memory. :)
It’s wild how one small design choice can snowball into an unspoken standard across tools, almost like the Helvetica of AI aesthetics.
@santosh__kumar9 That's a great analogy with Helvetica:) It's another example of how random things can become a standard.
Have you noticed any other patterns in AI?