4 ms·

Why couldn't the interface ask you about your preferences? Because instead, what we have right now are clunky web interface that just cram every choice in the s

Why couldn't the interface ask you about your preferences? Because instead, what we have right now are clunky web interface that just cram every choice in the small screen in front of you and letting you understand how they are in fact different and sort out yourself how to make things work. Of course a conversational interface is useless if it tries to just do the same thing as a web UI, which is why it failed a decade ago when it was trendy, because the tech was nowhere clever enough to make that useful. But today, I'd bet the other way round.

earnestinger 2y ago
It can ask, but how much time do you want to spend answering stuff? Such dialog is probably nice for first time user, it is a nightmare for repeated user.
- littlestymaar 2y ago
  What prevents the system to remember your previous choices? Then it can assume you choice haven't changed, and propose you a solution that matches your previous choices. And to give the user control it just needs to explicitly tell the user about the assumption it made. In fact, a smart enough system could even see when violating the assumptions could lead to a substantial gain and try convincing the user that it may be a good option this time.
  - nosianu 2y ago
    It still has to tell you. Visually in a form it's much faster. Similar reason why many people prefer a blog post over a video. Talking is not very efficient, and it's serial in fixed time. With something visual you can look at whatever you want whenever you want, at your own (irregular) pace. You will also be able to make changes much faster. You can go to the target form element right away, and you get immediate feedback from the GUI (or from a physical control that you moved - e.g. in cars). If it's talk, you need to wait to have it said back to you - same reason as why important communication in flight control or military is always read back. Even humans misunderstand. You can't just talk-and-forget unless you accept errors. You would need some true intelligence for just some brief spoken requests to work well enough. A (human) butler worked fine for such cases, but even then only the best made it into such high-level service positions, because it required real intelligence to know what your lord needed and wanted, and lots of time with them to gain that experience.
    - littlestymaar 2y ago
      > It still has to tell you. Visually in a form it's much faster. Who said it cannot be visual? It's still a “conversational” UI if it's a chatbot that writes down its answer. > Similar reason why many people prefer a blog post over a video. Well I certainly do, but I also know that we are few and far between in that case. People in general prefer videos over blog post by a very large margin. > Talking is not very efficient, and it's serial in fixed time. With something visual you can look at whatever you want whenever you want, at your own (irregular) pace. You will also be able to make changes much faster. You can go to the target form element right away, and you get immediate feedback from the GUI. Saying “I want to travel to Berlin next monday” is much faster than fighting with the website's custom datepicker which will block you until you select your return date until you realize you need to go back and toggle the “one way trip” button before clicking the calendar otherwise it's not working… There's a reason why nerds love their terminal: GUIs are just very slow and annoying. They are useful for whatever new thing you're doing, because it's much more discoverable than CLI, but it's much less efficient. > If it's talk, you need to wait to have it said back to you - same reason as why important communication in flight control or military is always read back. Even humans misunderstand. You can't just talk-and-forget unless you accept errors. This is true, but stays true with a GUI, that's why you have those pesky confirmation pop-ups, because as annoying as they are when you know what you're doing, they are necessary to catch errors. > You would need some true intelligence for just some brief spoken requests to work well enough. I don't think so. IMO you just need something that emulates intelligence enough on that particular purpose. And we've seen that LLMs are pretty decent at emulating apparent intelligence so I wouldn't bet against them on that.
      - nosianu 2y ago
        > Who said it cannot be visual? It's still a “conversational” UI if it's a chatbot that writes down its answer. You can't be serious?? Oh it's 1st of April, my apologies! I almost took it seriously. I should ignore this website on this day.
        littlestymaar 2y ago
  - UncleMeat 2y ago
    The previous choice might not what I want today. Maybe I'm tired of layovers and I'm willing to pay more for a direct flight this time. Maybe I want a different selection at a restaurant because I'm in the mood for tacos rather than a burrito.
    - littlestymaar 2y ago
      Just tell it then.
      - soco 2y ago
        And then we're back to point one: retelling the whole stack of choices every time because nobody on the other side of the conversation, person or AI; can tell whether all my previous options are still valid. Because even I, the caller, might not remember what "defaults" I set in the previous call. So yeah, this argument in favor of conversational interfaces sounds at this point more like ideology than logic.
        littlestymaar 2y ago
        > every time because nobody on the other side of the conversation, person or AI; can tell whether all my previous options are still valid. But you can, so as long as the interlocutor tells you what assumptions it made, you can correct it if it doesn't match your current mood. > So yeah, this argument in favor of conversational interfaces sounds at this point more like ideology than logic. There's no ideology behind the fact that every people rich enough to afford paying someone to deal with mundane stuff will have someone doing it for them, it's just about convenience. Nobody likes to fight with web UIs for fun, the only reason why it has become mainstream is because it's so much cheaper than having a real person working. Same for Microsoft Word by the way, many people used to have secretaries typing stuff for them, and it's been a massive regression of social status for the upper middle class to have to type things by themselves, it only happened because it was cheaper (in appearance at least).
        soco 2y ago
UncleMeat 2y ago
Scrolling through a list of a few options seems much less clunky than being asked via voice about which option I prefer. I can see multiple options at once and compare them easily. But via voice I need to keep all of the options in working memory to compare them. Harder.
- littlestymaar 2y ago
  The problem with scrolling is that you'll be presented tens of options you don't care about because the options have to be determined in advance and be the same for everyone. That's why the “advanced search” is almost always hidden somewhere. And that's also why you can never find the filter you need on an e-shopping website.

