Design prompts

Sharper questions before you start.

Act as a design lead running discovery for a new project. The project is [describe]. Give me the ten sharpest questions to ask the client before I start, covering business context, audience, brand, competitors, constraints, and what success looks like. For each, add why it matters, so I can push past a vague answer.

Messy notes, structured brief.

Turn these messy client notes into a structured creative brief: [paste]. Sections: background, objective, target audience, key message, tone, deliverables, mandatories, and success measures. Where the notes are silent, add an open question instead of inventing an answer.

Something a design can meet.

Act as a strategist. Sharpen this vague objective into something a design can be judged against: [paste the goal]. Rewrite it as a single measurable objective, name the one audience it's really for, and describe what a successful outcome would look like in plain terms.

Proposition, directions, channels, measure.

Write a one-page campaign brief for [campaign] aimed at [audience]. Include the single-minded proposition, three distinct creative directions with a one-line idea each, the channels, and how we'll measure it. Keep the directions genuinely different, not three shades of the same idea.

Specific descriptors, not clean.

I need to define a brand's tone of voice. Here is what the brand is about: [paste]. Give me a tone-of-voice guide with three or four adjectives, a 'we sound like this, not like that' table, and two rewritten example sentences. Favour specific descriptors like 'confident but plain', not 'modern and clean'.

Different in strategy, not colour.

Act as a creative director. Brief: [paste]. Give me five distinct concept directions, each with a name, the core idea in one sentence, the mood it should evoke, and one reference style to explore. Make them genuinely different in strategy, not just in colour.

Fifteen names, grouped by approach.

Help me name [product or feature]. It is [describe], for [audience], and should feel [tone]. Give me fifteen name options grouped by approach (descriptive, invented, metaphor), and flag any that are likely already common so I can check trademarks.

Visual direction, plus search terms.

Build me a moodboard brief for [project] with the feeling [describe]. Describe the visual direction in words: palette feeling, typography character, imagery style, texture, and two adjectives to avoid. I'll source the actual images, so give me search terms to find them.

The thinking, not the logo.

Write a logo design brief for [brand], which does [describe] for [audience]. Cover the personality to convey, three conceptual directions to explore, what to avoid, and the practical constraints (where it'll appear, one-colour version, tiny sizes). Keep it about the thinking, not a description of a finished logo.

Precise prompt, two variations.

Act as an expert at writing image-generation prompts. I want to create [describe the image]. Turn it into a detailed prompt for a text-to-image model, specifying subject, composition, lighting, colour, style, mood, and camera or lens feel. Then give me two variations that change only the style, so I can compare.

Why it's generic, then better.

Here is an image-generation prompt that gave me a flat result: [paste]. Diagnose why it's likely generic, then rewrite it to be more specific and art-directed, and tell me which one change matters most.

One template, consistent style.

I need a set of on-brand illustrations for [use]. The brand style is [describe]. Write a reusable prompt template with placeholders for the subject, so every illustration comes out in a consistent style, and note the settings I should keep fixed across the set.

Keep generated assets on brand.

Turn this brand's visual direction into a short prompt 'style guide' for an image tool: [paste palette, mood, references]. Give me the phrases to include in every prompt and the phrases to avoid, so generated assets stay recognisably ours.

Friction themes, ranked and quoted.

Act as a lead UX researcher. Here are real user reviews for [product]: [paste]. Cluster them into the top friction themes, rank each by how often it appears and how severe it sounds, add one representative quote per theme, and turn the top three into How Might We statements. Keep the raw counts so I can check your grouping.

Patterns, surprises, open questions.

Synthesise these user interview notes into findings: [paste]. Give me the patterns across participants, the surprises that contradicted our assumptions, the jobs users were trying to do, and the open questions. Mark anything only one person said so I don't over-weight it.

Tasks, observations, success measures.

Draft a usability test plan for [feature]. Include the research questions, five tasks written as realistic scenarios (not instructions that give away the answer), what to observe, and the success measures. Keep it runnable in a 30-minute session.

Every trait cited, no inventions.

