Block Product Designer Builds Dog Breed ID App Using AI in Two Months Without Formal Coding Training

Cynthia Chen, a product designer at Block, spent two months developing an app called Dog-e-dex in her spare time. The app allows users to take pictures of dogs they encounter, identify their breed using image recognition, and add them to a personal collection. Chen initially had this idea five years ago but put it aside due to the technical challenges involved. Recently, however, she decided to give it another shot, leveraging AI for coding. Chen began by designing the app in October 2022. Initially, she sought a developer on Fiverr, an online marketplace for freelance services, but found the costs prohibitive. This setback led her to explore AI coding platforms like Replit, ChatGPT, and Cursor. She found Claude, an AI developed by Anthropic, particularly useful. Despite having no formal engineering background, Chen successfully integrated Claude’s outputs into Xcode, the development environment for Apple devices, to bring her app to life. The process of building Dog-e-dex was far from seamless. Early on, Chen struggled with the app's functionality, as it often generated random dog breeds instead of accurately identifying them. She refined her prompts and eventually incorporated an image recognition tool, which improved the app's performance. Additionally, she faced challenges in understanding backend development and the underlying data infrastructure. For these issues, Chen relied on the guidance of her engineering friends and iteratively corrected the AI-generated code. One of Chen’s key learnings was the importance of being specific and intentional with AI prompts. She describes this approach as “gentle parenting,” noting that a slight change in wording can yield significantly different results. For instance, asking Claude to build a “custom navigation tab bar” instead of a “navigation tab bar” resulted in a more personalized and functional UI element. She also observed that design tasks were particularly challenging for AI, reinforcing her belief that human creativity remains irreplaceable. Despite the hurdles, Chen persevered and launched Dog-e-dex on the App Store. The app has been downloaded approximately 75 times, and Chen is hopeful about its future. Users have shared positive feedback, including one individual who used the app to remember their late pet, which touched Chen deeply. Industry insiders view Chen’s project as a notable example of the growing accessibility of AI tools for non-technical creators. They highlight that it demonstrates the potential for AI to democratize app development, allowing individuals with creative ideas but limited coding skills to bring their projects to fruition. Companies like Replit, Anthropic, and Apple are also watching such developments closely, as they underscore the evolving relationship between human creativity and AI assistance. Chen herself believes that the primary limitation in leveraging AI for coding is not technical know-how but human imagination and curiosity. She encourages others to experiment with AI, emphasizing that failure is part of the learning process. With her innovative approach, Chen has not only created a fun and useful app but has also contributed to the broader conversation around AI and its role in the creative process.