How I'm using ChatGPT in my design process
Hey there! I’m Raika, a Senior UX and Conversation Designer at Amazon. If you’re new here, welcome! You can subscribe to my Secrets to Great UX Design newsletter for weekly insights. I share actionable ways to create great experiences, grow your career and more… for designers and non-designers.
ChatGPT had its 1st birthday today. And it’s made quite the impression in year one...
A lot of people right now are understandably asking “Is AI going to replace my job as a designer (product manager, customer service rep, etc.)….?”
As a UX Designer, I’ve always felt a sense of job security because someone was needed to design these new experiences.
But the truth is, jobs have become obsolete in the past and will continue to become obsolete in the future as innovation continues.
I don’t think designers are going away, but I do think some of the responsibilities will become obsolete and some will shift.
"AI is not going to replace managers, but managers who use AI will replace the managers who do not". — Rob Thomas, IBM Senior Vice President
At Amazon, we like to say “The only constant is change”. Being adaptable and evolving your skillset is as important as ever.
Here are 3 things I’m doing to stay “future-proof”:
I’m studying and learning all I can about generative AI from the technical side to marketing approaches
I’m mastering prompt writing and experimenting with AI tools
I’m willing to put a stake in the ground and risk being wrong
And I encourage you to prioritize taking action over resisting change. Finding ways to incorporate AIs like Large Language Models (LLMs) into your day-to-day.
Today I want to focus on writing great prompts.
In my design process, I’ve been using LLMs to help me in many ways, most notably to:
Generate concepts
Create user personas
Generate research questions
Create a user journey for X product or a persona description
Generate requirements
The volume and speed have been helpful not for the exact output but for getting me past the blank page. And as a collaboration partner when I’m the solo designer on a project. Having a clear objective and a well-written prompt is essential.
I. The different roles LLMs can play
ChatGPT, Bard and other text-based generative AIs are powerful. But to get the full value from these new services, you need to know how to write a great prompt.
There are a number of different “modes” or roles you can use LLMs for. The main roles I use services like ChatGPT or Bard for are to be my:
Idea Generator
Research Assistant
Editor and Proofreader
Critic
Creator
Teacher
Translator
Role-playing Partner (especially great for conversation designers)
To dive a bit deeper into the role-playing mode by asked ChatGPT to “Role play a conversation with me of a customer making a return. You be the store employee.” Here’s a snippet of the sample dialogue:
II. Prompt-writing
With clarity, creativity, and strategic thinking, a well-crafted prompt leads to more accurate and helpful responses. Whether you're a researcher, a creative writer, or just an AI enthusiast, understanding the nuances of prompt crafting can significantly elevate the effectiveness of your interactions with AI.
Specifying the desired tone, format, and length are common parts of a prompt to start with. That’s just scratching the surface. Consider using the following to write great prompts:
Language - Request the desired language(s) for the response, if different from the prompt.
Keywords - List important keywords or phrases to be included.
Limitations - Specify constraints, such as word or character count.
Audience - Specify the target audience for tailored content.
Act as - Indicate a role or perspective to adopt (e.g., expert, critic, enthusiast).
Citations - Request the inclusion of citations or sources to support information.
Points of view - Ask the Al to consider multiple perspectives or opinions.
Counterarguments - Request addressing potential counterarguments.
Terminology - Specify industry-specific or technical terms to use or avoid.
Analogies - Ask the Al to use analogies or examples to clarify concepts.
Quotes - Request the inclusion of relevant quotes or statements from experts.
Statistics - Encourage the use of statistics or data to support claims.
Visual elements - Inquire about including charts, graphs, or images.
Call to action: Request a clear call to action or next steps.
A great prompt doesn’t have to include everything in the first message or iteration.
While conversational experiences in the past required you to get the prompt (or utterance) right on the first try, now if the response didn’t meet your needs, you can iterate and refine building a chain.
With LLMs, you can build a chain. Meaning:
First prompt: Give me a summary of X
Modify output: Use the summary to write a post that explains the topic to beginners
Modify limitations: Summarize it in 500 words
Modify tone: Change the tone and make it sound more professional but still friendly
Modify the format: Convert the above into text for a presentation with 1 key point per slide
We’re drinking from a firehose right now so make sure to pace yourself.
Throughout my career, when a new technology or product was gaining traction, I quickly started using it and learning everything I could. Experimenting with it, noting what worked well and didn’t work with the UX. I learned the technical side, marketing, reading “reviews” and so on.
With AI, find ways to improve your own workflow.
Sure, jobs that require human qualities such as emotions, empathy, creativity, critical thinking, and innovation are not as easily replaced. But competition is always out there.
To get to great, stay curious and keep evolving your skillset.
And make sure you’re subscribing. 😊 Next time, I’ll be sharing a list of AI tools for design.
Favorite Quote and Photo of the Week
"Life is harder when you expect a lot of the world and little of yourself.
Life is easier when you expect a lot of yourself and little of the world.
High standards, low expectations."
— James Clear, author of Atomic Habits

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That’s it for today. Thanks for reading!
Until next week,
raika