Enhancing User Interaction in ChatGPT: Characterizing and Consolidating Multiple Prompts for Issue Resolution

Prompt design plays a crucial role in shaping the efficacy of ChatGPT, influencing the model's ability to extract contextually accurate responses. Thus, optimal prompt construction is essential for maximizing the utility and performance of ChatGPT. However, sub-optimal prompt design may necessitate iterative refinement, as imprecise or ambiguous instructions can lead to undesired responses from ChatGPT. Existing studies explore several prompt patterns and strategies to improve the relevance of responses generated by ChatGPT. However, the exploration of constraints that necessitate the submission of multiple prompts is still an unmet attempt. In this study, our contributions are twofold. First, we attempt to uncover gaps in prompt design that demand multiple iterations. In particular, we manually analyze 686 prompts that were submitted to resolve issues related to Java and Python programming languages and identify eleven prompt design gaps (e.g., missing specifications). Such gap exploration can enhance the efficacy of single prompts in ChatGPT. Second, we attempt to reproduce the ChatGPT response by consolidating multiple prompts into a single one. We can completely consolidate prompts with four gaps (e.g., missing context) and partially consolidate prompts with three gaps (e.g., additional functionality). Such an effort provides concrete evidence to users to design more optimal prompts mitigating these gaps. Our study findings and evidence can - (a) save users time, (b) reduce costs, and (c) increase user satisfaction.