How to Get the Most Out of Draftly's AI Prompt: Tips From the Team
The single text box for Draftly's AI prompt is the most powerful part of our platform. It's the direct line between your creative vision and a fully-realized cinematic website. Think of it not as a search bar, but as a creative brief for a world-class design and development team. A well-crafted prompt can reduce your editing time by over 70% and deliver a site that feels uniquely yours from the very first generation.
But how do you write a prompt that truly delivers? We asked our own design and engineering leads for their best practices. It's less about knowing code and more about mastering the art of description. This guide breaks down their exact framework for turning a simple idea into a stunning interactive experience.
Think Like an Art Director, Not a Coder
The biggest mistake we see is users writing prompts like technical specifications. Phrases like "div block with 20px padding" or "h1 font size 48px" instruct the AI on how to build, not what to create. The AI already knows how to build. Your job is to give it the creative direction.
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Instead, adopt the mindset of an art director briefing a creative team. Focus on mood, feeling, brand essence, and the target audience. The more context you provide about the why behind your website, the better our AI can interpret your vision and make thousands of micro-decisions on your behalf.
The Vibe & Mood Formula
A great starting point is to structure your core idea around a simple formula. This gives the AI a strong foundation to build upon.
The Formula: [Adjective] + [Industry/Niche] + [Core Feeling] + [Color/Material Palette]
Here’s how it works in practice:
For a consulting firm: "A sophisticated and trustworthy website for a management consulting firm, projecting authority and clarity, using a color palette of deep navy, white, and a subtle gold accent."*
For a D2C brand: "A playful and vibrant website for a Gen-Z focused beverage brand, with an energetic and bold feel, using a palette of electric blue, magenta, and clean white backgrounds."*
For a photographer: "An elegant and minimalist portfolio for a wedding photographer, creating a romantic and timeless mood, using a palette of soft cream, charcoal text, and muted earth tones."*
This approach immediately sets the tone, industry context, emotional goal, and visual language for the AI to work with.
The 5-Step Framework for a Perfect Draftly AI Prompt
For a truly comprehensive result, expand the Vibe & Mood formula into a more detailed brief. Following these five steps will give our AI all the information it needs to generate a website that's 90% of the way there, right from the start.
- Define Your Core Identity: Start with the absolute basics. Who are you and what do you do? Be specific. Instead of "a tech company," try "a B2B SaaS startup that makes accounting software for freelancers."
- Specify Your Target Audience: Who is this website for? This is a critical step that influences everything from copy tone to image selection. Prompts that include an audience see a 35% higher relevance score in the generated content. For example, add "...targeting small business owners who are not tech-savvy."
- Describe the Visual Aesthetic: Now, bring in the art direction. Use descriptive words to paint a picture. Is it minimalist, brutalist, corporate, futuristic, organic, rustic, luxurious? Mention textures and materials like glassmorphism, natural wood, brushed metal, or matte black. This is where you guide the overall look and feel, which has a huge impact on the final visuals and the effectiveness of the AI image generation in Draftly.
- Inject Your Brand's Personality: How do you want to sound? Is your brand witty, professional, approachable, authoritative, inspiring, or playful? This directly impacts the headlines and body copy the AI will write. A prompt for a law firm might specify "a formal and trustworthy tone," while a gaming company might ask for "an exciting and competitive tone."
- List Key Sections/Features: While you don't need to design the page, telling the AI what content to include is essential. List the core sections you need. For instance, "Include a hero section with a clear call-to-action, a features overview, a pricing table, customer testimonials, and a contact form." Referencing the Draftly Section Library can give you ideas for what's possible.
Prompt Modifiers: Advanced Techniques to Refine Your Vision
Once you have the core prompt, you can add modifiers to fine-tune the output. These are specific instructions that give the AI extra constraints or inspiration, helping you get closer to your desired outcome on the first try.
Think of these as layering details onto your creative brief. They can control everything from motion to the overall site structure.
Controlling Motion and Interactivity
Draftly is known for its cinematic, scroll-driven experiences. You can guide the AI on how to implement these effects by using motion-specific modifiers. These instructions help the AI choose the right kind of movement that matches your brand's personality.
For subtle effects: Use phrases like "with smooth, subtle scroll animations," "gentle fade-in effects for text," or "non-intrusive micro-interactions on buttons."*
For high-impact effects: Try "a fast-paced, cinematic hero video," "dynamic 3D transformations between sections," or "bold, scroll-triggered text reveals."*
Getting this right is key to creating a premium feel. For more ideas on what's possible, exploring our guide to page transitions and section animations can provide powerful vocabulary for your prompts.
Other Powerful Modifiers
- Inspiration-based: "Inspired by the clean design of Stripe's website." This gives the AI a real-world reference point for the layout and aesthetic.
- Feature-based: "Featuring large, high-quality photography of our products." This tells the AI to prioritize a visually-driven layout.
- Focus-based: "With a strong focus on social proof and customer logos." This instructs the AI to create sections specifically for building trust and credibility.
- Structural: "Create a single-page, long-scroll website." This defines the overall site architecture from the beginning.
From Good to Great: A Real Prompt Example
The difference between a generic prompt and a detailed one is stark. Let's look at a real-world example for a hypothetical business.
- A Good (But Vague) Prompt:
Result: This will likely generate a decent, but generic, coffee shop template. It will have standard sections and stock-style imagery. It's a starting point, but it won't feel unique.
- A Great, Detailed Prompt:
Result: This prompt gives the AI everything it needs. It defines the brand, audience, aesthetic, personality, and required content. The generated site will have a unique identity, relevant copy, and a structure that's already tailored to the business goals. The final result will feel 95% complete, requiring only minor tweaks.
After generation, you can always refine the site. Making small changes is incredibly fast by mastering AI chat editing, which lets you request changes in plain English.
Frequently Asked Questions about Draftly's AI Prompt
What is the ideal length for a Draftly AI prompt?
There's no magic number, but we find the sweet spot is between 50 and 150 words. A good prompt is concise but detailed. It should be a single paragraph that clearly outlines your vision, audience, aesthetic, and required sections. Less than 20 words is often too vague, while more than 200 can sometimes confuse the AI with conflicting instructions.Can I include my brand colors and fonts in the prompt?
Yes, you can specify colors directly in the prompt (e.g., "using a palette of #1A2B3C and #FFFFFF"). However, for best results and perfect brand consistency, we recommend setting up your brand identity in the Brand Kit. This allows you to pre-define your exact colors, fonts, and logo, which the AI will then apply to every generation. You can learn more in our guide to customising your brand kit.What happens if I don't like the first result?
Don't worry! Every generation is a new roll of the dice. If the first version isn't quite right, you can simply re-generate. We recommend slightly tweaking your prompt before regenerating. Try adding a new modifier or being more specific about the aesthetic (e.g., changing "modern" to "brutalist and modern"). Often, a small change in the prompt can lead to a dramatically different and better result.How specific should I be about website sections?
Be specific about what sections you need, but not how they should look. For example, saying "I need a section to display testimonials" is perfect. The AI will then design the best-looking testimonial section for your aesthetic. Avoid overly prescriptive instructions like "I need a three-column grid for testimonials with a 5-star icon above each one," as this can limit the AI's creative potential.Ready to turn your vision into a website? Start building with a single prompt on Draftly.
