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Tea UI Lab
Tea UI Lab

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Best workflow for AI-generated UI mockup to real DOM web page?

I am prototyping a mobile web page from a high-fidelity AI-generated visual mockup. The visual style is complex: wooden tabletop, paper cards, fabric, soft shadows, small illustrations, and textured buttons.

The final page cannot be a flat image with transparent hotspots. It needs real DOM text and real controls because the content is dynamic:

  • participant names can change;
  • card labels and descriptions can change;
  • buttons need click/focus states;
  • the page needs to work on mobile web.

What I tried:

  • CSS-only recreation: interaction works, but visual quality drops a lot.
  • Full-page image background plus DOM overlay: visually closer, but DOM text does not align reliably and the asset is not maintainable.
  • Text removal / inpainting from the mockup: creates artifacts, especially around paper/card areas.

What I am looking for:

  • A mature workflow for converting a complex bitmap mockup into layered web assets.
  • Which parts should be done in Figma, Photoshop, or another tool.
  • Whether AI layer extraction tools are good enough for production.
  • How to keep all text/buttons as real DOM.
  • How to verify visual similarity with screenshots or pixel diff.

For a generic example, imagine a "Tea Tasting Journal" mobile page with:

  • a warm desk background;
  • a paper panel with participant cards;
  • a grid of paper option cards;
  • real buttons for "Start" and "Open Journal";
  • dynamic text over textured visual assets.

Is the best practice still manual layer reconstruction in Figma/Photoshop, then DOM overlay, then Playwright visual regression? Or is there a more mature image-to-layer / design-to-code workflow?

I am especially interested in workflows people have actually shipped, not only marketing demos.

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