---
title: "Iterate Like a Designer"
description: "Five rounds of feedback, real devices, real users, and a fearless undo."
order: 11
duration: "10 min"
chapter: "03-making-things-with-artifacts"
type: lesson
---

## The first version is a draft, not a verdict

The biggest mistake people make with artifacts is treating the first version as the result. It is not. It is the opening bid. The skill of this chapter is the iteration loop — and it is a conversation, not a settings panel.

Sarah's cheat-sheet goes through five rounds in ten minutes:

1. *"The search only matches from the start of the name — make it match anywhere, so 'bakery' finds both bakery vendors."* Fixed.
2. *"Bigger. Everything bigger. The cashiers are looking at this from two feet away with a line of customers."* The type doubles.
3. *"Add a red 'CALL SARAH' banner to any vendor with an unresolved issue, and put Pacific Foods' $500 line-item warning on its card."* Done.
4. *"My youngest cashier tried it and typed 'chens' with no apostrophe and got nothing. Make the search forgiving — ignore punctuation and spacing."* Fixed.
5. She photographs the iPad at the actual register, sends the photo: *"The bottom row is cut off at this size. Fit everything above the fold."* Claude adjusts the layout to the actual screen.

Notice round 4 and 5: she tested it on the real users and the real device, and fed observations back. That is the whole method — you are the product manager, Claude is the builder, and the feedback loop runs at conversation speed.

<div class="exercise">
  <div class="callout-label">Try This</div>
  <p>Put your artifact through five rounds of iteration. Use these prompts as a template:</p>
  <p><strong>1. A behavior change:</strong> make some interaction work better ("search should be forgiving")</p>
  <p><strong>2. A readability change:</strong> adjust for the real viewing distance and device</p>
  <p><strong>3. An information change:</strong> add the warning/edge case that matters most</p>
  <p><strong>4. A real-user test:</strong> hand it to someone else for 60 seconds, watch where they stumble, report it to Claude verbatim</p>
  <p><strong>5. A rollback:</strong> ask for something experimental, decide you liked it better before, and use the version selector to go back</p>
  <p>Round 5 is secretly the most important — once you trust the undo, you stop being timid about changes.</p>
</div>

## Check your understanding

Answer in your own words — write it down before opening the key. Your tutor grades against the criteria and generates fresh variants on retries.

**Q1.** Your first artifact draft is wrong in three ways. Describe the iteration method — and name the two kinds of feedback that improve a tool faster than any amount of describing up front.

<details>
<summary>Answer key — attempt every question first</summary>

## Answer key

### Q1

**Model answer:** Treat the first version as an opening bid and iterate conversationally, one change at a time, using version history to make experiments reversible. The two highest-value feedback types: testing on the real device in the real context (the register iPad, viewing distance), and watching a real user stumble, then reporting what happened verbatim.

**Pass criteria:** describes conversational iteration with rollback safety; names real-device testing AND real-user observation as the key feedback

</details>


**Next:** [Publish and Share](/mastering-claude/03-making-things-with-artifacts/12-publish-and-share/)