Instrumental interfaces, engaged interfaces | thesephist.com

Humans are bad at coming up with search queries. Humans are good at incrementally narrowing down options with a series of filters, and pointing where they want to go next. This seems obvious, but we keep building interfaces for finding information that look more like Google Search and less like a map.

All information tools have to give users some wa... See more

On the other side of the spectrum are interfaces for approaching what exactly you’re looking for  incrementally  – links and recommendation systems. With these, you may not start exactly where you want to be, but with every click you can tell whether you’re getting closer or farther. Over time, not only are you likely to stumble into what

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Interfaces used to be the solution. “There’s an app for that” was music to our ears.

But now interfaces are overused. They’re getting in the way. Instead of pragmatic solutions, we’re building clunky apps.

The solution is not a better app. The solution is no app – no interface.

Example: an app to open your car. Krishna explains how such an app can tak... See more