Playbook: Alex for Designers

Your reference for using Alex in UX/UI, product design, and design operations. Ready-to-run prompts for research synthesis, documentation, critique, and collaboration.

What This Guide Is Not

This is not a habit formation guide (see Self-Study Guide for that). This is a design toolkit — the specific ways Alex can accelerate your design process, and the prompts that work.

Where to Practice These Prompts

Every prompt in this guide works with any AI assistant — ChatGPT, Claude, GitHub Copilot, Gemini, or whatever tool you prefer. The prompts are the skill; the tool is just where you type them. Pick the one you’re comfortable with and start today.

For an integrated experience, the Alex VS Code extension (free) was purpose-built for this workshop. It understands design context, lets you save effective prompts with /saveinsight, and brings your playbook and practice exercises into one workspace. VS Code is a free editor that takes minutes to set up, even if you’ve never used it before.

You don’t need a specific tool to benefit. You need the habit of reaching for AI when the work is genuinely hard — not just when it’s repetitive.

Core Principle for Designers

Design is about solving problems for humans through intentional decisions. Alex can’t design for you — it doesn’t see what you see, and it can’t feel what users feel. But it can accelerate the parts of design that aren’t visual: research synthesis, documentation, critique preparation, and stakeholder communication.

The key pattern: describe what you’re seeing. Some AI tools now accept images, but articulating your design decisions in words remains the most powerful and portable approach — it works with every tool, forces clarity, and produces better feedback than dropping in a screenshot without context.

The Seven Use Cases

1. Research Synthesis

When to use: After user research. Turning interviews, tests, and observations into insights.

Prompt pattern:

Help me synthesize this research:

Research type: [interviews / usability tests / surveys / observation]
Participants: [who, how many, what segment]
Research questions: [what we were trying to learn]

Raw findings:
[paste key observations, quotes, or notes]

Help me:
1. Identify the top themes across participants
2. Distinguish behaviors from stated preferences
3. Surface pain points and unmet needs
4. Find patterns I might be missing
5. Prioritize by severity and frequency

Follow-up prompts:

What questions should I have asked but didn't?

Create user need statements based on this research.

What assumptions should we validate before designing?

Try this now: You conducted 6 usability tests on your checkout redesign. Four users struggled with selecting shipping options, one breezed through, and one abandoned entirely. Paste the key observations (anonymized) into the research synthesis prompt. The output will cluster the friction patterns and suggest which design change addresses the most users — instead of the loudest anecdote.

2. Design Documentation

When to use: Specs, annotations, handoff docs, design system documentation.

Prompt pattern:

Help me document this design:

What it is: [screen, flow, component, system]
Description: [describe what you've designed]
Design decisions: [key choices you made and why]
Audience: [who needs to understand this — engineers, stakeholders]
Level of detail: [high-level / detailed spec]

Create documentation that:
1. Explains what this does and why
2. Describes behavior and states
3. Calls out edge cases
4. Specifies accessibility requirements
5. Notes what's not covered / out of scope

Follow-up prompts:

Add interaction specifications for [specific element].

Write the acceptance criteria an engineer would need.

Document the responsive behavior.

3. Design Critique Preparation

When to use: Preparing to present work for feedback. Structuring a critique.

Prompt pattern:

Help me prepare for a design critique:

What I'm presenting: [describe the design]
Design goals: [what this should accomplish]
Key decisions: [choices I made]
What I'm confident about: [the parts that feel right]
What I'm uncertain about: [where I want feedback]
Audience: [who's in the critique]

Help me:
1. Frame the design problem clearly
2. Structure my presentation
3. Articulate my decisions and rationale
4. Formulate specific questions for feedback
5. Anticipate pushback and prepare responses

Follow-up prompts:

Someone will say "Why didn't you do [alternative]?" Prepare my response.

What blind spots might I have?

How do I respond if the feedback contradicts the user research?

4. UX Writing and Content

When to use: Interface copy, error messages, empty states, onboarding.

Prompt pattern:

Help me write UX copy:

Context: [where this appears in the product]
User situation: [what's the user doing/feeling]
Goal: [what this copy needs to accomplish]
Constraints: [character limits, tone guidelines, platform]
Current copy: [what exists now, if anything]

Write variations that:
1. Are clear and scannable
2. Guide the user to action
3. Match our voice: [describe brand voice]
4. Handle edge cases gracefully
5. Are accessible to diverse users

Follow-up prompts:

Write 5 variations of the primary button text.

Write error messages for [specific failure modes].

Create the empty state copy for [feature].

5. Stakeholder Communication

When to use: Presenting to non-designers. Explaining decisions to PMs, engineers, executives.

Prompt pattern:

Help me explain this design decision:

Decision: [what you chose]
Why: [your reasoning]
Audience: [who you're explaining to]
Their concerns: [what they care about]
Data: [any research or evidence]

Create an explanation that:
1. Leads with user/business impact, not design rationale
2. Uses concrete examples, not abstract principles
3. Acknowledges tradeoffs honestly
4. Connects to their priorities
5. Invites collaboration, not approval

Follow-up prompts:

An engineer says this is too complex. How do I respond?

A stakeholder wants [feature] added. Help me explain why not.

How do I present this to someone who "knows what they like when they see it"?

6. Design System Work

When to use: Component documentation, pattern libraries, governance, adoption.

Prompt pattern:

Help me document this design system component:

Component: [name and purpose]
Variants: [different versions/states]
Usage: [when to use it]
Anatomy: [its parts]
Behavior: [interactions, states]

Create documentation that includes:
1. When to use (and when not to use)
2. Variants with clear use cases
3. Accessibility requirements
4. Implementation notes for engineers
5. Examples of correct usage

Follow-up prompts:

Add do/don't examples.

What edge cases need specific guidance?

How does this component relate to [other component]?

7. Portfolio and Case Studies

When to use: Documenting work for your portfolio, job searching, sharing learnings.

Prompt pattern:

Help me write a case study:

Project: [what you worked on]
Role: [what you did]
Challenge: [the problem]
Process: [your approach]
Outcome: [results, impact]
Learnings: [what you'd do differently]

Structure a case study that:
1. Hooks the reader with the challenge
2. Shows my thinking, not just the outcome
3. Demonstrates collaboration
4. Is honest about constraints and tradeoffs
5. Includes measurable impact where possible

Follow-up prompts:

Make the beginning more compelling.

I can't show the final product. How do I still tell the story?

What questions will a hiring manager have after reading this?

Your AI toolkit: These prompts work in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini — and in the Alex VS Code extension, which was designed around them. Start with whatever you have. The skill transfers across all of them.

What Great Looks Like

After consistent use, you should notice:

• Faster, clearer documentation
• Better-prepared critiques with more useful feedback
• Stronger stakeholder communication
• More effective research synthesis

The goal isn’t for Alex to design — it’s for Alex to accelerate everything around the design.

Practice Plan

Month 2–3

Shift from guided exercises to independent workflows — build templates, integrate AI into your real projects, and create reusable prompt libraries for repeating tasks.

Track Your Growth

/saveinsight Research Synthesis Patterns: theme clustering approach that worked for [study type]

/saveinsight Design Documentation Templates: handoff spec format that engineers actually used

Continue your practice: Self-Study Guide has weekly challenges to keep building your skills after the workshop ends.