Prompt
Prompting literacy scaffold
Design in-product scaffolding that teaches users to prompt better while they work — not in a separate tutorial.
By Gus · founder — Agentic Design
The prompt
For [PRODUCT + INPUT SURFACE], design in-product scaffolding that teaches better prompting during real use (not a separate tutorial). Produce: (1) the beginner state — hints, starter structures, examples; (2) how the system detects a user is improving; (3) the faded state — what remains once they're fluent; (4) one anti-pattern to avoid (scaffolding that condescends or blocks experts). Make it feel like help, not homework.
How to adapt
Most users prompt badly and blame the AI. Rather than a docs page nobody reads, this designs scaffolding built into the product: the hints, examples, and structure that raise a user's prompting skill in the flow of real use, then recede as they improve.
How to adapt
Replace [PRODUCT + INPUT SURFACE] with where users actually type. The best answers propose scaffolding that fades — push for "how does this get out of the way once the user is fluent?"