←back to thread

The case against conversational interfaces

(julian.digital)
279 points nnx | 1 comments | 01 Apr 25 02:14 UTC | HN request time: 0.299s | source
Show context
benob ◴[01 Apr 25 06:45 UTC] No.43543570[source]▶
To me natural language interfaces are like the mouse-driven menu vs terminal interpreter. They allow good discoverability in systems that we don't master at the cost of efficiency.

As always, good UI allows for using multiple modalities.

replies(3): >>43543825 #>>43543865 #>>43543884 #
1. benrutter ◴[01 Apr 25 07:34 UTC] No.43543884[source]▶
Yesyesyesyes! I do wish I could think of more examples supporting both well.

VSCode is probably the best I can think of, where keyboard shortcuts can get you up to a decent speed as an advanced user, but mouse clicks provide an easy intro for a new user.

For the most part, I see tools like NVim, which is super fast but not new-user friendly. Or IOS, which a toddler can navigate, but doesn't afford many ways to speed up interactions like typing.