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AI: First New UI Paradigm in 60 Years?

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Re: AI: First New UI Paradigm in 60 Years?

#61
post #25

Interesting to bundle both cli/gui under the "command" based interaction paradigm. I've never heard it described that way but it does make sense intuitively. Is that a common perception? I think of the development of the mouse/gui as a very significant event in the history of computing interfaces.

When you zoom out on the time scale it makes more sense. I think he's got a point. Both CLIs and GUIs are "command based". LLM prompts are more declarative. You describe what you want.

I've been at a SQL command prompt a decade or several before LLM.

Re: AI: First New UI Paradigm in 60 Years?

#62
post #54
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the goal of Interface design is to find the least amount of things needed to get you from point A to the desired Destination as quickly as possible. That shouldn't be the primary goal of user interfaces, in my opinion. The primary goal should be to allow users to interface with the machine in a way that allows maximal understanding with minimal cognitive load. I understand a lot of UI design these days prioritizes…

> The primary goal should be to allow users to interface with the machine in a way that allows maximal understanding with minimal cognitive load. If you use your phone, is your primary goal to interface with it in a way that allows maximal understanding with minimal cognitive load? I’m pretty sure that’s not the case. You go read the news, send a message to a loved one etc. there’s a human need that you’re aiming to…

> If you use your phone, is your primary goal to interface with it in a way that allows maximal understanding with minimal cognitive load?

Yes, absolutely. That's what makes user interfaces "disappear".

> Interfacing with tech is not the underlying desire.

Exactly. That's why it's more important that a UI present a minimal cognitive load over the least number of steps to do a thing.

Re: AI: First New UI Paradigm in 60 Years?

#63
This article isn't too helpful.

There have been many "UI Paradigms", but the fancier ones tended to be special purpose. The first one worthy of the name was for train dispatching. That was General Railway Signal's NX (eNtry-Exit) system.[1] Introduced in 1936, still in use in the New York subways. With NX, the dispatcher routing an approaching train selected the "entry" track on which the train was approaching. The system would then light up all possible "exit" tracks from the junction. This took into account conflicting routes already set up and trains present in the junction. Only reachable exits lit up. The dispatcher pushed the button for the desired exit. The route setup was then automatic. Switches moved and locked into position, then signals along the route went to clear. All this was fully interlocked; the operator could not request anything unsafe.

There were control panels before this, but this was the first system where the UI did more than just show status. It actively advised and helped the operator. The operator set the goal; the system worked out how to achieve it.

Another one I encountered was an early computerized fire department dispatching system. Big custom display boards and keyboards. When an alarm came in, it was routed to a dispatcher. Based on location, the system picked the initial resources (trucks, engines, chiefs, and special equipment) to be dispatched. Each dispatcher had a custom keyboard, with one button for each of those resources. The buttons lit up indicating the selected equipment. The dispatcher could add additional equipment with a single button push, if the situation being called in required it. Then they pushed one big button, which set off alarms in fire stations, printed a message on a printer near the fire trucks, and even opened the doors at the fire house. There was a big board at the front of the room which showed the status of everything as colored squares. The fire department people said this cut about 30 seconds off a dispatch, which, in that business, is considered a big win.

Both of those are systems which had to work right. Large language models are not even close to being safe to use in such applications. Until LLMs report "don't know" instead of hallucinating, they're limited to very low risk applications such as advertising and search.

Now, the promising feature of LLMs in this direction is the ability to use the context of previous questions and answers. It's still query/response, but with enough context that the user can gradually make the system converge on a useful result. Such systems are useful for "I don't know what I want but I'll know it when I see it" problems. This allows using flaky LLMs with human assistance to get a useful result.

[1] https://online.anyflip.com/lbes/vczg/mobile/#p=1

Re: AI: First New UI Paradigm in 60 Years?

#64
post #44

The article fails to grasp the essence of what UI is actually about. I agree that AI is adding a new layer to UI and UX design. In our work [1] we have seen an increase in AI projects or features the last 12 months (for obvious reasons). However, the way that AI will contribute to better UI is to remove parts of the Interface. not simply giving it a new form. Let me explain, the ultimate UI is no UI. In a perfect sce…

I hate to appeal to authority, but I am fairly sure that Jakob Nielsen grasps the essence of what UI is actually about.

Re: AI: First New UI Paradigm in 60 Years?

#65
post #44

The article fails to grasp the essence of what UI is actually about. I agree that AI is adding a new layer to UI and UX design. In our work [1] we have seen an increase in AI projects or features the last 12 months (for obvious reasons). However, the way that AI will contribute to better UI is to remove parts of the Interface. not simply giving it a new form. Let me explain, the ultimate UI is no UI. In a perfect sce…

It seems rather obvious to me that when Nielsen is talking about AI enabling users to express intent, that naturally lends itself to being able to remove steps that were there only due to the nature of the old UI paradigm. Not sure what new essence you’re proposing? Best UI is no UI is a well known truism in HCI/Human Centered Design.

Re: AI: First New UI Paradigm in 60 Years?

#67

Bardini's book about Doug Engelbart recaps a conversation between Engelbart and Minsky about the nature of natural language interfaces... that took place in the 1960s.

AI interfaces taking so long has less to do with the technology (I mean... Zork understood my text sentences well enough to get me around a simulated world) and more to do with what people are comfortable with.

Lowey talked about MAYA (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable.) I think it's taken this long for people to be okay with the inherent slowness of AI interfaces. We needed a generation or two of users who traded representational efficiency for easy to learn abstractions. And now we can do it again. You can code up a demo app using various LLMs, but it takes HOURS of back and forth to get to the point it takes me (with experience and boilerplate) minutes to get to. But you don't need to invest in developing the experience.

And I encourage every product manager to build a few apps with AI tools so you'll more easily see what you're paying me for.

Re: AI: First New UI Paradigm in 60 Years?

#70
Is it a new paradigm, or an old paradigm that finally works?

Users have been typing commands into computers for decades, getting responses of varying sophistication with varying degrees of natural language processing. Even the idea of an “AI” chatbot that mimics human writing is decades old.

The new thing is that the NLP now has some depth to it.

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