Design & UX21 categories
Turn a vague request into a design spec
Someone asked for "a dashboard" and then walked away.
Turn this vague request into something a designer and an engineer could both build from. 1. Restate the request as the underlying user problem. If several readings are possible, list them and say which you think is meant. 2. Ask me the questions that genuinely block progress, at most five, ordered by how much each changes the design. 3. Assume plausible answers for everything else, and label every assumption. 4. Write the spec: all states, including loading, empty, error, and permission denied; the data shown and where it comes from; every interaction and what it changes; the edge cases needing a decision. 5. List what is explicitly out of scope. Do not design it yet. The output is a definition precise enough that two people working separately would build the same thing. Request:
Making it yours
- Paste your own material where the prompt asks for it. Everything above that line is instruction, not content.
- Delete any rule that does not apply to you. A shorter prompt that fits beats a thorough one that does not.
- If the answer comes back vague, add a line saying what you do not want. Constraints work better than encouragement.
Briefs and decisions. The work around the design: turning a request into a brief, choosing between options, writing down why.
Related prompts
Write up the rationale for this design decisionDocumenting a decision before everyone forgets why it was made.Compare two design options and pick oneTwo mockups, a stalled debate, and a decision due today.Turn this request into a design briefStarting work where the whole goal arrived as one Slack message.Turn research notes into insightsYou have a pile of interview notes and a deadline to say what they mean.Rewrite the microcopy on this screenBefore shipping a screen where the words started as placeholders you never revisited.Pick the right words for this buttonWhen the options are "OK / Cancel" and nobody is sure what OK does.
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