Towards Holistic Prompt Craft

Lindley, Joseph and Whitham, Roger (2025) Towards Holistic Prompt Craft. In: DIS '25: Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference :. ACM, New York, pp. 1900-1912. ISBN 978400714856

Abstract

We present an account of an ongoing practice-based Design Research programme that explores real-time AI image generation. Based on three installations, we reflect on the design of PromptJ, a user interface built around the concept of a prompt ‘mixer’. We present a series of strong concepts based on the design and deployment of PromptJ. Later, we cohere and abstract our strong concepts into the notion of Holistic Prompt Craft, which describes the importance of considering all relevant parameters concurrently. Finally, we present PromptTank, a prototype design which exemplifies these principles. Our contributions are articulated as strong concepts or intermediate knowledge, intended to be used generatively by informing and inspiring practitioners and researchers working in this space.