Template
Structured templates that can be filled by the user or pre-filled by the AI
Overview:
Templates are a specific type of Suggested Action that offer a simple way to onboard someone into a complicated product area. They take the affordances of nudges or parameters and turn the knob up to 11.
Suggesting basic ideas like "give me ideas to help with my kids' homework" can be sufficient to help someone understand how a product works. It falls flat when the person doesn't know how to write more advanced prompts, or when nuances to how to use the product are difficult to grasp.
Templates solve for both of these.
In their simplest form, Templates make it easy to construct a familiar frame for doing a task. For example, you might already use Figma's Figjam to create a workspace for a retrospective with your product team. Sit down for a moment and think about the last thing like this you created. Now try to describe it in a way that is most likely to get an image generator to produce what you have in mind. Tough, right?
Beyond saving you users the time it would take to create and arrange all of the boxes for this workspace, Figjam makes it so you don't have to describe it (or at least, not most of it). Set a few parameters and add a bit of information in the open chat, and figma will create it for you.
This blend of parameters, suggested prompts, and open text give templates their power. Any tool that would require a long and specific prompt to get a predictable outcome would benefit from a template.
They are very common in ai writing tools like Copy.ai. Users can select a template, fill out a few words (instead of writing a 500 word prompt), and the machine will generate a first draft.
Hypotenuse's image generating tool also includes a template, using shortcuts to add parameters to make it easy for the user to generate their prompt.
You can imagine other uses.
- Excel users could benefit from a template that prompts users with smart defaults about which columns or formulas to include.
- Recipe sites could ask a user to include or exclude specific ingredients (maybe based off weight loss goals or medical needs) along with an open text to describe their meal. Imagine being able to remix with a photo of food you saw in a restaurant but sculpted to your dietary preferences!
One thing to consider is that templates aren't always necessary. If the task someone is going to perform is fairly simple, limit how many hoops they have to jump through the first time. Figjam offers another good example of this, giving people the option to adjust their template AFTER they have built it. Sometimes you have to know that you missed the mark before looking for help to get back on target.
Benefits:
Anti-patterns:
Inflated expectations
Just because a tool generates a complicated prompt for the user doesn't mean it's helpful. Be wary of oversetting expectations, especially if you require someone to do the work upfront. Consider constraining your template generation experience to optimize for the parameters you provide, and show the user their work in the form of the actual prompt so they can trace the input to the output.
Limitations unknown
Because these rely on a familiar pattern of a recognizable template, when they don't work as expected it is immediately obvious to the user. Figjam can create a flow chart, but not a wireframe flow (which results in a flow chart). That was a let down. Provide extra context and be clear about what your templates can do. It's better to do one thing perfectly than three things poorly.
