Best Paper Award at DESRIST 2026

17.06.2026 The paper «The Medium is the Prompt: Prompts as Design Science Artifacts» has won the Best Paper Award at DESRIST conference, which took place at the beginning of June in Münster. In this short interview, co-author Savindu Herath from the Institute of Digital Technology Management explains the key ideas behind the work.

What problem does your paper address?

When using large language models, what the system does depends heavily on the prompt you give it. Still, in research, prompts are often treated as a small technical detail. This is an issue because important information – like how prompts were designed or tested – is often missing. That makes results harder to understand and compare. We argue that prompts should be treated as proper design elements, not as an afterthought.

What is your main idea for improving prompt design?

We propose looking at prompts on two levels:
First, «task support»: What is the goal? What are the expectations, context, and constraints?
Second, «prompt specification»: How are these elements translated into clear instructions for the model?
This helps connect technical prompt writing with the real-world context in which the AI is used.

Why is this important for practice and research?

For researchers, it improves transparency and makes studies easier to build on.
For practitioners, it encourages more structured and thoughtful prompt design instead of trial and error. Overall, it helps us use AI more reliably – especially in complex, real-world settings.

The award highlights a key message: prompts are not just inputs – they are central to how AI systems are designed and used.