Participatory prompting: a user-centric research method for eliciting AI assistance opportunities in knowledge workflows

TL;DR

This paper introduces participatory prompting, a user-centric research method combining contextual inquiry and researcher-mediated interaction to identify AI assistance opportunities in knowledge workflows.

Contribution

It presents a novel participatory prompting method that facilitates end-user engagement with generative AI without requiring prompt engineering skills.

Findings

Method enables realistic exploration of AI capabilities in workflows

Aims to identify end-user programming opportunities for AI

Supports studying user-AI interaction without prompt development

Abstract

Generative AI, such as image generation models and large language models, stands to provide tremendous value to end-user programmers in creative and knowledge workflows. Current research methods struggle to engage end-users in a realistic conversation that balances the actually existing capabilities of generative AI with the open-ended nature of user workflows and the many opportunities for the application of this technology. In this work-in-progress paper, we introduce participatory prompting, a method for eliciting opportunities for generative AI in end-user workflows. The participatory prompting method combines a contextual inquiry and a researcher-mediated interaction with a generative model, which helps study participants interact with a generative model without having to develop prompting strategies of their own. We discuss the ongoing development of a study whose aim will be to identify end-user programming opportunities for generative AI in data analysis workflows.