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Ubiquity (and it's related predecessor, Enso) was an excellent idea and I'd almost forgotten I'd used it for about 18 months before the project died out. Raskin

Ubiquity (and it's related predecessor, Enso) was an excellent idea and I'd almost forgotten I'd used it for about 18 months before the project died out. Raskin took the idea from his father of course, and it's discussed in his book "The Humane Interface", one of the best books about software design ever to have been written.

vickychijwani 10y ago
Yep, The Humane Interface is already on my (apparently ever-growing) reading list! Should probably bump it up as I've seen it recommended so much. Thanks :) I've been thinking, with all the huge advances in AI/ML in the last few years, now might be exactly the right time for an ambitious project like Ubiquity, since it relies heavily on natural-language processing. Thoughts?
- ProxCoques 10y ago
  My thoughts would be similar to the ones expressed by Robert Kosara (and Ben Shneiderman) on that point I think: https://eagereyes.org/blog/2016/the-personified-user-interface-trap https://eagereyes.org/blog/2016/the-personified-user-interfa...
  - vickychijwani 10y ago
    I can see where that's coming from, but this is a one-sided view. It misses the obvious conclusion: interface agents (to use the article's terminology) are complementary to direct manipulation interfaces, not a replacement. Direct manipulation is great at discoverability, when I'm exploring the choices available to me, but it sucks if I'm looking for something specific (for software with a minimum level of complexity, like Photoshop or Excel). Interface agents have the opposite characteristics, as the article explains. So, they're complementary techniques. To provide a simpler example, not involving AI: if the user is a domain expert (say, a graphic designer), the ability to search for and perform a specific action quickly is far more important than discoverability. For example, the user may already know that GIMP provides a feature for drawing a path but have only used Photoshop in the past and now they just can't find that action. Aside: it is telling that established design software like Photoshop / GIMP has such a bewildering maze of menus even today. But if you take Google Chrome, for instance, it provides a stellar searchable user interface [1]. [1]: http://vickychijwani.me/searchable-user-interfaces-are-the-future/ http://vickychijwani.me/searchable-user-interfaces-are-the-f...

vickychijwani 10y ago

Yep, The Humane Interface is already on my (apparently ever-growing) reading list! Should probably bump it up as I've seen it recommended so much. Thanks :) I've been thinking, with all the huge advances in AI/ML in the last few years, now might be exactly the right time for an ambitious project like Ubiquity, since it relies heavily on natural-language processing. Thoughts?

ProxCoques 10y ago
My thoughts would be similar to the ones expressed by Robert Kosara (and Ben Shneiderman) on that point I think: https://eagereyes.org/blog/2016/the-personified-user-interface-trap https://eagereyes.org/blog/2016/the-personified-user-interfa...
- vickychijwani 10y ago
  I can see where that's coming from, but this is a one-sided view. It misses the obvious conclusion: interface agents (to use the article's terminology) are complementary to direct manipulation interfaces, not a replacement. Direct manipulation is great at discoverability, when I'm exploring the choices available to me, but it sucks if I'm looking for something specific (for software with a minimum level of complexity, like Photoshop or Excel). Interface agents have the opposite characteristics, as the article explains. So, they're complementary techniques. To provide a simpler example, not involving AI: if the user is a domain expert (say, a graphic designer), the ability to search for and perform a specific action quickly is far more important than discoverability. For example, the user may already know that GIMP provides a feature for drawing a path but have only used Photoshop in the past and now they just can't find that action. Aside: it is telling that established design software like Photoshop / GIMP has such a bewildering maze of menus even today. But if you take Google Chrome, for instance, it provides a stellar searchable user interface [1]. [1]: http://vickychijwani.me/searchable-user-interfaces-are-the-future/ http://vickychijwani.me/searchable-user-interfaces-are-the-f...