A good first prompt has three things in it, in this order: what it is, who it is for, and what it should feel like.
Build a one-page site for my pottery class sign-ups. It is for parents booking a Saturday morning class. Keep it warm and simple, not corporate.
Notice what is missing: no technical words, no mention of responsive design, no implementation instructions. That is on purpose. The AI can make technical decisions. It cannot guess who it is for or what feeling you want unless you say so.
A weak prompt, rewritten side by side
Make a page with a header, three columns, and a footer.
Make a landing page for my freelance photography business. It is for couples looking for a wedding photographer, and it needs to feel warm and personal, like looking through a friend's photo album, not a stock corporate template.
The weak version is not wrong, it is incomplete. It describes layout, not purpose.
A third example with more function detail
Make a simple recipe box. I paste in a recipe and it saves it, with a title, ingredients, and steps, so I can find it again later. It is just for me, so keep it plain and fast, no decoration needed, I just want it to work without me thinking about it.
More detail is not automatically better. The right amount is whatever the AI needs to understand what you mean.
Common pitfalls
- Over-specifying tools and techniques you do not understand. If you do not know a term, do not include it just because it sounds technical.
- Under-specifying who it is for. Naming the audience does more work than people expect.
- Assuming one prompt has to do everything. Build the shell first, then add features in follow-up prompts.
Assignment 1.3 - Write, rewrite, and diversify
You're done when: you have two complete prompts for two different ideas and can point to the who and feel words in each one.
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Self-check
Put these in order for a strong first prompt: feel, what, who.
What it is, who it is for, what it should feel like.
Why might "make a page with a header, three columns, and a footer" produce a technically correct but wrong result?
It describes structure without purpose or audience, so the AI can satisfy the layout and still miss the point.
Is it a mistake to leave features out of your first prompt and add them later?
No. Building the core first and adding follow-up changes is a normal, effective workflow.