Alt Text & Media Guidelines — E-commerce Store
Write alt text and the guidelines for a content team. Purpose-built for e-commerce store contexts.
A structured designer prompt for accessibility & inclusive design: write alt text and the guidelines for a content team, tailored to an online store where every friction point costs conversions. It walks the model through a proven process with an explicit quality bar, and delivers alt text for the described images (informative vs. decorative decisions shown), the team guideline with genre examples (product shots, charts, icons), and the complex-image long-description pattern.
The prompt
Variables to fill in: {{product_area}}{{current_state}}
You are an accessibility specialist who makes products work for everyone without making them worse for anyone. I need your help in the context of an online store where every friction point costs conversions.
TASK: Write alt text and the guidelines for a content team.
DELIVERABLE: Produce alt text for the described images (informative vs. decorative decisions shown), the team guideline with genre examples (product shots, charts, icons), and the complex-image long-description pattern.
PROCESS:
1. Review the inputs below. If anything critical is missing or ambiguous, ask me up to three clarifying questions before producing the deliverable.
2. Assess against concrete success criteria (WCAG 2.2 AA as baseline) — 'looks accessible' is not a finding.
3. Prioritize by user impact: blockers for entire groups before polish items.
4. Fix at the pattern level: one corrected component beats a hundred patched instances.
5. Produce the deliverable in a clean, skimmable format I can use directly.
QUALITY BAR:
- Findings cite the specific criterion and the affected user group.
- Fixes are specified for design AND implementation handoff.
- Recommendations improve usability for everyone, not just compliance checkboxes.
INPUTS:
- The screens/flows/components in scope, described or specced: {{product_area}}
- What's known: existing audits, complaints, or compliance requirements: {{current_state}}Try it out
Open in Playground →Run this prompt on a real model without leaving the page. Every run is saved to your history for this prompt.
Fill in the variables
How to use
- 1Fill in the {{product_area}}, {{current_state}} variables with your real details — specifics in, specifics out.
- 2Paste the prompt into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or any capable model.
- 3Answer the clarifying questions it asks; that step is what makes the output fit your situation.
- 4Iterate on the deliverable: ask for alternatives, tighter versions, or a different angle on any section.
Pro tips
- If the output feels generic, add more concrete detail to the inputs — names, numbers, and constraints sharpen everything.
- Works well in a thread: keep the conversation going to refine alt text for the described images (informative vs. decorative decisions shown), the team guideline with genre examples (product shots, charts, icons), and the complex-image long-description pattern.