We learn by doing, and we learn especially from our mistakes. John Dewey
Every new experience brings a certain amount of resistance—an instinctive hesitation tied to unfamiliarity. This isn’t unique to artificial intelligence; it’s part of the human condition. I remember the first time I booted up Apex Legends on PC. My fingers instinctively searched for the familiar D-pad and face buttons, only to realize I needed to use WASD and a mouse instead. The first time I attempted snowboarding, every turn ended in a shaky pendulum swing—it was far from graceful. And when I started learning ballet, the step balancé en tournant felt completely alien, disconnected from any movement I knew.
Yet each of these stumbling blocks was eventually overcome—not by a sudden stroke of brilliance, but through steady, iterative practice. By refining movements, testing new techniques, and noticing patterns, I grew more comfortable with each skill. The same is true for AI and prompt design.
At first, AI responses may seem unpredictable, frustrating, or even baffling. But like any skill, once you grasp the underlying structure—once you see how it all fits together—you can shape it with surprising precision. Philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty once said, "The body is our general medium for having a world." In much the same way, prompts are our medium for engaging with AI—a language that translates human intention into machine action.
This challenge led us to develop Giselle, a visual node-based system that makes AI interaction more intuitive. In this article, we'll guide you through transforming AI from an unfamiliar tool into a creative partner, showing how well-designed prompts can bridge the gap between human intention and machine capability.
What Is Prompt Design?
AI doesn’t “understand” the way humans do—it processes patterns. The key to effective interaction lies in crafting prompts that guide those patterns toward your desired outcome.
Consider these two examples:
- Approach A: “Summarize this.”
- Approach B: “Summarize this article for an audience unfamiliar with the topic, keeping the response under 100 words and ensuring clarity over technical detail.”
The difference is in the design. Prompting isn’t simply asking questions; it’s about structuring your own thought process. Like writing a screenplay, composing music, or designing an interface, it’s a deliberate way of shaping how interaction unfolds. This is where Giselle comes in (no, not the tragic ballet ghost or the chart-topping trilingual rapper with killer legs!). As a visual AI workflow builder, Giselle helps users structure prompts systematically, refine them collaboratively, and integrate AI into broader processes—enabling both creative freedom and precision.
How Prompting Becomes Second Nature
Why New Tools Feel Unnatural
Philosopher Jean Piaget described learning as a process of disequilibrium—that uncomfortable moment when we encounter something that doesn’t fit our existing mental models. Whether it’s gaming, snowboarding, or ballet, our minds and bodies initially resist what feels unfamiliar:
- In gaming, WASD controls can feel awkward to thumbs trained on console controllers.
- On a snowboard, your body fights against new balancing mechanics.
- In ballet, each step challenges your natural movement patterns.
Interacting with AI follows this same cycle of resistance followed by adaptation. And just as we master physical skills through practice, we can build proficiency in AI communication through intentional iteration.
How Understanding AI Changes Everything
My deeper dive into AI began when our engineering team walked me through the technical details of fine-tuning models. This technical grounding was invaluable, but I also realized that well-thought-out prompts could achieve the lion’s share of my creative and practical aims.
It’s not that fine-tuning isn’t important; it’s simply that different tasks require different tools. Just as a ballet dancer needs both technical discipline and artistic flair, working effectively with AI demands both technical understanding and creative prompt design.
That same balance underpins Giselle’s philosophy. We want to ensure that advanced users can dig into the details—integrating large language models, web data, or internal repositories—while keeping the overall system simple enough for non-technical teammates to experiment with. Our approach is to encourage frequent iteration and open collaboration, so each user (designer, engineer, or otherwise) can explore how prompts shape the AI’s behavior in real time.
AI as a Thought Partner, Not Just a Tool
How AI Can Inspire, Refine, and Elevate Your Ideas
AI is more than a one-dimensional utility—it can become a responsive collaborator that adapts, surprises, and opens up new avenues of possibility. Look at the work of digital artists who turn massive datasets into immersive experiences. AI doesn’t replace their vision; it amplifies it, like a choreographer guiding trained dancers to bring a concept to life.
When prompts are designed with intention, AI becomes a true partner that:
- Offers fresh perspectives, sparking new ideas.
- Automates routine tasks, freeing you to focus on strategy and expression.
- Collaborates directly, refining your work without usurping your role as the creator.
How to Train AI to Work with You, Not Just for You
This partnership grows through deliberate practice. Begin with straightforward, quantifiable requests:
- “Explain this concept in one sentence.”
- “Rewrite this paragraph to make it clearer.”
As you gain confidence, add layers of context:
- “Explain this concept in one sentence as if you were talking to a 12-year-old, and use a metaphor.”
In Giselle, we take this incremental approach and formalize it into workflows. By chaining multiple “prompt nodes,” you can refine outputs step by step—asking one AI agent to summarize, then another to fact-check, and yet another to adapt the tone for a different audience. This structured orchestration means you can design processes that validate their own results, cross-reference multiple data sources, and preserve the human-in-the-loop element.
To illustrate this in action, for example, in Giselle, a marketing team might use one AI agent to summarize user feedback, another to generate a draft report, and a third to refine the tone for different stakeholders. By structuring prompts as modular nodes, teams can iteratively improve results without starting from scratch. This process allows for continuous refinement and ensures that AI becomes an adaptable extension of the team’s workflow.
Where typical AI usage can feel random or ad hoc, Giselle’s approach is more like choreographing a sequence in ballet—you have a vantage point over the entire routine, see how each move (or prompt) affects the flow, and can edit individual parts without losing the cohesion of the whole.
Orchestrating a Human-AI Dance
German philosopher Martin Heidegger suggested that technology is not just a set of tools, but a gateway to new possibilities. AI exemplifies this idea: it extends our cognitive reach, allowing us to explore avenues once limited by time or specialization.
Designing a Collaborative Future
From a product design perspective, it’s critical that AI expands rather than replaces human capabilities. In Giselle, we’ve integrated features that let teams of varying backgrounds work together—whether it’s generating technical documentation in one node, reviewing code changes in another, or compiling user feedback into a coherent summary. Each node can be easily repurposed, mirrored, or adapted, making the entire system perpetually evolvable.
Over time, these nodes become living components of a broader knowledge network. Teams discover new synergies, integrate specialized AI models, and refine prompts to match their evolving needs. The friction of early trials fades into a sense of creative momentum.
Friction → Repetition → Familiarity → Mastery
It’s the same progression behind learning any complex skill—whether it’s nailing a perfect 360 on a snowboard or transitioning smoothly between ballet steps. Each practice session reveals new nuances, each iteration builds confidence. What once felt like deciphering an alien script transforms into a powerful medium for expression.
And in that moment—when AI interactions feel as fluid as a well-rehearsed dance—you realize that design and technology, far from being separate disciplines, are partners in enabling human potential. You just needed the right framework to show you the steps.