O Uso da Engenharia de Prompts no Processo de Design de Artefatos Digitais: uma investigação sobre práticas com IA Generativa

Abstract

The increasing integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is reshaping practices in digital product design, with prompt engineering emerging as a key competency for the interaction between designers and these new technologies. This undergraduate thesis investigates how digital product designers utilize GenAI tools in their design processes, focusing on the strategies and challenges of prompt engineering. Adopting an exploratory, mixed-methods approach guided by the principles of the Double Diamond model, the research collected primary data through a digital questionnaire (N=53) and four semi-structured interviews with professionals who actively employ these tools. Quantitative results indicate that 90.6% of responding designers already use GenAI, with its application being most prevalent in the ideation (72.9%) and text content generation (87.5%) phases. Despite this established use, the study reveals challenges in technology interaction. The most reported difficulty is "obtaining precise and useful answers" (60.4%), and the confidence level in creating prompts is concentrated in the mid-range of the scale (43.8% at level 3 out of 5). This is reflected in a perceived need for further training, indicated by 79.2% of users. Furthermore, a greater familiarity with the general concept of 'Generative AI' is observed compared to the specifics of 'Prompt Engineering'. The analysis deepens the understanding of how prompt engineering practices influence design outcomes, workflow, and the ethical issues involved. It is concluded that proficiency in prompt engineering is emerging as a key competency, directly linked to the responsible use of GenAI, representing a new front in the technical and strategic repertoire that influences the practices and future of the design profession.