earnestinger 2y ago

It can ask, but how much time do you want to spend answering stuff? Such dialog is probably nice for first time user, it is a nightmare for repeated user.

littlestymaar 2y ago
What prevents the system to remember your previous choices? Then it can assume you choice haven't changed, and propose you a solution that matches your previous choices. And to give the user control it just needs to explicitly tell the user about the assumption it made. In fact, a smart enough system could even see when violating the assumptions could lead to a substantial gain and try convincing the user that it may be a good option this time.
- nosianu 2y ago
  It still has to tell you. Visually in a form it's much faster. Similar reason why many people prefer a blog post over a video. Talking is not very efficient, and it's serial in fixed time. With something visual you can look at whatever you want whenever you want, at your own (irregular) pace. You will also be able to make changes much faster. You can go to the target form element right away, and you get immediate feedback from the GUI (or from a physical control that you moved - e.g. in cars). If it's talk, you need to wait to have it said back to you - same reason as why important communication in flight control or military is always read back. Even humans misunderstand. You can't just talk-and-forget unless you accept errors. You would need some true intelligence for just some brief spoken requests to work well enough. A (human) butler worked fine for such cases, but even then only the best made it into such high-level service positions, because it required real intelligence to know what your lord needed and wanted, and lots of time with them to gain that experience.
  - littlestymaar 2y ago
    > It still has to tell you. Visually in a form it's much faster. Who said it cannot be visual? It's still a “conversational” UI if it's a chatbot that writes down its answer. > Similar reason why many people prefer a blog post over a video. Well I certainly do, but I also know that we are few and far between in that case. People in general prefer videos over blog post by a very large margin. > Talking is not very efficient, and it's serial in fixed time. With something visual you can look at whatever you want whenever you want, at your own (irregular) pace. You will also be able to make changes much faster. You can go to the target form element right away, and you get immediate feedback from the GUI. Saying “I want to travel to Berlin next monday” is much faster than fighting with the website's custom datepicker which will block you until you select your return date until you realize you need to go back and toggle the “one way trip” button before clicking the calendar otherwise it's not working… There's a reason why nerds love their terminal: GUIs are just very slow and annoying. They are useful for whatever new thing you're doing, because it's much more discoverable than CLI, but it's much less efficient. > If it's talk, you need to wait to have it said back to you - same reason as why important communication in flight control or military is always read back. Even humans misunderstand. You can't just talk-and-forget unless you accept errors. This is true, but stays true with a GUI, that's why you have those pesky confirmation pop-ups, because as annoying as they are when you know what you're doing, they are necessary to catch errors. > You would need some true intelligence for just some brief spoken requests to work well enough. I don't think so. IMO you just need something that emulates intelligence enough on that particular purpose. And we've seen that LLMs are pretty decent at emulating apparent intelligence so I wouldn't bet against them on that.
    - nosianu 2y ago
      > Who said it cannot be visual? It's still a “conversational” UI if it's a chatbot that writes down its answer. You can't be serious?? Oh it's 1st of April, my apologies! I almost took it seriously. I should ignore this website on this day.
      - littlestymaar 2y ago
- UncleMeat 2y ago
  The previous choice might not what I want today. Maybe I'm tired of layovers and I'm willing to pay more for a direct flight this time. Maybe I want a different selection at a restaurant because I'm in the mood for tacos rather than a burrito.
  - littlestymaar 2y ago
    Just tell it then.
    - soco 2y ago
      And then we're back to point one: retelling the whole stack of choices every time because nobody on the other side of the conversation, person or AI; can tell whether all my previous options are still valid. Because even I, the caller, might not remember what "defaults" I set in the previous call. So yeah, this argument in favor of conversational interfaces sounds at this point more like ideology than logic.
      - littlestymaar 2y ago
        > every time because nobody on the other side of the conversation, person or AI; can tell whether all my previous options are still valid. But you can, so as long as the interlocutor tells you what assumptions it made, you can correct it if it doesn't match your current mood. > So yeah, this argument in favor of conversational interfaces sounds at this point more like ideology than logic. There's no ideology behind the fact that every people rich enough to afford paying someone to deal with mundane stuff will have someone doing it for them, it's just about convenience. Nobody likes to fight with web UIs for fun, the only reason why it has become mainstream is because it's so much cheaper than having a real person working. Same for Microsoft Word by the way, many people used to have secretaries typing stuff for them, and it's been a massive regression of social status for the upper middle class to have to type things by themselves, it only happened because it was cheaper (in appearance at least).
        soco 2y ago

UncleMeat 2y ago

Scrolling through a list of a few options seems much less clunky than being asked via voice about which option I prefer. I can see multiple options at once and compare them easily. But via voice I need to keep all of the options in working memory to compare them. Harder.

littlestymaar 2y ago
The problem with scrolling is that you'll be presented tens of options you don't care about because the options have to be determined in advance and be the same for everyone. That's why the “advanced search” is almost always hidden somewhere. And that's also why you can never find the filter you need on an e-shopping website.