Turn this real research into a lightweight persona: [paste findings]. Base every trait on the data, cite which finding supports it, and leave a field blank rather than inventing a detail. I want a working tool, not a poster.

Where you're losing people.

Map a user journey for [scenario] based on these notes: [paste]. For each stage give the user's goal, action, likely emotion, and the biggest friction point, in a table. Flag the one stage where we're most likely losing people.

Button, helper, error state.

Act as a UX writer. Write microcopy for [screen or component]: [describe the context and action]. Give me the button label, helper text, and one error state, in a clear, human tone under our voice: [paste voice notes]. Keep it short and specific, no filler.

Helpful, not scary.

Rewrite this error message to be helpful, not scary: [paste]. Say plainly what happened, why, and the one thing the user can do next. Avoid blame and jargon, and keep it to two short sentences.

Encouraging, with a next step.

Write empty-state copy for [screen] when the user has no [items] yet. Make it encouraging, explain what will appear here, and include a clear call to action to add the first one. Two lines maximum, in this tone: [paste].

Benefit-led, three steps.

Draft onboarding copy for a [type] app across three steps. For each step give a short headline and one line of body that focuses on the benefit to the user, not the feature. Keep momentum, and never make a step feel like a chore.

Five sharp questions first.

Act as a senior designer running a critique. Here is my description of the design and the problem it solves: [paste]. Ask me five sharp questions that pressure-test it on clarity, hierarchy, edge cases, and whether it actually solves the stated problem, one at a time, before giving any opinion.

A checklist, not a verdict.

Give me a structured critique checklist for a [type] screen, grouped into concept, execution, and feasibility. For each item, write it as a yes/no question I can check my own design against. Keep it to the things that actually change whether the design works.

WCAG checklist, honest limits.

Act as an accessibility reviewer. Based on this description of my screen and its copy: [paste], walk me through a WCAG-based first-pass checklist covering contrast, text alternatives, focus order, target size, and error handling. Be clear about what you cannot verify without seeing the real screen or testing it.

Ten heuristics, top three fixes.

Run a heuristic evaluation of this flow against Nielsen's ten usability heuristics: [describe the flow]. For each heuristic, note whether it's likely met, at risk, or not applicable, with a one-line reason, and list the top three issues to fix first.

Preference versus real issue.

I got this design feedback and I'm too close to it: [paste feedback]. Help me separate the subjective preferences from the real usability issues, and suggest which points I should act on, push back on, or park, with a reason for each.

What, when, variants, accessibility.

Write documentation for a [component] in our design system. Cover what it is, when to use it and when not to, its variants and states, the content guidelines, and accessibility notes. Base it on this spec: [paste], and mark anything the spec doesn't define as a decision still needed.

The intent behind each rule.

Turn these design tokens and rules into clear usage guidelines a new designer could follow: [paste]. Explain the intent behind each rule, not just the value, so people know when a choice is deliberate versus arbitrary.

A system that stays navigable.

Draft naming and structure conventions for our component library based on [describe current state]. Suggest a consistent naming pattern, how to group components, and how to name variants, with examples, so the system stays navigable as it grows.

Confident rationale, not a fight.

Help me present this design decision to a client who wanted something flashier: [describe the decision and their preference]. Draft a short, confident rationale that ties the choice back to their goal and their users, acknowledges the trade-off, and invites a conversation rather than a fight.

The design as a story.

Write speaker notes for presenting [deliverable] to stakeholders. Lead with the problem and the goal, then walk through the design as a story of decisions, and end with what I need from them. Anticipate the two hardest questions and give me a straight answer to each.

In, out, without sounding rigid.

A client keeps adding requests beyond our agreed scope: [describe]. Draft a polite, clear message that acknowledges the ideas, explains what's in and out of the current scope, and offers a way to handle the extras (a later phase or a revised estimate) without sounding rigid.

Challenge, approach, solution, result.

Turn this project into a short case study for my portfolio: [paste the brief, my role, the process, and the outcome]. Structure it as challenge, approach, solution, and result, focus on my decisions and their impact, and keep it honest, no invented metrics.