Prompt Design Introduction

A student at a computer learning effective GenAI prompt design If you have any questions or get stuck as you work through this in-class GenAI exercise, please ask the instructor for assistance. Have fun!

Prompt Design Basics: The CRAFT Framework

While it is easy to get started using Generative AI tools, it takes time and practice to get the best results out of Generative AI tools. Each element of the CRAFT framework below contributes to the overall effectiveness of your prompt, making sure that the outputs are clear, relevant, and well-structured:

  • Context: Set the stage by providing background information. Include key details like the purpose of the task, audience, or tone. Example: Write a formal email to a professor about missing class due to illness.
  • Role: Specify the perspective or role the AI should take on. Example: Act as a historian explaining the causes of the French Revolution.
  • Action: Clearly describe the specific action or outcome you want. Example: Summarize the main points of this article in two paragraphs.
  • Format: State the structure or format of the response (e.g., list, essay, dialogue). Example: Provide the answer in bullet points for easy reading.
  • Targe Audience: Identify who the output is intended for, which can affect tone and style. Example: Write for a high school student unfamiliar with this topic.

Let’s Practice!

  1. If you haven’t already, in your favourite web browser please open either Perplexity.ai (no account required) -OR- Microsoft Copilot. If you are a UVic student you can use a version of Copilot licensed for you by UVic by logging on with your UVic email address (e.g. noahsmith@uvic.ca). The UVic version of Copilot runs on servers located in Canada and does not share any of the prompts you create with Microsoft, or resulting data for training data, which is great from a privacy perspective. Perplexity is a great option if you don’t want to use a login, but does not allow you to generate images like the UVic version of CoPilot.

    Note: You are free to use other GenAI tools for this workshop but please note that you will either have to create accounts for most of these services if you have not already done so, and will need to take extra steps to preserve your privacy if privacy is important to you:

  2. Test a poor prompt to start with. Copy and paste the following text into your GenAI tool and note the results:
    Tell me about the weather.

    An image of Copilot with a weather poor weather prompt example
    • What are the results from this prompt telling you?
  3. Now let’s try a prompt that includes more details relevant to the hypothetical help we need to create a lesson plan and activity for a grade 2 class by copying and pasting the following text into your GenAI tool:
    I am a teacher teaching grade 2 students about the weather. Please assume the role of a teacher and generate a lesson plan in bullet point form for a one-hour lesson about weather including a 30-minute activity to help students remember what they learned in the instruction portion of the lesson. The activity instruction should be at a grade 2 level. Please provide sources.

    An image of Copilot with a weather lesson prompt example
    • How does the response to this prompt differ from the “poor” prompt above?
    • Do you have the weather-related expertise to determine if the weather-related facts are accurate?
    • Do you have the teaching expertise to know if the weather lesson plan is reasonable and will work well with grade 2 students?
      Note: every time we use GenAI tools we should ask ourselves whether or not we have the expertise to evaluate the accuracy of GenAI-generated text, because as we know they are not always accurate or factual.
  4. Pick one or two topics that you know a lot about (e.g. What are the origins of skateboarding?).
    • Ask Perplexity.ai -or- Microsoft Copilot a question about one of the topics.
    • Is the answer accurate?
    • Can you make it more accurate with follow-up prompts?
    • Ask Copilot a question about your second topic.
    • How did it do for each topic?
      • Was it completely accurate?
      • Did you have to research to verify any of the claims Copilot made?
        NOTE: If you’d like to earn a workshop badge, please take a picture or screenshot of the prompt and output of one of the tropics you know a lot about as this is one of the criteria to earn a workshop badge.

Go further

There are many excellent resources on the internet with tips and tricks for prompt design, to please feel free to go deeper with articles like this if you’d like to improve your prompt design skill set.

NEXT STEP: Intermediate Prompt Design