The Natural Language Interface
The next user interface.
#89 · · readIt lies in the nature of a user experience designer to think in terms of Human-Computer-Interaction. And if I do, which I am, then natural language is what's next in the evolution of user interfaces. It seems to be the most natural way of interacting with well, computers? Machines? Services?
Right now, as you can see, I struggle to describe this interaction.
We're still interacting with computers obviously but looking into the future, how will this interaction evolve?
Will we still use screens?
Will we use laptops with keyboards and mice? Phones with touch interfaces?
Will we still be users?
Will we even use something?
Or is the way we consume services, communicate online and acquire information about to blur the line to become the most natural form of interaction: having a conversation?
No one really knows. Are browsers dead? And with it the web? Will we start to carry around a little AI-enabled device that fulfills all our wishes?
No one really has an idea for the "platform" that AI will operate on. Browsers is what we know, what we have used as a platform for the last three decades. After we have been playing around with far too many chat assistants, integrating them more homogenically is the logical next step. So the answer for many seems obvious: AI browsers.
It could be that the ultimate platform for AI will be something else entirely, something we haven't thought of before, something we can't even imagine or the world isn't ready for. For the time being though, I don't see screens disappearing from our lives.
But maybe I'm too narrow-minded and like the rest of the world, just not ready to envision what the next user interface is about to look like.